What does it say about the state of popular music that aspiring acts turn to petty crime rather than singing lessons to establish their musical bonafides? Stephen Gilmore allegedly robbed the Super Stop Food Store last Friday night in Gainesville, Florida, shooting the clerk in the head with a BB gun in the process. An earlier heist at Hungry Howie’s restuarant allegedly netted Gilmore and his confederates $900. But he didn’t rob for the money. His motive was streed cred. You see, Gilmore is an aspiring rapper. And like Vanilla Ice, Akon, and Rick Ross before him, Gilmore gets it that to get over with the crowd that “keeps it real” it’s best to keep things fake.

The disconnect between beauty and popularity in music has never been greater.  Where once America sang the Beatles or Motown (“The Sound of Young America”), today the music industry is severely fragmented.  Gangsta rap.  Speed metal.  Trip-hop.  The major recording companies whine about declining profits even as they pay Mariah Carey $18 million not to record.

Unanimity of public opinion over popular song has passed.  Music, which used to unite, now divides.  Eminem and Ludacris would have been unthinkable thirty years ago.  We live in an antinomian age where it’s hip to defy conventional wisdom long after every vestige of conventional wisdom lies in tatters.  Where Keats’ Grecian Urn once proclaimed, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,” today’s antinomian consumer proclaims, “Whatever,” in a voice oozing ennui. (more…)