Well, enough with the doom & gloom!
There is some positives of the decade ending today!
1) The biggest positive in my mind, is the rise of social networking sites, the most popular being myspace and facebook!
This has dramatically changed many people's social lives for the better!
Remember in the previous century, when someone changed schools or changed jobs. Chances are ....... you'll never see that person again! And you're left wondering what happened to that person!
Even if you did exchange phone #s, you probably don't have enough time to call that person. You're busy, you might call that person in the wrong time, that person might move again without notifying you! And if that person got kids, if you call that person, you're competing with those kids for attention!
Now, you can easily find that person online! Even if that person moved far away!
You still won't have time for long conversations, but so what? You can just send a message in their inbox, and they can reply to it on their own time!
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People here on Oahu like to say "it's a small island, you''ll always run into someone you know"
That wasn't my reality earlier this decade. I could go MONTHS without randomly running into someone I knew from my pre-adult days! Even if I biked through the neighborhoods they came from, I won't even see them!
All this, even though I never even left Honolulu!
It even got to the point where I told my friend Jeff, "you're the only one from elementary that I'm still in contact with"
Now that I got myspace & facebook, not only can I reconnect with former co-workers, college, high school & middle school classmates, I even re-connected with those I haven't seen since elementary school!
I even got contacted with distant relatives that I never met before!
I even played match-maker, encouraging a long-lost classmate to use my friend's list to reconnect with former classmates. Though next time, I might have to start charging a fee :)
Also, with social networking, you can "spy" on your friends, reading their sites to learn stuff they would NEVER tell you in a conversation!
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The younger generation all got myspace or facebook!
It's even got to the point a few years ago where middle schoolers taunted someone for "not being on myspace"!
Being at certain public libraries in the afternoon means having to hear middle school students fooling around with their myspace sites and giggling!
They'll never have to worry about wondering "what happened to ____________" since they're already connected on social networking sites in their school days. They'll still be connected after high school graduations. Lucky them!
Though in a way, they're unlucky being that in middle school, now bullying has gone online! Students have put up phony myspace sites accusing certain peers of being "gay", " a whore", or whatever else they call each other. You could even start rivalries that didn't even exist with phony myspace sites! If you get mobbed or cry in class, someone could camera-phone that, put it on YouTube and the whole school can see it! Someone could make a rumor online about you and you wouldn't even know who started it! Someone could be falsely accused of making that online rumor about you!
So maybe it's good that I was in school before myspace and facebook came up!
But still, you can use social networking sites as a way to reconnect with former rivals and make peace! You can even contact someone and apologize for past sins, even if that person moved far away and have no chance of seeing that person in real life!
(note: I tried finding some people I wanted to apologize, but they're not on a social networking site. I'll keep trying to find them so I can apologize)
Like everything, there's pros & cons!
But even with social networking sites, I still suggest going to your reunions!
My class had it's reunion last August! I can't emphasize enough how great it was!
I already wrote about it at
http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html#8556000882361532709
and wrote a little more at
http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2009_10_01_archive.html#5090109787659733811
2) Another great positive of this decade was the rise of YouTube!
Remember in the previous centuries, there might be a song or music video that you liked but didn't get as much airplay as some over-rated song that got played all day?
You didn't want to spend all that money on a CD with 1 great song, and 11 crappy ones?
Now, it's on YouTube or myspace. (Unfortunately, if the song was released by a record label associated with Warner Music Group, it's hard to find since that company has cracked down on "copyright infringement")
You can now see news footage from past events.
Like everything, there's pros & cons!
But even with social networking sites, I still suggest going to your reunions!
My class had it's reunion last August! I can't emphasize enough how great it was!
I already wrote about it at
http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html#8556000882361532709
and wrote a little more at
http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2009_10_01_archive.html#5090109787659733811
2) Another great positive of this decade was the rise of YouTube!
Remember in the previous centuries, there might be a song or music video that you liked but didn't get as much airplay as some over-rated song that got played all day?
You didn't want to spend all that money on a CD with 1 great song, and 11 crappy ones?
