1. Hip-Hop/Rap

Back when it was the underdog, I used to love & respected this genre for being groundbreaking as well as having so many different styles of rap music to choose from. But beginning in 1994, it slowly (pun intended) took an ugly turn for the worse when the major record labels put more focus on marketing the rap style that was making the most profits at that point (READ: gangsta). Meanwhile (in an attempt of copying Dr. Dre's winning formula that work for The Chronic), most hip-hop producers & emcees alike keep the tempo at the 95 BPM and never bother to speed it back up ever since. And The Dirty South put the nail in the coffin with (IMO) 3 of THE worst styles of hip-hop ever in Chopped & Screwed (slower than 95 BPM), Bounce (every beatmaker using the same Drag Rap/Triggerman sample), and Crunk.

2. R&B

Fair enough, the alliance of hip-hop & r&b sounded like a great idea if we're talking about the success New Jack Swing (at least it was still uptempo with bite-size funk within the mix!). But as soon as r&b follow hip-hop's lead with slowing downing the tempo at 95 BPM, we ended up with hip-hop soul. It was wonderful for Mary J. Blige as well (especially when Janet & Madonna gave respect to hip-hop soul with some tracks from janet. & Bedtimes Stories), but not so great for the legions of MJB wannabes that were to follow. r&b was never the same since it was renamed hip-hop/r&b.

3. Rock

If this genre is dead already, then blame styles such as grunge (READ: Nirvana & Pearl Jam) & post-grunge (READ: Nickelback) for taking the fun out of it. There, I said it.

I agree on 1 & 2.....you're totally wrong about 3.....that said, Nickelback sucks ass!

It just reads like you stopped liking music in the mid 90s.

Goth used to be fun in the 80s, and I liked how it was always flirting with the industrial scene (and vice versa). I think that whole sound and energy died off in the '90s, and whatever is left of it is either way too derivative to be of any use, or else it's just plain insipid or so fringey that I feel like I need a user's manual just to understand the album.

Cinnie said:

And based on your personal understanding, you have taken my quotes out of contexts.

TVD: But beginning in 1994, it slowly (pun intended) took an ugly turn for the worse.....

Right THERE was more than enough specifics to show you that I was listening to music after my favorite hip-hop era of 88-93.

abierman said:

Some of my favorite rock bands were losing popularity & momentum because of Nirvana (especially Kurt Cobain) and their "oh woes it me because life sucks so bad in Seattle" types songs.

Granted, Smell Like Teen Spirit was an awesome song. But everything else Kurt Cobain had to offer was depressing as shit.
[Edited 4/29/08 18:30pm]

TonyVanDam said:

I meant for the rock genre too though... all 3 categories.

TonyVanDam said:

I told that to my brother a few days ago darn near word for word. (except for the BPM, I had no idea)
I'm glad other people see this too.
That means I'm not crazy.

ToraToraDreams said:

That part was bullshit.

Hip-hop/rap used to be the shit when I was growing up. Now, I wish it could just take a break from worldwide domination.

R&B and rock still has a soft spot in my heart, it just needs to find its soul again.

I don't think there are any genres as a whole that I'm tired of. I can find stuff I like within any genre. I think I tried to buy every 12" freestyle single in the early 90s. Then I realized after about 5 of them, you've heard it all.

Timmy84 said:

Hip-hop/r&b needs to get a divorce.

RipHer2Shreds said:

All the good freestyle came out in the 80s. That's why you got tired of it so quickly.

sextonseven said:

I was buying used singles from the 80s.

RipHer2Shreds said:

There are at least TEN good singles then. You must not have been looking too hard.

Synth Pop - I was really into this for a year or so, particularly German bands like Wolsheim and now it bores me to tears. I made a comp of 12 big synth pop singles from back then and that's all I need now, really.


Wolfsheim - Once In A Lifetime

I haven't grown bored of any particular genres, unless you count Top 40 as a genre.

I loved house music and still do. However, I'm burned out on it because when I was going out all the time in the early to mid 1990s, that's all I listened to in the clubs and at home also since I didn't listen to the radio because shit hop had already taken over it.

The only time I listen to house music these days is when I have gay friends over. Even then, I slip in a disco song here and there (gay folks love disco also) or a female artist that made some jams (gay folks love those too). The only other option when they come over is some weak shit like Shitney Houston or Anita Baker and I don't own no shit like that, nor would I sit through it. Other than when I have gay people over, I'm either listening to male dominated funk groups when I'm alone, or 1970s and 1980s rock music when I'm drinking with my brother.

