SeventeenDayze said:

jn2 said:

What about Nelly, Ashanti and Ja Rule?

During the Ferguson riots, social media was putting Nelly on blast in a serious way. I saw comments from people who were from St. Louis who said Nelly was always known to them as someone who didn't care about his city as much as he wanted the public to believe. Basically, they said he was a sellout. He did ultimately make an appearance and said a few comments about the situation but many saw it as too little too late. Is that what you were referring to when you mentioned Nelly? What about Ashanti and Ja Rule made you include them as well, just curious.

Early 2000's.. nostalgia I guess

*

[Edited 9/1/14 3:37am]

MotownSubdivision said:

3000 said:

Rock music

And mainstream music!

3000 said:

SeventeenDayze said:

Terence Trent D'Arby: Amazing vocalist and a true poet. All 5 of his albums are amazing but he had no charisma, no stage presence, that was needed for the MTV age.

.

MC Hammer: One hit wonder with the right song at the right time and stood atop the world, briefly. He didn't have the talent for lightning to strike twice.

.

Michael Jackson: He could have been the most popular, wealthiest, singer ever but his insecureties and vices destroyed him. It's difficult to actually enjoy his music nowadays, for us.

Well, we are all very familiar with Nippy Houston's and Mimi's falls from grace. But, I have to throw Diana Ross into this mix also. Before Nippy came in and took over the reign in 1985, in the 60's, 70's and, to a lesser extend, early 80's, Diane was the world's most successful black Pop diva. No one could touch her. Then, after 1984, her record sales plummeted. From 1988 to present, she has failed to place an album in the Top 100 on the Billboard Pop charts. Although she continued to perform well on the R&B chart, she's only managed one Top Ten Pop album over the last 34 years, 1980's "Diana".

EroticDreamer said:

Terence Trent D'Arby: Amazing vocalist and a true poet. All 5 of his albums are amazing but he had no charisma, no stage presence, that was needed for the MTV age.

.

MC Hammer: One hit wonder with the right song at the right time and stood atop the world, briefly. He didn't have the talent for lightning to strike twice.

.

Michael Jackson: He could have been the most popular, wealthiest, singer ever but his insecureties and vices destroyed him. It's difficult to actually enjoy his music nowadays, for us.

Are you serious here? MC Hammer was popular in the mid-80s but if you only want to count his so-called "crossover" years then he'd only be popular from 1990-1994 maybe. But don't get it twisted, he had a big following before he had "mass appeal".

EroticDreamer said:

Michael Jackson: He could have been the most popular, wealthiest, singer ever but his insecureties and vices destroyed him. It's difficult to actually enjoy his music nowadays, for us.

"For us"?? Who is "us"? Speak for yourself. I enjoy his music plenty. And it's not his "vices" that destroyed him. It's shady, disgusting, low life, greedy, incompetent, judgmental, ignorant people that destroyed him.

MotownSubdivision said:

SeventeenDayze said:

Yeah I mean is rock music still alive or has it been kind of divided out between country and other genres of music? It's hard to tell which groups are just genuine rock bands or not because of the influence of pop music in just about every subgenre out there. It gets to be confusing sometimes!

Rock is practically nonexistent on a mainstream level these days. I don't know exactly when rock began to get phased out on that platform but you compare its standing now to what it was 20 years ago and it's easy to see that the genre has seen better days.

I was wondering if Kings of Leon is a rock group but they are more alternative right? I just can't think of a bonafide rock group to save my life

TonyVanDam said:

SeventeenDayze said:

Is Clive Davis the devil or something? I have never heard anything good about this dude, EVER! LOL

Clive "Silverballs" Davis is definitely a slick old devil. The stories about his fallouts with Phyllis Hyman, TLC, Kelly Clarkson, Alicia Keys and even Prince are legendary. And don't even get me started on how he benefited from the deads of The Notorious B.I.G. & Whitney Houston.

