Aging in Hip Hop

[re'up]

Another good example, I was an early Weeknd fan, like in 2011, was trying to put my friends on, and I went to his tour in 2015, bought the album. Now, at the time, I was pretty on point about the music. Songs like In The Night" As You Are aged well, they still hold up, stuff like the Ed Shheran collab, and Angel, were never good songs to me, but now, sound even worse. Totally forced and obvious collabs

 

[Awesome Wells]

This is all subjective though.

Music is about feeling. If something makes you feel good, or takes you to a time that you'd like to revisit mentally, it will never be "dated" to you. So what that sounds like is going to be different for everyone. There are records that dropped 20 years ago, that I think sound more dated than sh*t from the 80's. Trendy production usually dates itself. But classics can never sound dated. They're timeless.

But if you didn't grow up with those classics and came into music when things didn't sound that way, everything you hear that pre-dates those records will sound "old" to you because it's before your time. But we all know, regardless of when something dropped, good music never ages.

 

[JustCKing]

Good production doesn't age. You definitely know you in the 70's listening to Off The Wall, but nothing horribly aged about the sound.

To me, most of the badly aged rap music is the stuff built on cheap keyboard beats that actual
musicians would scoff at. They don't stand up outside the era they were made it many times... But the songs with actual instruments or good use of samples containing actual instruments don't age badly imo.

And this is kind of what I was getting at. None of that actually means the music "aged badly", it just means you prefer music that makes good use of samples and instrumentation. It's a lot of music that people diss as a made on a "cheap keyboard" that contain samples and even instrumentation. Actual musicians scoff at sampling as well especially when it's obvious.

 

[CrimsonTider]

Pretty much every song from the ringtone rap era has aged badly

Classics like illmatic, reasonable doubt, BP all sound amazing regardless how far into the future you listen to them

Yup, exactly this. Most stuff that "ages badly" are cheap, pale imitations of trends that might get some burn by sheer proximity to audience taste, but once removed from an environment where that's the hot style, people are able to see all the problems that were always there.

Isn’t swag surfing from the ringtone era?

Play that song anywhere outside and you will get a bigger reaction than anything y’all are calling classic


I can keep going

 

[JustCKing]

T

There's a whole thread about late 90's & 2000's music fitting the very criteria I described. Call it subjective, but there are many people that feel that stuff that sounded good at the time sound like trash now. And it's not because of the rapping.

That doesn't mean it aged horribly though. And a lot of those people didn't like that music to begin with.

The issue is, people fronting and trying to justify something that doesn't needs justifying: they either never liked that particular sound or they once liked it and it doesn't sound as good to THEM now. Nothing wrong with just saying you never felt it or thought it was hot at the time and simply don't feel it now. Saying it "aged horribly" is a cop out and cowardice.

 

[Womb Raider]

Isn’t swag surfing from the ringtone era?

Play that song anywhere outside and you will get a bigger reaction than anything y’all are calling classic


I can keep going

That doesn’t make it a good song.

Play Crank Dat Soulja Boy and you’ll see everybody hitting that Superman…doesn’t make it a good song.

 

[L. Deezy]

Isn’t swag surfing from the ringtone era?

Play that song anywhere outside and you will get a bigger reaction than anything y’all are calling classic


I can keep going

This is actually true. Went out Sunday and everyone was swaying along to that shyt

 

[CrimsonTider]

That doesn’t make it a good song.

Play Crank Dat Soulja Boy and you’ll see everybody hitting that Superman…doesn’t make it a good song.

That does it make it a good song.

The goal of making music is to have the most people feel something.

Swag Surfing is one of the greatest songs in rap history

 

[JustCKing]

This is all subjective though.

Music is about feeling. If something makes you feel good, or takes you to a time that you'd like to revisit mentally, it will never be "dated" to you. So what that sounds like is going to be different for everyone. There are records that dropped 20 years ago, that I think sound more dated than sh*t from the 80's. Trendy production usually dates itself. But classics can never sound dated. They're timeless.

But if you didn't grow up with those classics and came into music when things didn't sound that way, everything you hear that pre-dates those records will sound "old" to you because it's before your time. But we all know, regardless of when something dropped, good music never ages.

Timeless doesn't imply that it can't be dated. If you're saying that you don't understand the term. All music is going to be dated at some point. Dated simply implies that it sounds like the era in which it was made. Dated is a bad thing if its a brand new song that sounds old, but it isn't paying homage, it just sounds like something from a previous era.

There are some exceptions and that is some music that sounds nothing like the era in which it was made. Doggystyle sounds nothing like what else was poppin in 1993. Put that album up against most anything from '93 and most if not all would sound dated next to Doggystyle. That's not a bad thing. Pac's "No More Pain" from AEOM is something that could still pass for modern rap record. Biggie's "Notorious Thugs", Jay's "nikka What, nikka Who" is another one.

 

[Chip Skylark]

Good music has no expiration date. If something 'aged horribly ' it wasn't good in the first place, but it may have been hot at the time because it was pushed to be.
As this thread seems to be a response to the threads critical of Swizz Beatz, yes I would say he falls in that category.

Ie swizz beats production

 

[Chip Skylark]

That does it make it a good song.

The goal of making music is to have the most people feel something.

Swag Surfing is one of the greatest songs in rap history

This is a fact

 

[Awesome Wells]

Timeless doesn't imply that it can't be dated. If you're saying that you don't understand the term.

Dated in music actually means something is "old-fashioned" and hasn't stood the test of time well. So if something is considered timeless, it means that regardless of when it dropped, we can play it today without any regard for when it was released, and with no loss of quality or impact.

That's what those terms mean, bro.

 

[Womb Raider]

That does it make it a good song.

The goal of making music is to have the most people feel something.

Swag Surfing is one of the greatest songs in rap history

I dare you to play Swag Surfing on the aux…you’ll be kicked off immediately

 

[Chip Skylark]

I dare you to play Swag Surfing on the aux…you’ll be kicked off immediately

Serious question. You really don’t like swag surfing? Do people really not like that song?

Even if you don’t like it do you understand why it’s considered classic and a timeless record by the culture?

 

[JustCKing]

Dated in music actually means something is "old-fashioned" and hasn't stood the test of time well. So if something is considered timeless, it means that regardless of when it dropped, we can play it today without any regard for when it was released, and with no loss of quality or impact.

That's what those terms mean, bro.

"Old fashioned" doesn't mean that it didn't stand the test of time. You can't honestly tell me that you are putting on a lot of 90's classic and those styles don't scream 90's. It doesn't mean anything negative. It is what it is. Again, dated is ONLY a bad thing if it's a brand new song and it sounds old.