Well heres something for everyone to join in on and give their own thoughts. I have long since dubbed this decade, the HYPE decade. Whether we are talking about a Kanye West comment or a 50 Cent "bet", or false rumours being spred on the daily by the TMZ organization, this decade of stars/artists whatever you want to call them are nothing but HYPE. Dont get me wrong this is not a rant on talent, because there are talented artists out there and we all know who they are, and some of them are in the "mainstream spotlight" and some are not, but this really is more about LETTING YOUR WORK SPEAK. One blame i have is the TMZ network, whether they are illegally phone tapping people like Alec Baldwin or spreading FAKE Pregnancy rumours about singers Cassie Ventura or Aubrey O Day, or countless other stories they make up or just report them LIKE THEY HAVE MEANING. Lindsay Lohan has actually a "Photoshoot schedule" with TMZ in her rehab facility? and we wonder why we get the "so called stars" that we get. But the problem is even deeper, with MEDIA controlling everything, and with major networks and record companies and news organizations all in BED together, thats why we get nothing but HYPE and very very little substance anymore. Think back to the MOTOWN 25 show when MJ did his famous Moonwalk, Imagine now if that was HYPED for months and months that it was gonna happen, how big a let down it would be. Whatever happend to just letting your work speak? Also when did it die?

Why doesnt anyone want to be themselves anymore? that is the big question i see in front of me, now there is NOTHING wrong with influence and i dont mind when a singer talks about who they listened to as a kid, so if i hear Christina Aguilera say "Mariah Carey was my idol when i was a kid" i dont mind that, but if I hear "im the new Mariah Carey" then i lose respect for anything she would do talented or not. Imagine Prince sitting in an interview in 1980 and saying "Im the new Jimi Hendrix" where would our respect for Prince be? Or if Lenny Kravitz said "Im the John Lennon of the 90's" what would you think of him then?

The main problem i have is the fact that all this HYPE is breeding and thats why you see the decline in talent and just lack of individuality. Thats why everyone knows how much drugs Amy Whinehouse does, or what Kanye said today, or how cds such and such sold last week, to be blunt about it WHO THE FUCK CARES? Imagine if back in the 70's every week you had to hear, "Songs in the Key of Life" isnt selling well or "Whats Going on" is a flop album. Just today i read a really stupid article by Jim Farber (asshole) about how the HIGHSCHOOL HIGH solo kids (ashley tisdale) arent selling well on their own, she has only sold 267,000 copies of her record since its release? Why is this even worthy of an article? This is my point, its more a reflection on what they think WE think matters. Back in the 80's when i used to read Billboard, i never cared how much my groups/artists sold, but it would bug me if a single didnt make the chart, but as i got older and i still listened to the artists i loved and they still recorded, i realized that in retrospect, the chart was nothing more than a Labels document, it wasnt real, it didnt mean anything, it was another form of HYPE.

IMHO, the hype is needed because there is no talent to promote.

You didn't hear that stuff about albums in the '70's because those artists were far more creative than today's artists.

RodeoSchro said:

...and there it is.

uPtoWnNY said:

I think I have to agree. Usually (not always) when someone is being hyped, I run far away and try my best not to get caught up in that shit. Take Britney Spears - she's been hyped for years. That girl couldn't sing to save her own life. She's nothing but hype - no talent whatsoever. Unfortunately, so many are being hyped because they don't have anything of real value to offer us.

Empress said:

Well thats true but its deeper than that. Using Britney as an example, someone can tell you every move she has made in the last 3 years, and yet she has done nothing of any importance. I mean to cover a newspaper with a picture of her shaving her head shows what the MEDIA thinks we care about, and unfortunately a pretty big % of the population think it matters. Someone said the other day, "Well John Lennon shaved his head in the 70's and it was a newstory", i said "Yes it was because he did in protest of a war and it was part of his Peace movement" who did Britney shave her head for? Herself, and media attention, very selfish generation.