Popular Music Abandons Everyone Over Forty

Those damn kids today and their strange and frightening music raise an important question for me:  When did I become my dad?

Back in the eighties – when popular music reached its pinnacle of achievement - I would be home from college, in my room, cranking cool tunes and my father would get home from work, peer in, scrunch up his face and ask how I could listen to that infernal racket.  The answer, of course, was that I had (and still have, dammit) really awesome taste in music.

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I actually pitied my Dad for being unable to appreciate the Midwestern-inflected post-punk glory of The Replacements, or the sonic frenzy of their Minneapolis brothers-in-noise Husker Du, or the soaring, roaring guitar heroics of The Clash.  I don’t know what music he actually liked.  There were some LPs lying around the house – kids, you can ask your parents what those are – but they were things like the Kingston Trio and the Sound of Music soundtrack.  This last one was a particular sore point for me since my mom got the idea to name me Kurt, which is the German equivalent of Melvin, from the little Von Trapp twerp who sang “Fa.” (more…)

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Tags: 50 cent, Black-Eyes Peas, fergie, Flo Rida, Husker Du
Posted Jul 31st 2009 at 5:03 am in Celebrity News, Featured Story, Music | 193510252 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/kschlichter/2009/07/31/popular-music-abandons-everyone-over-40/Popular+Music+Abandons+Everyone+Over+Forty2009-07-31+12%3A03%3A46Kurt+Schlichter

In Closing: My Response to Ben’s Response to My Response to Ben’s ‘Rap is Crap’

My friend Jane’s church has two services every week. The Sunday service is called the Seeker Service. It’s light, and the focus is on music and the positive aspects of religion. Sometimes they even have an entertaining play as part of the service. The Wednesday service is when the fundamentalist gospel happens; the hardcore stuff that might chase away new converts still questioning their faith. The concept has been hugely successful and these churches boast millions of members nationwide.

I look at Big Hollywood as a Seeker site. We are here to attract people questioning their politics, and welcome them into the philosophy we call Conservatism. We want to be a political home for those strays: people who are uncomfortable with all the flags and Greek columns that the Left has recently embraced. We want to support the new stars of Hollywood, those who have suddenly found themselves in a tax bracket they never thought they could reach, and are suddenly questioning the injustice of a progressive tax code. We want to comfort those who have grown tired of being called a racist for simply questioning the wisdom of putting a community organizer into the most powerful office on earth. (more…)

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Tags: "Rap is Crap", 50 cent, Ben Shapiro, Michael Wilson, Tim Slagle
Posted Apr 1st 2009 at 9:25 am in Entertainment, Politics | 9392214 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/tslagle/2009/04/01/rap-is-crap-take-four/In+Closing%3A+My+Response+to+Ben%27s+Response+to+My+Response+to+Ben%27s+%27Rap+is+Crap%272009-04-01+16%3A25%3A05Tim+Slagle

Response to Ben Shapiro’s ‘Rap is Crap’

I just finished reading Ben Shapiro’s Rap Is Crap and I can’t let it go.

I am not a huge fan of rap music. It is not the top rack choice on my iPod, and yet, I can appreciate its contribution to music and pop culture. Very few of the top 40 songs today don’t have at least a small rap section in bridge of the song.  It has now been over thirty years since rap made the leap from the inner city streets to the top of the pop charts, so it’s not going away anytime soon.

All of Ben’s complaints were once said about rock and roll: lack of melody and harmony, overemphasis on rhythm, vulgar, overly sexual lyrics… Rock and roll was also called a corrupter of youth and predictions of it’s quick demise abounded. There were record burnings and organized protests against this Satan music, and today, footage of these protests are viewed comedically. Do we really want this stigma attached to Republicans any longer?  Are we tired of being the punchline yet? (more…)

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Tags: 50 cent, Ben Shapiro, Boy George, George Michael, guns
Posted Mar 29th 2009 at 2:28 pm in Entertainment | 917302 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/tslagle/2009/03/29/reply-to-ben-shapiro/Response+to+Ben+Shapiro%27s+%27Rap+is+Crap%272009-03-29+21%3A28%3A35Tim+Slagle