Did the CIA use Hip Hop as a psy-op?

16,002 Views | 109 Replies | Last: 1 yr ago by Actual Talking Thermos
agent-maroon
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AG
Quote:

The industry didn't understand that the small imperfections is where the magic lived.
OT - this is the exact reason that I'm mostly a college sports fan vs the professional leagues. It's the imperfections that make it interesting for me. When everybody is as good as it gets it gets boring real fast.
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Nanomachines son
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Madman said:

Nanomachines son said:

Definitely Not A Cop said:

Nanomachines son said:

Actual Talking Thermos said:

Nanomachines son said:

TheEternalPessimist said:

I watched this video and have mixed thoughts on it.

https://rumble.com/v2x2ogf-cia-agent-admits-hip-hop-was-a-psy-op-designed-to-corrupt-the-youth-and-sow.html



I still cannot imagine watching this video and reacting with anything other than laughter at the utter ridiculousness of it and a vague sense of embarrassment for having lived through that moment in popular culture.

And you guys being out of sync with what's popular with The Kids These Days can possibly be explained in ways other than "the CIA did this to make me feel alienated."


Everyone remembers Creed, does anyone remember any of the popular rappers from that era? Barely anyone does because the music was forgettable. It's far worse nowadays where pop music (this is what rap is nowadays) is horrific and no one remembers any song more than 1 year old.

Rock remains the most popular concert genre by a huge margin (they separate classic rock from rock to downplay rock's popularity but when combined they massively eclipse everything else). It's not close at all.

https://financebuzz.com/price-of-concert-tickets-by-genre

The fact that rock music is still this popular yet music companies refuse to push it says everything you need to know. They are trying to minimize it's influence.



Eminem, Jay-Z, Biggie, Tupac, Snoop Dogg, OutKast, basically every famous Houston rapper, I could go on?

Post-grunge rock pretty much sucked. All of those bands, (Creed, Hinder, Seether, Buckcherry, daughtry etc) became corporatized BS that was killed by rap music getting real production value for the first time. The counter culture that had fled to rock turned to rap music as the alternative.

The only rock band that I would consider in the same sub-genre of post grunge rock as creed that had staying power were the Chili Peppers and the Foo Fighters. You could make an argument for Weezer.

The pop-punk that became mainstream after was the dying breath of counter culture rock being popular.


Post grunge is what the industry used to try and say rock sucked. If you notice, all of the post grunge bands had a great first album and then became increasingly pop. That was by design and then they helped spread the meme that these bands sucked so they could push hip hop instead.

They wanted music to be subversive and break a form of culture that was considered near 100% white. They have tried to do it to country and almost succeeded with bro country but it failed. Nashville keeps trying to push it away from its redneck and white roots but no one is buying it and artists that insult the base are ostracized.

There is a great video I will try to find on why modern rock "feels" different. The short answer is a few correction tools commonly used now suck the emotion out of the music. Every drummer sounds the same when every drummer is literally in perfect time. Every singer sounds the same when everything is pitch corrected. Etc. The industry didn't understand that the small imperfections is where the magic lived.

And I really think that is true. I have heard versions of Patsy Cline for example pitch and tempo corrected to perfect and it sucks.


Bass drums are the worst example of this. In metal it's impossible for anyone to do the pedals fast enough to do the double hits and not fall over from exhaustion yet every band has them perfect in the music. I can't take it seriously because it's obviously computer generated.

Imperfections are what make rock unique among musical genres. Overproduction and AI fixes remove that.
Madman
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AG
Nanomachines son said:

Madman said:

Nanomachines son said:

Madman said:

To the people that say Rock is still popular, is it?

I love rock and metal. But I am also not in the age group that advertisers typically target. The target age groups might like Rock but not in the way previous generations do.

One thing I do find comforting is my favorite music isn't being used to push Pepsi, or the Toyota Prius. So at least there is that.


I just posted evidence that rock is more popular than all other genres by far when you do concert tickets sold and total sales. They have to separate rock into two categories just so it's not hilariously above everything else.
Young people don't leave the house. Just saying that ticket sales might not be a good metric of what is popular with young people.


From what I can gather among Gen Z, rock is exploding again. Many of the kids are coming back to it thanks to Tik Tok exposing them to it.
That would be great. A challenge to overcome is that rock and metal are so fractured now into sub genres its maybe impossible for a single group to rise to the level of an AC/DC or similar. So the same amount of interest spread over many more bands. Tough to sell out a stadium with that reality.

And I am guilty of this. I know the tiny categories I like in metal for example. Its why most of these bands can't headline a stadium. The best they can do is play the main stage at a festival.

Nanomachines son
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Madman said:

Nanomachines son said:

Madman said:

Nanomachines son said:

Madman said:

To the people that say Rock is still popular, is it?

I love rock and metal. But I am also not in the age group that advertisers typically target. The target age groups might like Rock but not in the way previous generations do.

One thing I do find comforting is my favorite music isn't being used to push Pepsi, or the Toyota Prius. So at least there is that.


I just posted evidence that rock is more popular than all other genres by far when you do concert tickets sold and total sales. They have to separate rock into two categories just so it's not hilariously above everything else.
Young people don't leave the house. Just saying that ticket sales might not be a good metric of what is popular with young people.


From what I can gather among Gen Z, rock is exploding again. Many of the kids are coming back to it thanks to Tik Tok exposing them to it.
That would be great. A challenge to overcome is that rock and metal are so fractured now into sub genres its maybe impossible for a single group to rise to the level of an AC/DC or similar. So the same amount of interest spread over many more bands. Tough to sell out a stadium with that reality.

And I am guilty of this. I know the tiny categories I like in metal for example. Its why most of these bands can't headline a stadium. The best they can do is play the main stage at a festival.




Same, I am also guilty of it. I know and like many bands in the different sub genres of metal. None of them will ever reach Metallica, Pantera, AC/DC, or Guns N Roses unfortunately.
Actual Talking Thermos
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Nanomachines son said:

Madman said:

Nanomachines son said:

Madman said:

To the people that say Rock is still popular, is it?

I love rock and metal. But I am also not in the age group that advertisers typically target. The target age groups might like Rock but not in the way previous generations do.

One thing I do find comforting is my favorite music isn't being used to push Pepsi, or the Toyota Prius. So at least there is that.


I just posted evidence that rock is more popular than all other genres by far when you do concert tickets sold and total sales. They have to separate rock into two categories just so it's not hilariously above everything else.
Young people don't leave the house. Just saying that ticket sales might not be a good metric of what is popular with young people.


From what I can gather among Gen Z, rock is exploding again. Many of the kids are coming back to it thanks to Tik Tok exposing them to it.
Gen Z rock had kind of a big moment from the early-mid 2010s until Covid. The DIY scene/ethos took hold and it had tons of young people forming bands and putting on shows in basements and churches and little clubs and wherever they could, getting excited and inspired by each other just as much as the rock music of yesteryear. A few bands that emerged from there are still standing.

In particular a lot of young women were forming bands. I think there's reason to believe that is in part an echo of Taylor Swift, the last megastar to emerge playing the guitar. She doesn't do it as much now, but when she first conquered the charts as a young pop-country singer-songwriter, she was always swinging a guitar around. As a result, an awful lot of 10-12 year old girls picked up the guitar around 2006. And by the time those girls were around 20, a lot of them had shaved part of their head and joined a band.
 
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