What did he have to do with Biggie Smalls? Time for you to spill the tea here, Tony!

kitbradley said:

Well, we are all very familiar with Nippy Houston's and Mimi's falls from grace. But, I have to throw Diana Ross into this mix also. Before Nippy came in and took over the reign in 1985, in the 60's, 70's and, to a lesser extend, early 80's, Diane was the world's most successful black Pop diva. No one could touch her. Then, after 1984, her record sales plummeted. From 1988 to present, she has failed to place an album in the Top 100 on the Billboard Pop charts. Although she continued to perform well on the R&B chart, she's only managed one Top Ten Pop album over the last 34 years, 1980's "Diana".

she experienced the inevitable decline of popularity,but she had quite a run.It's amazing how many of the Motown artists (Smokey,Stevie,Diana,etc) had hit singles in the 60s,70s,80s.These days,artists are lucky if they last more than five years

SoulAlive said:

kitbradley said:

Well, we are all very familiar with Nippy Houston's and Mimi's falls from grace. But, I have to throw Diana Ross into this mix also. Before Nippy came in and took over the reign in 1985, in the 60's, 70's and, to a lesser extend, early 80's, Diane was the world's most successful black Pop diva. No one could touch her. Then, after 1984, her record sales plummeted. From 1988 to present, she has failed to place an album in the Top 100 on the Billboard Pop charts. Although she continued to perform well on the R&B chart, she's only managed one Top Ten Pop album over the last 34 years, 1980's "Diana".

she experienced the inevitable decline of popularity,but she had quite a run.It's amazing how many of the Motown artists (Smokey,Stevie,Diana,etc) had hit singles in the 60s,70s,80s.These days,artists are lucky if they last more than five years

yeah, they were making real music........

SoulAlive said:

kitbradley said:

Well, we are all very familiar with Nippy Houston's and Mimi's falls from grace. But, I have to throw Diana Ross into this mix also. Before Nippy came in and took over the reign in 1985, in the 60's, 70's and, to a lesser extend, early 80's, Diane was the world's most successful black Pop diva. No one could touch her. Then, after 1984, her record sales plummeted. From 1988 to present, she has failed to place an album in the Top 100 on the Billboard Pop charts. Although she continued to perform well on the R&B chart, she's only managed one Top Ten Pop album over the last 34 years, 1980's "Diana".

she experienced the inevitable decline of popularity,but she had quite a run.It's amazing how many of the Motown artists (Smokey,Stevie,Diana,etc) had hit singles in the 60s,70s,80s.These days,artists are lucky if they last more than five years

That's what P-Diddy said. Someone did a thread on him awhile back.

Beautifulstarr123 said:

SoulAlive said:

she experienced the inevitable decline of popularity,but she had quite a run.It's amazing how many of the Motown artists (Smokey,Stevie,Diana,etc) had hit singles in the 60s,70s,80s.These days,artists are lucky if they last more than five years

That's what P-Diddy said. Someone did a thread on him awhile back.

I dunno, why are people like Lil Wayne, Jay Z and Rihanna still popular though? It seems that the same 20 people have been famous for like 10 years and it's getting old already since it's always the same stale, boring acts.

SeventeenDayze said:

EroticDreamer said:

Terence Trent D'Arby: Amazing vocalist and a true poet. All 5 of his albums are amazing but he had no charisma, no stage presence, that was needed for the MTV age.

.

MC Hammer: One hit wonder with the right song at the right time and stood atop the world, briefly. He didn't have the talent for lightning to strike twice.

.

Michael Jackson: He could have been the most popular, wealthiest, singer ever but his insecureties and vices destroyed him. It's difficult to actually enjoy his music nowadays, for us.

Are you serious here? MC Hammer was popular in the mid-80s but if you only want to count his so-called "crossover" years then he'd only be popular from 1990-1994 maybe. But don't get it twisted, he had a big following before he had "mass appeal".

But that wasn't how I perceived the topic.

