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naraburns  nihil supernum  3yr ago (text post)   34370 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 10, 2022

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Somewhere downthread, Kanye West was said to have written some of the best wordplay of the past few decades. Could anyone cite some examples? (ideally text rather than video links)

I don't know about "best wordplay" but I remember that this came as a bit of a shock when I first heard it on the radio back in 04 or 05. (yes radio, I'm old)

I ain't here to argue about His facial features

Or here to convert atheists into believers

I'm just tryna say the way school need teachers

The way Kathie Lee needs Regis, that's the way I need Jesus

So here go my single, dawg, radio needs this

They say you can rap about anything except for Jesus

That means guns, sex, lies, videotape

But if I talk about God my record won't get played

Well if this take away from my spins

Which'll probably take away from my ends

Then I hope this'll take away from my sins

And bring the day that I'm dreaming about

Next time I'm in the club, everybody'll be screaming out

Jesus Walks

College Dropout is still imho Kanye's best work. I always liked these lines:

 I went to the malls and I balled too hard

 "Oh my god, is that a black card?"

 I turned around and replied, "Why yes

 But I prefer the term African American Express"

Black card being a reference to the Centurion Card, AmEx's ultra exclusive no limit card.

Do radios no longer exist in America? My new car came with one and I've been using it a lot, listening to public stations to see what my not-a-tax-but-you-still-go-to-prison-if-you-don't-pay "broadcasting contributions" are being used for.

What do young people do while driving? Watch youtube?

Audiobooks. Libraries have tons of them, for free, and there are audio courses too if you want your driving time to be educational. If you don't mind paying (or, alternatively, don't mind visiting certain sites of arrrgh persuasion) almost every book can be had in audio form. Not all books work this way - obviously, ones that need lots of illustration aren't a good match - but otherwise you can get many, many hours of content. And then there are podcasts, which can fill another lifetime.

P.S. I'm not a "young people" anymore, but still wanted to note the possibilities.

As a young (well, 30-ish; I was recently called out for the fact that most of my favored "new" music dates from the first half of the 2010s) person who drives a lot, Youtube and Youtube music (formerly Google Music). I pretty much only listen to the radio for college football (and pretty much only watch football on TV).

On that note I must say that I'm impressed with the sub $100 head unit my shitbox car came with. If it had a backup camera (haven't fooled with it to see if that function exists yet) and a slightly better interface than the low-end Pioneer I usually stick with I wouldn't even think of replacing it, and as it is the car phone is better than in the more expensive (but five year old) unit.

They exists but they're definitely an older person/working class sort of thing. The young and the hip aren't getting their music from some local DJ they're getting it off Spotify, Pandora, Apple iTunes, etc...

Virtually no one listens to the radio at home/school if they have internet access. After all, if you can access spotify you have a personalized radio station all day, even if the ads suck at least you can pick the music.

So for a long time now the only reason to listen to the radio was that you didn't have internet access, you lacked the wherewithal to use Spotify. That pretty much left the old, and blue collar workers driving for work or working on a jobsite outside their home location. That's why country, classic rock, and latin stations have pretty much stuck around or expanded, while pop radio is dead and forget Jazz or classical.

Man I remember being nine or ten and being told that Counting Down the Hits with Casey Casum was like, a cultural sacrament. It was something you were just supposed to listen to, to be up on what was big right now. Even if you didn't like the songs, you should be aware of them.

Now I only listen to the local college station. The only station that matters. At least it's weird enough that I find things I wouldn't find otherwise. If you try listening to a surviving pop station, it is dire, even leaving aside the quality of the music, compared to when I was a kid.

AM radio is practically dead. FM is dying (iHeartMedia the Clear Channel Communications rebrand has been steadily losing value year after year). Satellite XM requires a subscription. Even "pass the aux cable" is an artifact of an older era when people still had 3.5mm jacks in their personal music devices. Bluetooth connect to a phone playing YouTube music, Spotify or some other audio provider is extremely common.

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