Now, it's on YouTube or myspace. (Unfortunately, if the song was released by a record label associated with Warner Music Group, it's hard to find since that company has cracked down on "copyright infringement")
You can now see news footage from past events.
You can see old presidential debates, old campaign ads that made history but came out when you were too young to understand it, some celebrity saying something really stupid, funny arguments from FoxNews or MSNBC that you didn't get to see, or a great speech you kept hearing about but didn't see it live!
You even get to see the fight after a sports game that you didn't get to see!
You also get to see music videos from around the world. I saw music videos from the South Pacific, Latin America, Africa, Asia, Europe and everywhere else! I got to see singers whose videos were controversial in the Muslim countries. But when I see them, they are so TAME compared to most US music videos.
If you're lucky, you can be ahead of the trends. I saw videos from Sri Lankan singer MIA way before US radio stations played "Paper Planes" (the song with all those gunshots). It was all on You Tube!
Now, kids have access to classic rap songs. Earlier this month, at a middle school, I heard a bunch of kids rapping the lyrics to Eazy-E's "Boyz N the Hood". That song came out in the late 1980s. Eazy-E died in 1995. Most of the 8th graders in middle school this year were born the year after that! But the songs live on in YouTube! Easy access to songs that came out before your birth or when you were to young to appreciate them!
3) Music trends of this decade
I'm not even to go all over all of them!
However, as I looked through my older brother's i-phone for CDs stored on it, I noticed the hard-rock/ heavy metal classics : Metallica, Suicidal Tendencies, Pantera, Biohazard, Slayer. It also had West Coast rap classics from Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg, and East Coast classic from Wu-Tang Clan and Notorious BIG
And I told him, as I told other people, and as I heard from others, Rock Music Has Gotten Too Soft This Decade!
Yes, the decade started out with heavy stuff from Limp Bizkit, Disturbed and System of a Down! But it all faded!
Don't get me wrong, there's room for this emo/ alternative stuff! I also like All-American Rejects.
Emo/alternative has too much whining ! It's gotten to the point where even the 80's glam rockers (often men who looked like girls) are more hardcore than all these emo bands of this decade!
Hopefully, hard rock makes a comeback soon!
--
Remember the rap-metal trend!
I thought it was great that even the tough guys from races that had a long history of distrust could come together to combine rap and heavy metal! Check out the "Judgement Night" soundtrack to find out what I'm talking about!
Limp Bizkit was the ultimate rap-metal band in my opinion! Too bad they couldn't get along!
There was the Lil Jon songs that sampled Ozzy Ossbourne and Slayer. But I want more!
Hopefully it re-appears this coming decade!
---------
Hip-hop has fared a lot better! I loved the Southern stuff that dominated the hip-hop scene!
No one makes better party music better than the Southern guys!
While the Southern trend got started with booty music from Florida in the late 80's/1990's, and New Orleans supplied the No Limit Soldiers in the late 1990's, Atlanta dominated the 00's.
Lil Jon, Ludacris, Ying Yang Twins! Even if you don't like the lyrics, you gotta love the beats!
On the R&B side, Ciara, Usher, The Dream all represented Atlanta in a big way this past decade!
North Carolina had Petey Pablo, which was what middle school students used to call me around 2005-2006.
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On the West Coast, the guys from Oakland had the hyphy sounds,a lot of it inspired by the Southern stuff, but with an even crazier sound. E-40, Too Short, Keak Da Sneak, Mistah Fab! Once the DJs play some of the hyphy stuff, the clubs go crazy!
However, the Southern California hip-hop has faded! Yeah, Snoop Dogg still make hits. Black Eyed Peas are from there, they're not your stereotypical Southern Cal rap group! But overall, the LA rap scene has faded!
I wonder if the population changes had something to do with the decline of LA rap! In the last 2 decades, South Central LA went from being mostly African-American to mostly Latin-American!
Latinos have their G-funk rappers but they didn't get the attention that African-American g-funk rappers did in the 1990's!
-----
One hip-hop trend I hope to see fade in the coming decade is the popularity of Kanye West. He is over-rated and a whiner! Can't handle others winning an award!