Hammer was as high as an artist can get with just one song and after that he went nowhere.

TonyVanDam said:

Clive "Silverballs" Davis is definitely a slick old devil. The stories about his fallouts with Phyllis Hyman, TLC, Kelly Clarkson, Alicia Keys and even Prince are legendary. And don't even get me started on how he benefited from the deads of The Notorious B.I.G. & Whitney Houston.

Here's a comment from a 2007 Daryl Hall interview. Tommy Mottola used to be their manager in the 1970s. Hall & Oates 1976 song Gino is about Tommy.

.

Pitchfork: There must have been commercial pressure-- you have a hit album with a bunch of hit songs, so the next time you want to have at least that many hits?

.

DH: Yeah, there was a lot of pressure. And I didn't succumb to it. I quit. I quit, and I told them to fuck themselves basically. I signed with the ultimate dictator, Clive Davis, and it wasn't my idea to sign with him-- and I had fights with him, and I walked away from him. Somebody just talked the other day about Kelly Clarkson, right now [she's] in some spat with Clive Davis. I said, "I've been there." And that is the same spat you always have with Clive Davis. He wants you to do something, and if you don't want to do it, it's either his way or the highway, really. And I took the highway. Because nobody's going to tell me what to do. It's my music. I stand by it.

EroticDreamer said:

MotownSubdivision said:

EroticDreamer said:

But that wasn't how I perceived the topic.

Hammer was as high as an artist can get with just one song and after that he went nowhere.

Hammer had the talent to easily maintain his popularity if he were wiser than he was. He was a decent rapper and an excellent dancer but compared to the artists of the rising hip hop genre who were a lot more blunt, rugged, edgy, and down to earth, Hammer was just a simple pop rapper. What ultimately ruined his career besides squandering his money was that he tried to fit in with his contemporaries in the genuine rap/ hip hop genre; he could've probably segued his way into making real deal hip hop but instead, he tried to force his way in in an attempt to ride the gravy train that gangster rap was engineering in an overt, absurd, and desperate way that nobody bought which resulted in his fall from grace.

u saw Hammer going the way of Gangsta Rap a mile away......it was all too predicatable after 2 LEGIT TO QUIT........

what's crazy is...if we really study his background

him being a "clean cut" rapper was actually concocted

Scorp said:

u saw Hammer going the way of Gangsta Rap a mile away......it was all too predicatable after 2 LEGIT TO QUIT........

what's crazy is...if we really study his background

him being a "clean cut" rapper was actually concocted

Kind of like how in the beginning The Beatles were considered "wholesome & dreamy" and The Rolling Stones "bad boys". In the opposite way, there was a female gangsta rapper named Bo$$, who was outed as coming from an upper middle class background and that she attended Catholic School. So her street cred was shot.

MickyDolenz said:

Scorp said:

u saw Hammer going the way of Gangsta Rap a mile away......it was all too predicatable after 2 LEGIT TO QUIT........

what's crazy is...if we really study his background

him being a "clean cut" rapper was actually concocted

Kind of like how in the beginning The Beatles were considered "wholesome & dreamy" and The Rolling Stones "bad boys". In the opposite way, there was a female gangsta rapper named Bo$$, who was outed as coming from an upper middle class background and that she attended Catholic School. So her street cred was shot.

amen....lollllllll

that wholesome image constructed for MC HAMMER was a mirage.....never bought into it.....

come to think of it, that's probably why he caught so much flack in the early 90s by many of his contemporaries, becuase they knew HAMMER'S image was just that...an image......

Scorp said:

MotownSubdivision said:

Scorp said:

amen....lollllllll

that wholesome image constructed for MC HAMMER was a mirage.....never bought into it.....

come to think of it, that's probably why he caught so much flack in the early 90s by many of his contemporaries, becuase they knew HAMMER'S image was just that...an image......

I don't know much about Hammer's background but I take it he knew the struggle like many a black male?

absolutely......

