'Hip-Hop Honors' -- VH1's folly???

For weeks VH1 has been heavily promoting their Hip-Hop Honors award show scheduled to air this evening at 9 p.m. EST. I do like some rap and hip-hop in (very) small doses, but I could care less about this program, and I suspect most VH1 viewers feel the same way. Does anybody actually plan on watching it? Seems like it would be much more appropriate for MTV or BET, both of which skew towards a younger audience and show tons of hip-hop already. I watch VH1 in order to avoid it, lol!

http://www.vh1.com/shows/events/hip_hop_honors/2004/

 

In a TV world where TNN[The Nashville Network]can morph into Spike, which has little or nothing to do with country, well....hardly surprising, then, to find hip-hop anything on VH-1, which was originally designed as a sister channel to MTV, meant to skew to a slightly older audience as MTV moved toward a younger demographic. In fact, I can't think of a reason to watch any of them anymore, really.

 

A couple of years ago, VH1 got a new president who said he was going to make the network more palatible for twenty and thirtysomethings. This is part of it. Apparently, many younger people DO watch VH1. That's what they gear their programming to.

You'd be surprised how many people out there like hip-hop. It's the current favorite form of Amenrcan pop music, has been for a number of years, and will be for the forseeable future. Remember that the younger generations grew up on hip-hop. Itwas part of their world. Hip-hop has been around since the late 70s.

The older people who didn't grow up with hip-hop, and don't like it, are plain out of luck in our society, and it will get more so as time marches on. Hip-hop is part of Americana.

 

Just another case of network re-branding. Like when MTV itself stopped showing videos or having anything to do with music, or when AMC quit trying to be a classic movie channel.

You'd think the Boomer demographic would still be large enough, and attractive enough to advertisers, that something like the original VH1 would still have plenty of viability. I guess not.

As for hip-hop, I agree with Grant that it's with us to stay and will only get more dominant as time goes on. I can only hope that the genre is able to attain a new level of sophistication and artistry in the future, as rock did in the '60s (and be honest, folks; is the antipathy a lot of us have for that stuff really all that different from an earlier generation of fogies dismissing all rock music as amusical garbage?).

 

Nope, because brodcasters and advertisers are always chasing after the young demographic, even if the evidence says they don't matter. Companies continually hire young people to run things. These younger people only understand their own generation, so whaddya think they are going to do?

Thank you, and well stated!

 

Woah, Grantie...what evidence is there that says the young demographic doesn't or shouldn't matter to advertisers?

 

Right. Music matters less. Drama is less expensive and brings in more money. Flava Flav is much more interesting now than he ever was, according to ratings.

 

Younger people generally have less disposable income, yet most of the music and products are is geared towards them. It was smart when the boomers were younger, but now the boomers are at the age that companies generally dismiss. The boomers overall make more money.

But, they watch more TV of this type. So, I guess my post was a bit too quick. What I see are advertisers selling to an audience that doesn't buy, and ignoring another audience that does.

 

Not exactly true. They control a lot of clout for two reasons:

1. Some of them DO have disposable income and spend it faster than you can say "Yo, where's my Corn Pops?"

2. They influence their own friends and their parents who control a lot of this disposable cash.

It would be like saying 11 year olds have no money either, but then we would all love to be Sponge Bob Square Pants. In fact, I hear that him and Patrick go to strip clubs and have MAD CRIBS, drink DP every day with breakfast and have chicks lining up at the gate, even on rainy Sundays. What Chris Rock would say as "Wealthy".

Marketing is effective from many different sides. It's all influence.

 

You made some good points overall in your post, Grant, but I don't consider myself "plain out of luck." There are plenty of other bands and music that I can listen to and I feel like the generation growing up on this is really the one that's out of luck because they're getting third-rate artistry that is derived (sampled) from artists who actually tried to do something musical. But enough ranting from this "old" geezer!

Hip hop may be indeed be part of Americana, as it has been around for about twenty years (I don't know where they figure it's 30 years old - the first rap record, "Rappers Delight" came out around '79, so at most it's 25, but anyway...) - but so are a lot of things. That doesn't necessarily mean it's good or bad - simply that it's evinced staying power and has found favor with a large segment of the audience. But just because something's popular doesn't necessarily mean it's good.

 

Agreed. I would also say that about some of the musicians favored by many forum members.

And yes, young people is where the money's at. I think I'm a bullseye target for these people: white male, 26 yrs old, pretty decent income, no family or dependencies. Even though I make less than my bosses, I have as much, if not more, to spend, because I don't have to pay for a mortgage, kids (probably the greatest expense ever), etc. I know I spend a lot more on my music collection than anybody I know.

 

VH1 is obviously courting the youth market. However, their choice of programming leaves me baffled at times. Everything from The Surreal Life to TV blooper shows and game show best moments. I don't get it. Too bad - VH1 used to be must-see TV for me.

 

I don't know much about rap history, but I imagine there were proto-rap records before then, just as there were many proto-rock-n-roll songs in the 5-10 years prior to "Rock Around the Clock" the "first" rock-n-roll song.

And conversely, just because you (or the majority of forum members) don't like something doesn't mean it's bad.

 

Though I'm not that keen on yet another award show, I do plan on checking it out. A pretty large share of first generation Hip-Hop fans are in their 30's and 40's now. So the demographic they're aiming at with this program isn't completely off the mark. Most younger fans in their teens and early 20's have no idea what came before this most recent lot of artists(and in certain instances I use the term loosely). At a time when rap music has lost much of what made it interesting and exciting in the first place, I'm glad that someone decided to give a little airtime, and respect to those who made it an art form and a force to be reckoned with. OK, I'm off my soapbox now....

 

Actually, you're right. Rapper's Delight was a hit record just when I started my senior year in high school. Then soon followed Kurtis Blow and ever Blondie and Frankie Smith. Rap IS part of the baby boomer generation. It's just that a lot of people didn't become aware of it until the gangsta stuff started up.

The kids today have no idea of who even Ice-T or 2-Live Crew are. That's just how far we have come in the hip-hop genre! Who among us remembers Krush Groove, Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five (whom, to the horror of many rock fans, are nominated for induction to the R&R Hall Of Fame this year), or even Kool Moe-Dee?

And, there are still people wishing for it's demise. It ain't gonna happen!

 

There are far too many parallels between rap music and the early years of rock 'n roll to be ignored. Although I'm not certain they'll make it into this years final list of inductees, GMF&FF deserve to be in there as much as The Clash and The Ramones deserve to be in there. The Punk and Hip-Hop cultures have similar aesthetics in terms of rebellious attitude and spirit, the do-it-yourself factor, and many detractors wishing it would disappear. But like you said Grant, it ain't gonna happen!!!!

 

Actually, Rappers Delight is the first rap hit. King Tim III (Personality Jock) by Fatback is generally considered the first rap record.