Year in review

2011 was a weird, transitional year for me. It is the first year since I was 10 years old that rap wasn't my most listened to genre. I can come up with a lot of reasons for why that is, but the main reason is that most people that produce rap music are putting out stale music nowadays. Everything that I used to love about the genre is almost completely gone. No spontaneity. No progressiveness. No individualism. This is just a generalization, there's still tons of great MC's out there, but I feel like most of them don't know what kind of beats are even bumpin anymore. Sole summed it up best in one of his new songs when he said "most good new hip hop doesn't have any vocals, and every white kid with a laptop wants to be Flying Lotus". I think that's only true for cool people who know what's up, and I think he was actually complaining about that when he said that, but I am embracing this era of music with open arms, and I think that's an accurate portrait of the underground in america. I can't wait to see what happens in the next couple years, seeing what styles emerge. I think a lot of it has to do with a generation of kids who grew up with the internet finally becoming adults. Odd Future (Tyler The Creator etc.) made a lot of noise this year, and much like Kanye did for his brand of hip hop, I like the fact that they are opening doors for other people to release different sounding music within the mainstream, in their case, it's grimy cheap yet catchy sounding beats accompanying their absurdly juvenile rhymes, but I really think they are WAAY overhyped. If kids think that shit is super duper dope, they need to listen to some old Geto Boys and get some background education on hip hop in general. Lil B made a lot of noise this year. I don't mind what he does, it's kind of interesting that he's got such a big following doing these stream of consciousness type raps. I wish he would use his talent to actually try on an album, but until then he still makes me chuckle. Mac Miller also emerged as a new popular MC, but I don't really see what the hype is about. His voice and flow is kinda annoying to me. He's not straight up wack, but he's also not special at all.  We also saw the emergence of DJ Fresh as a superior bay area producer over the last few years. He's pretty much the king of that hyphy movement or what's left of it. Adele ruled the charts for the entire year. Something that I didn't think anybody could acheive anymore. My theory is that in the future there's going to be less superstars and more medium-popular artists, but her breakthrough sustainable success has proven that theory wrong thusfar, and also proves that a lot of people out there just want some new pop music that's somewhat REAL sounding. Foster The People came outta nowhere and scored a huge hit. I don't understand the draw of that song or group, but whatever, i'll just stick to my "weird shit". Bon Iver got WAY more popular. Another example of people just wanting some realness within pop music. Not really my cup of tea, but that album is a masterful production piece.  James Blake made, in my mind, an RJD2 type move by singing on his album when he doesn't do it very well, but his career really seemed to take off from that. I heard his live shows are really good though. I guess if I want to hear his instrumental stuff I can just hear the EP's and singles he puts out, which is plenty. Britney Spears had a semi-successful comeback at the beginning of the year, harnessing the production style of dubstep. Speaking of dubstep, I find it odd that it has officially become the sub-genre of choice within electronic music. I seriously didn't think it would be the style that would break a lot of the electronic haters out of their mold. This year Chris Brown probably should have withered away and disappeared into oblivion, but he enlisted Busta Rhymes and Lil Wayne to be guests on "Look At Me Now" and made one of the biggest songs of the year by harnessing their energy. We saw ridiculous collaborations happen like Metallica & Lou Reed and Korn having their album produced by Skrillex. The Flaming Lips put out a bunch of bizarre projects, one involving a strobelite that comes with the album, and one involving a human skull with a usb cord hanging out of it and a hard drive in the brain with a 24 hour long song in it. I'm sure all their mega-wealthy fans are happy. M83's new one seems to be a breakhrough success. Seth MacFarlane put out the most unnecessary album of the year, singing old 40's and 50's style songs. I guess he just wanted the world to know that he could really sing, but nobody cares. The Beach Boys finally released "Smile" more than 40 years after it was recorded. The box set is pretty expansive and interesting. Stones Throw records had a bunch of their artists record concerts directly to vinyl and then sold them. They turned out really nice..... let's see that's all I can think of that won't be covered in my upcoming posts surveying last year...