--------
Chris Brown could've been the King of Pop! Too bad that chance faded away when he hit Rihanna!
4) It's a few hours before the next decade start! Hope to be back writing more blog posts in the upcoming decade!
Stay sober and have fun!
You also get to see music videos from around the world. I saw music videos from the South Pacific, Latin America, Africa, Asia, Europe and everywhere else! I got to see singers whose videos were controversial in the Muslim countries. But when I see them, they are so TAME compared to most US music videos.
If you're lucky, you can be ahead of the trends. I saw videos from Sri Lankan singer MIA way before US radio stations played "Paper Planes" (the song with all those gunshots). It was all on You Tube!
Now, kids have access to classic rap songs. Earlier this month, at a middle school, I heard a bunch of kids rapping the lyrics to Eazy-E's "Boyz N the Hood". That song came out in the late 1980s. Eazy-E died in 1995. Most of the 8th graders in middle school this year were born the year after that! But the songs live on in YouTube! Easy access to songs that came out before your birth or when you were to young to appreciate them!
3) Music trends of this decade
I'm not even to go all over all of them!
However, as I looked through my older brother's i-phone for CDs stored on it, I noticed the hard-rock/ heavy metal classics : Metallica, Suicidal Tendencies, Pantera, Biohazard, Slayer. It also had West Coast rap classics from Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg, and East Coast classic from Wu-Tang Clan and Notorious BIG
And I told him, as I told other people, and as I heard from others, Rock Music Has Gotten Too Soft This Decade!
Yes, the decade started out with heavy stuff from Limp Bizkit, Disturbed and System of a Down! But it all faded!
Don't get me wrong, there's room for this emo/ alternative stuff! I also like All-American Rejects.
Emo/alternative has too much whining ! It's gotten to the point where even the 80's glam rockers (often men who looked like girls) are more hardcore than all these emo bands of this decade!
Hopefully, hard rock makes a comeback soon!
--
Remember the rap-metal trend!
I thought it was great that even the tough guys from races that had a long history of distrust could come together to combine rap and heavy metal! Check out the "Judgement Night" soundtrack to find out what I'm talking about!
Limp Bizkit was the ultimate rap-metal band in my opinion! Too bad they couldn't get along!
There was the Lil Jon songs that sampled Ozzy Ossbourne and Slayer. But I want more!
Hopefully it re-appears this coming decade!
---------
Hip-hop has fared a lot better! I loved the Southern stuff that dominated the hip-hop scene!
No one makes better party music better than the Southern guys!
While the Southern trend got started with booty music from Florida in the late 80's/1990's, and New Orleans supplied the No Limit Soldiers in the late 1990's, Atlanta dominated the 00's.
Lil Jon, Ludacris, Ying Yang Twins! Even if you don't like the lyrics, you gotta love the beats!
On the R&B side, Ciara, Usher, The Dream all represented Atlanta in a big way this past decade!
North Carolina had Petey Pablo, which was what middle school students used to call me around 2005-2006.
-------------
On the West Coast, the guys from Oakland had the hyphy sounds,a lot of it inspired by the Southern stuff, but with an even crazier sound. E-40, Too Short, Keak Da Sneak, Mistah Fab! Once the DJs play some of the hyphy stuff, the clubs go crazy!
However, the Southern California hip-hop has faded! Yeah, Snoop Dogg still make hits. Black Eyed Peas are from there, they're not your stereotypical Southern Cal rap group! But overall, the LA rap scene has faded!
I wonder if the population changes had something to do with the decline of LA rap! In the last 2 decades, South Central LA went from being mostly African-American to mostly Latin-American!
Latinos have their G-funk rappers but they didn't get the attention that African-American g-funk rappers did in the 1990's!
-----
One hip-hop trend I hope to see fade in the coming decade is the popularity of Kanye West. He is over-rated and a whiner! Can't handle others winning an award!
--------
Chris Brown could've been the King of Pop! Too bad that chance faded away when he hit Rihanna!
4) It's a few hours before the next decade start! Hope to be back writing more blog posts in the upcoming decade!
Stay sober and have fun!