MotownSubdivision said:

EroticDreamer said:

But that wasn't how I perceived the topic.

Hammer was as high as an artist can get with just one song and after that he went nowhere.

Hammer had the talent to easily maintain his popularity if he were wiser than he was. He was a decent rapper and an excellent dancer but compared to the artists of the rising hip hop genre who were a lot more blunt, rugged, edgy, and down to earth, Hammer was just a simple pop rapper. What ultimately ruined his career besides squandering his money was that he tried to fit in with his contemporaries in the genuine rap/ hip hop genre; he could've probably segued his way into making real deal hip hop but instead, he tried to force his way in in an attempt to ride the gravy train that gangster rap was engineering in an overt, absurd, and desperate way that nobody bought which resulted in his fall from grace.

Yep, another case of when going "mainstream" goes wrong....he basically fell off after that point, as you mentioned.

Ashanti

She was sooooo "hot" in the early 2000s.Every other song on the radio was one of hers,or another artist featuring her.She now performs at county fairs.

SeventeenDayze said:

TonyVanDam said:

Clive "Silverballs" Davis is definitely a slick old devil. The stories about his fallouts with Phyllis Hyman, TLC, Kelly Clarkson, Alicia Keys and even Prince are legendary. And don't even get me started on how he benefited from the deads of The Notorious B.I.G. & Whitney Houston.

What did he have to do with Biggie Smalls? Time for you to spill the tea here, Tony!

As it was the case of Jimmy Iovine benefited from the death of 2pac, Clive Davis benefited from the death of Biggie.

Remember, it was Clive Davis that gave Sean Combs the start up money to create Bad Boy Entertainment, the label that Biggie was on. This was also the very same Bad Boy Entertainment that was distributed for the first couple of years by Clive's Arista Records.

MickyDolenz said:

TonyVanDam said:

Clive "Silverballs" Davis is definitely a slick old devil. The stories about his fallouts with Phyllis Hyman, TLC, Kelly Clarkson, Alicia Keys and even Prince are legendary. And don't even get me started on how he benefited from the deads of The Notorious B.I.G. & Whitney Houston.

Here's a comment from a 2007 Daryl Hall interview. Tommy Mottola used to be their manager in the 1970s. Hall & Oates 1976 song Gino is about Tommy.

.

Pitchfork: There must have been commercial pressure-- you have a hit album with a bunch of hit songs, so the next time you want to have at least that many hits?

.

DH: Yeah, there was a lot of pressure. And I didn't succumb to it. I quit. I quit, and I told them to fuck themselves basically. I signed with the ultimate dictator, Clive Davis, and it wasn't my idea to sign with him-- and I had fights with him, and I walked away from him. Somebody just talked the other day about Kelly Clarkson, right now [she's] in some spat with Clive Davis. I said, "I've been there." And that is the same spat you always have with Clive Davis. He wants you to do something, and if you don't want to do it, it's either his way or the highway, really. And I took the highway. Because nobody's going to tell me what to do. It's my music. I stand by it.

I have new and improved respect for Daryl Hall.

MickyDolenz said:

Scorp said:

u saw Hammer going the way of Gangsta Rap a mile away......it was all too predicatable after 2 LEGIT TO QUIT........

what's crazy is...if we really study his background

him being a "clean cut" rapper was actually concocted

Kind of like how in the beginning The Beatles were considered "wholesome & dreamy" and The Rolling Stones "bad boys". In the opposite way, there was a female gangsta rapper named Bo$$, who was outed as coming from an upper middle class background and that she attended Catholic School. So her street cred was shot.

......and Bo$$' black neo-conservative parents were registered members of the Rupublican Party! THAT ruined Bo$$' rap career most than anything else that ruined her street cred, which she had none to begin with.

SoulAlive said:

Ashanti

She was sooooo "hot" in the early 2000s.Every other song on the radio was one of hers,or another artist featuring her.She now performs at county fairs.

Funny She annoyed me to death back then. ugh!