Community: Real Life

Easy listening


Luke, 18, finished sixth form in 2009 and hopes to start a career in accounting. Eventually, he'd like to travel and work in China. He loves basketball and expanding his CD collection. Since discovering socially-critical comedy a lot of his time has been spent thinking.

Luke's ears are burning. Not because someone is talking about him, but because he's had enough of talentless acts hogging the airwaves.

It's human nature to stick to what we're comfortable with and, since we're social beings, it's not wrong for us to want to follow a crowd and be a part of something. But I'm peeved with ignorance to quality in music and the arts. I don't like that the true creatives, the boundary pushers, are forced away from the public eye in favour of soft, safe and family friendly acts. It's wrong that truly inspiring and hard working people should have to struggle to make a living, especially whilst talentless people live the good life.

I believe that as long as we have a class where champagne flows and cars come free, it should be occupied by people who have earned it and continually inspire us. We shouldn't reward those who embody the opposite of these qualities. A genre that stands out in this argument, especially as it's very close to my heart, is rap. It's suffering heavily because of a very low standard of music being pumped out by its most popular artists.

Rap music originally began as a voice for people in marginalised black communities in New York (originally the Bronx), and quickly spread across the world infecting the souls of youth in many different countries. Music has been a way for human beings to express themselves and vent frustration for millions of years, so it is no surprise that something so raw and truthful became so popular among people struggling and desperate for a chance to shine a light on their way of life. When the culture did finally break out from the streets of New York, it filled a niche in America for people tired of being lied to, people desperate to hear somebody stand up and say the things everybody else was thinking. Thus, early rap music was, in essence, raw, gritty truth spoken over drum beats by people neglected by the system established to care for them.

But as rap began its journey into mainstream culture this rawness became somewhat diluted, and revolutionaries became more and more scarce. Today, we are witnessing the product of this journey; a once mighty voice now so stripped down and taken advantage of. People claiming to be fans of the music often know nothing about its origins, its true purpose or its message. Ask a Jay-Z, 50 Cent or Lil Wayne fan today about what hip-hop is, and more than likely you won't hear words such as "Bronx", "culture" and "Truth" once (trust me, I've done it). The true hip-hop artists are still out there, but you'll have to go far to find them. These particular artists are shunned and pushed underground, in favour of soft, watered down and easy to understand artists, giving the illusion that these particular people represent all of hip-hop. The real artists are the people you don't see; the people working in the shadows free from corporate influence and loss of creative control.

"Russell Howard was one of the highest paid comedians of last year. I'm not trying to tell you what to believe, but surely everybody agrees that there are far funnier people out there that deserve a chance."

But this is just one example. The same thing is happening everywhere you look. This is a personal battle that I will continue to fight, but I'm not saying that everybody should stop buying records from modern day rappers and start spending their money on music I tell them to buy. No, the point is, whether you like rap music, rock or metal, whether you're into movies, comedy or art, in almost every corner of popular culture, the softest, easiest to understand product is always the most popular, whilst anything that may expand your knowledge and cause you to advance suffers and struggles.

I was bewildered recently when I discovered that Russell Howard was one of the highest paid comedians of last year. Again, I'm not trying to tell you what to believe, but surely everybody agrees that there are far funnier people out there that deserve a chance. Everything has a pound sign on it, and unfortunately intelligence is not 'economically viable'.

Our creative tastes have been crushed by desperation and greed for money by animals at the top of the chain, leaving us free to help ourselves to whatever they have discovered will make money. The process only works as long as we carry on participating, so we have the ability to change it. What makes human beings so great is our ability to think. Therefore, my message is to simply start questioning things and maybe even pick up a book once in a while. I feel that a lot of good can come from this, whether it's in music, movies or fashion.

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