Abusive hurtful rap songs-go after the supply or the demand?

[underpants]

Going after the supply has two main problems
1. charges of controlling freedom of speech
2. a highlly profitable business in which new talent is exploited on a level only surpassed by the porn industry. The few artists that do attain longevity (like almost all of the music industry) can be very "successful" but there is a definite tournament aspect to this

Going after demand has one main problem
1. How are we going to stop all those white kids from buying the CD's?

[gravity]

1. Play real hip hop on the radio

[KittyWampus]

15. I kiss you full on the lips! There is so much excellent stuff out there.

[ComerPerro]

2. To answer your question, you can only go after the demand, because you can never

really go after the supply of art, ideas, or other intangibles. With music, for example, you can shut down lables and censor artists, but it will always exist. It will get out. Just like printed media, if the message exists, it will get out there somehow.

So you can only attack demand.

And how do you decrease demand? Make hip-hop and rap mainstream. Get 50 year olds listening to it.

:evilgrin:

[Glorfindel]

3. It's a problem that will take care of itself, I think

Nothing is so fleeting as taste in popular music. Before you know it, "rap" will go the way of 1980's glam-rock hair bands and its current fans will wonder, "What were we thinking?"

[alcibiades_mystery]

7. Since hip hop music was around during the 80's

Your argument for its transience seems, well, flawed.

That's like saying jazz will go away eventually. Or rock. What's gonna happen? people are going to stop playing electric guitars?

I mean, truly? :shrug:

[hippiechick]

4. Why don't we look at the media mogul congloms ...

... that 'tell' our children that this is what they 'want' to buy, that limit the airwaves and record stores to pre-selected 'music' and 'artists', bogus "Top 40" lists, etc ... those who force feed this crap to society and tell us that 'we asked for it'.

Boardroom-created consumption. It starts at the top, and the only way to stop it is to send a message to them that we and our children aren't going to buy it/listen to it/support it, etc.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

5. We need to declare War on Rap!

GWB needs to appoint a "Rap Czar" to coordinate all operations.

I'm series!!!

[underpants]

6. How about...

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

8. Yo, "Fiddy Missing Emails"

Badass RapCzar
Press Club Dancin Foo, dat!

[Bigmack]

9. I agree that rap is a problem....

... but I see the whole rap-flap as yet another distraction.

Rightwingnut radio "hosts" say the wildest, most racist shit you can imagine, and nothing happens.

Imus was a radio host, so why not include a few others in the radio purge, and then move on to other media? Nobody even mentions Rush or Savage.

But everybody is all hot on those pimped-up, threatening, nasty-talking black guys. Nice easy target for the talking heads to bloviate about.

How about they expand their media outrage to include the politically obscene?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

10. There's no such thing as abusive hurtful rap songs.

Anymore than there are abusive hurful operas, or abusive hurtful oil paintings.

[Selatius]

11. Enforce anti-trust laws and break up the RIAA and break up radio companies (Clear Channel, etc.)

Break them up and open up the field to alternative acts. Find some way to reintroduce community-owned radio.

[meldroc]

12. Exactly why is rap music a problem?

I don't care much for it, but we're talking about freedom of speech here.

I used to, and still do, listen to heavy metal, which has some equally controversial lyrics. And I'll be protecting the rights of artists to make and free people to listen to controversial music as long as I have my life and a gun.

We don't need authoritarian twits pontificating about how certain music is evil or what not. If you don't like it, don't listen to it.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

16. Because people are upset that Imus was fired.

So they got to take blame off of a white guy by pointing fingers at black guys.

Same reason they're targeting Sharpton and Jackson.

[underpants]

17. Yep RW radio is all over it

At least what I heard of some idiot sitting in for that idiot Glenn Beck

Caller after caller -lots of selfprofessed Dems- were turning it into Jesse and Al's fault

[WinkyDink]

13. Follow the $$$$. The music industry bosses just want more of it.

[rocktivity]

14. It's the lack of longevity that keeps the investment price down

The smart ones (Queen Latifah, Will Smith, LL Cool J) leverage their popularity to expand into other venues.

:headbang:
rocknation

[AndyTiedye]

18. This is Social Engineering. Why Do You Suppose the "Entertainment Industry" Promotes That Stuff?