If I see much more of the band the New Kids On The Block, I'm likely to launch my lunch. I cannot understand at all why the New Kids have been so successful. The fact that 95 % of their fans are preteen females shows to me at least that most New Kids fans lack any real sense of sophistication in musical taste. The following is both an opinion and a fact: As far as I'm concerned, the New Kids On The Block and many other contemporary top-40 bands and soloists have much less talent than even the worst 10th-rate garage band there is.
The verdict is still out on rap music [I have slightly changed my opinion on rap music since viewing the Concert Film "Dave Chapelle's Block Party", which had many impressive performances by hip-hop artists like Mos Def and The Fugees] At its best, rap music can be catchy, poetic, inventive, and interesting. Also, I must admit, even if you do not like it right away, it is possible to acquire a small taste for rap/hip-hop. Believe it or not, I'm pretty sure that Bob Dylan, of all people, may have been one of the first artists to ever record a rap song. His song was "Subterrranean Homesick Blues". I must say it was very innovative of the heavy metal group Faith No More to couple rap music and heavy metal, very disparate forms (genres) of music. Although The Beastie Boys, Run DMC, Public Enemy and a handful of others are quite good, for the most part I can take rap or leave it. Also, what's up with the aliases like Ice Cube, Ice T, Vanilla Ice, etc.? (to be cont'd)
[Originally appeared in Eastern Connecticut State University's Campus Lantern student newspaper in the early '90s and part of my unpublished manuscript "In Mediocrity We Trust... In Debt We Die" And Other Essays]
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