Why did new wave fade away, but rap is still here?

[WoodlandParkPunk]

I just don't get it. Rap is everywhere today. On tv, in movies, on commercials, clothing, etc....
I know I am a 38 year old white guy, but I teach high school, went to Music college in the 80's and play in a weekend rock band, so I am not alienated from the youth of today.
What is it about rap. Why is rap so popular with all races? New wave was fun, bright, happy and rap is about "bitches" "ho's" pimpin' and gangster life.
How many kids live this life??
It just pisses me off. Just my rant.

[EchoBeachBunnyBoy]

I'm a 38 year old white male too, WPP, & I don't understand it either, but in a way I'm kind of glad that New Wave has stayed more or less an "underground" genre of music. Low commercial appeal means less chance of overkill which leads to boredom, IMHO.

[WoodlandParkPunk]

EBBB, you have given me a better perspective about new wave and I have to agree. Rap has become soooo mainstream it is cartoonish. Let's keep new wave underground. Thanks for the thoughts.

[SwampThing]

[quote]New wave was fun, bright, happy[/quote] I don't consider this as

[devildog]

Because in this politically correct age, heaven forbid if you discredit any musical styles that are from minority groups. You see, New Wave was white male music and it was/is ok to knock it down. But rap represents a culture that has been historically m

[SwampThing]

DevilDog.

I don't agree. Your post sounds a little Rush Limbaughish too me.

It's all about marketing and making big companies lots of money. It's free market econmics at work. Rap hasn't gone this far because of social politics, but because fats

[WoodlandParkPunk]

But still, how do white kids relate to the rap music and culture???
I don't see many black kids embracing the rock,grunge,metal,new wave genre at all.

[ghosty]

As far as mainsteam hip hop goes, it's also a way to make millions upon millions of dollars without learning to play even rudimentary guitar, piano or drums. I'm sure that's also alluring to kids who don't want to take the time needed to form even a bad p

[skinnytie]

In my opinion, new wave led the way to grunge which led the way to what became "alternative". Rap still was rap collectively, but there were a lot of off-shoots from it. If you ask me, the alternative of today is nothing like the new wave of yesterday,

[SwampThing]

I actually borrowed 2 Eminem CD's from a relative just to see what all the hype was about. I ended up liking only 1 song out of the 20 or so. Ironically it was that one where they used a Dido song as the main riff, which has a vary catchy melody, I thin

[pikeprof]

I found I just couldn't keep up with rap-I liked public enemy, Ice-T, Dr Dre', LL Cool J and Run-DMC-now all that stuff is old school-I also loved the old sugar hill stuff.

[phillyidol]

I guess it is still here because it will always be an available outlet for a certain group of people to vent their hate. Listen to the words my people! Listen to the words!

[EchoBeachBunnyBoy]

My niece is into the rap music of today as most teens are. She was listening to some song the other day & I informed her that the riff was from Thomas Dolby's classic "She Blinded Me With Science".
She had NO idea who Thomas Dolby was, which delighted me

[bpdp3]

Anyone who was reading Trouser Press (constant companion of the new wave fan) knows that they gave much ink to rap, and introduced many of us to the form of music.

Rap was exciting, strange, foreign, a little dangerous and totally identifiable to the

[KYYX4ever]

Beastie Boys--Swamp Thing--Yessiree, I totally dug them back in the day. As a matter of fact, a recent release by them, "Hello Nasty" ( with "Intergalactic") was pretty awesome, too. "Licensed to Ill" was fun. Funny, though--in some ways, I don't necess