She Had Class, Now She Sellin' It All For Cash

Ice-T's feud with Soulja Boy could not have arrived at a better time. Right before our very eyes, their bickering match (between Old Head and New Blood) illustrates the extreme divide in hip hop culture better than I EVER could articulate it in words. And we've all heard the arguments: Old heads can't accept that hip hop is constantly changing, and the new generation allegedly waters down the art form for money.

Ironically, the same analogies can easily be applied to pop music as well.

In a Fader article on Swedish artist Lykke Li, Nina Persson (of The Cardigans) and solo artist Robyn made some comments on pop that I think are really profound:

"[Swedish people] are also great collectors- whether it is art or music or design. We have a knack for taking the best elements of things and making them our own... Also, our definition of ‘pop’ music has always been a little different than a lot of other people’s. Weirder, perhaps.”

According to Robyn, another Swedish artist that’s currently huge in Sweden and hip in America, the tradition of Swedish pop music is not so much about a particular aesthetic, but an attitude. “We don’t tend to think of pop music as something different, or lesser, than, say, rock music or hip-hop,” she says. “Somehow pop music got a bad reputation in a lot of the world. I don’t think Swedish musicians tend to look at it that way. We have a lot of respect for the notion of pop.”

Since a negative stigma is often attached to American pop music, I wanted to explore these comments further. Much like hip hop, our pop is often accused of pandering to the ignorant, open ears of the mainstream masses. As a result, it's argued that the quality of music is diminishing, and inevitably, listeners are becoming turned off. I constantly hear people whining that music isn't good anymore! Meanwhile, these Swedish artists want to try something new, and keep pop fresh. Lykke Li even talked about the indie explosion in a different interview, saying that the influx of good, indie artists IS the new pop. I agree. To them, it's about art, not money - nor should it be. Call me a purist if you want, but maybe if this resurgence of quality music keeps the market competitive, we might be able to look forward to more innovative artists in the near future.

Speaking of competition-inspired quality, I would love to see more out-of-the-box, "indie" sentiments in hip hop. Really showing off that MC muscle, you know? Like: all these dudes who started remixing "A Milli"?!?! It was annoying at first, but how cool would it be to adopt that model as a reoccurring trend? Imagine a producer publicly throwing a beat at the hip hop community every so often, openly challenging everyone to let the best MC win. But duh, that would never happen outside of mixtapes; production costs money, remember? Capitalism over all.

"A Milli" producer Bangladesh rates the remixes

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