Jazz fusion got overrun by smooth jazz/new age/quiet storm/WAVE-type programming I thought the music died. Maybe it was the neo-bop jazz purists who opened the gate and led the slaughter, but there were a lot of nondescript r&b instrumental bands. I can still find decent bands mixed in the jamband genre or maybe in black rock or funk.

sextonseven said:

Exactly. Most of the freestyle classic that I have are from the 80's. But there are plenty of freestyle tracks that were also dance hits from 90-92 period.

TonyVanDam said:

Well u nailed it with those 3, for me it would be in a slightly different order.

RB
ROCK
Hip Hop

Mainly RB died when it merged with Hip/Hop and everything became about getting that first week number 1, down the drain with two genres. and of course the sell out of BET which showed its true color GREEN.

As for ROCK well, when Daughtry and Nickelback and Fall out BOy are considered ROCK bands and cutting edge, its time to close up shop.

lastdecember said:[quote]

TonyVanDam said:

Well u nailed it with those 3, for me it would be in a slightly different order.

RB
ROCK
Hip Hop

Mainly RB died when it merged with Hip/Hop and everything became about getting that first week number 1, down the drain with two genres. and of course the sell out of BET which showed its true color GREEN.

As for ROCK well, when Daughtry and Nickelback and Fall out BOy are considered ROCK bands and cutting edge, its time to close up shop. ANd yes for also taking the damn FUN out of rock, Grunge did it too, but nowadyas you cant have a good positive song in rock without be called "DATED"
[Edited 4/30/08 16:10pm]

lastdecember said:

You can also add Amy Lee & Evanescence to that list of bands that has taken all the fun out of rock as well.

How is Amy or her crew are going to call themselves doing rock & roll while have a few tracks playing on the same Adult Contemporary radio formats as Air Supply, Celine Dion, & Whitney Houston?!? Give me a break!

[Edited 4/30/08 20:51pm]

Most mainstream rock is pretty bad now, but there is a LOT of good stuff that isn't on top 40 radio.

Gospel & Rap

Moonbeam said:

Thank you

thekidsgirl said:

You know it!

Jazz. At the moment don't listen to jazz. But, I'm sure I will again.

vainandy said:

See, I always am confused whether Americans have the same 'definition' of house music like Europeans do. Over here, 'house' music is one of the most evolving musical genres around. Within it there are so many directions you can go to,constantly changing. And it is certainly not gay-only.....

I started listening to a little underground house in the late 1980s such as Two Dominicans, A Black Man, and a Puerto Rican (I think I got it right, I may be wrong ), J.M. Silk, and folks like that. It wasn't the main thing I listened to because there were still a few funk groups in mainstream R&B at the time, even though they were scarce. Adult contempory shit had taken up a lot of R&B in the late 1980s so I was looking for anything danceable, mainstream or underground.

Around 1989 or 1990, house music exploded onto the mainstream for a little while and lasted until around 1993 or so. In my area, it was more on pop radio moreso than R&B radio even though most of the artists were black. Pop radio was calling the genre "dance" at the time. R&B radio was playing more new jack and later, shit hop. I was listening to folks like Martha Wash, Crystal Waters, Cee Cee Penniston, Robin S., Cajmere, Brothers In Rhythm, The 49ers, 2 In A Room, etc. This was the kind of stuff I was hearing in the black gay clubs. In the white gay clubs, the house music sounded different, more like what it later became. Kind of an acid type house, and instead of mixing it with old disco songs every once in a while like black clubs did, the white clubs mixed it more with people like Depeche Mode, which bore me.

Yeah, house music did evolve and change around the mid 1990s but I didn't like the direction it took. Less and less black artists were recording it so a lot of the rhythm and flow left from it. It stopped having a funky feel to it. It started sounding more and more European and the tempo actually became too fast to dance to. Even when black artists were recording it during the mid to late 1990s, the music behind their voices was sounding more like what I had heard in the white gay clubs in previous years. It just didn't have anything funky in it whatsoever. People had stopped calling it house and were calling it things like acid, or techno, or trance. I never liked that sound and when house music completely converted over to it, I stopped buying it. However, I could stand to be in the same room with it so when I went out, I stopped going to black gay clubs and started going to white gay clubs. The black gay clubs had started playing shit hop. Most of the black gay people my age started going to the white clubs also during this period and haven't gone back to the black gay clubs since.