Reader Mail: "Cream of the Crop"?

S.D.,

I grew up as Como, Sinatra, Crosby, etc., etc., etc. were growing in popularity. They never screamed hatred for their country, law and order, women, etc., and they never shot or stabbed each other.

These scum that you refer to as artists ("Rappers Kanye West and 50 Cent are own biggest rivals," 9/13) are not fit to tread the earth with decent people! Art refers to a talent, thus artist relates to talented.

While I played guitar a little, I never could sing a note, BUT I, from about age 9 to present could and can write FAR BETTER lyrics on ANY decent subject; and grate and shout them out at least as well as they. That does not make me talented or an artist.

The fact that these low lifes become millionaires says a great deal about society and those who worship and write about them! ! !

Further, there were also women, Clooney, Starr, Page, etc., they didn't make public sex videos, or appear practically nude. They didn't go without underwear wearing mini dresses, purposely exposing their crotch to anyone in the area!

Lest you think me a religious nut, or prude. . . . I could write a few thousand pages of the MANY ladies (cream of the crop) with whom I shared REAL adventures, likely far exceeding those that the guys in bars and elsewhere fantacize and lie to each other about!

Yet neither they nor I could stoop to the gutter level of these so-called celebrities, and those who idolize them!!!!!

Comments

[John Hays]

You know, I can understand when someone isn't a fan of a particular type of music, even to the point of not even considering it music. However, I am saddened when people go so far as to say that anyone is less fit to "walk the Earth" than anyone else.
Art is completely subjective. An artist cannot truly gauge their own talent. It's up to the beholders, so to speak. Create your own art and then let people tell you what they think of it, and let these people do the same thing.
As far as reputations, Frank Sinatra supposedly had mob ties, and I'm sure that as much as I love most of the crooners from that era, they all had skeletons in their closets. I'm no proponent of 50 Cent's, but it's unfair to put one generation of musician on a pedestal and completely lambaste another generation's music.
Anyone interested in the origins of hip hop, what it grew out of, and why it IS art should go to Wikipedia and type in the Last Poets. Current hip hop artists are a far cry from this, but don't dismiss the entire genre, because Perry Como didn't have to deal with the issues the original hip hop artists had to deal with.

[KanyeJW]

Certianly there's slight hypocrisy (or more accurately naivete) when Sinatra let others do the violence for him and Crosby only beat his kids. (but never sang about, except in the rare B-Side to White Christmas "Damn How I Beat Those Kids This Mornin'")
But I would disagree that art is "completely subjective." Subjective yes, but completely no.
There has to be some boundaries, guidelines, principles, etc. or the whole exercise falls apart. Is a blank canvas a "painting"?
That's why I think that a large portion of recent hip-hop aren't really "songs" that follow songwriting principles but half-baked snippets of songs layered with sound effects.

I can point to "objective" reasons why David Hasselhoff's albums are somehow less worthy of praise than say, Bob Seger's (quality of musicianship, lyrics, voice, song structure, engineering and on and on). But I dare anyone point to objective reasons why Kevin Federline's rap album deserved scorn (which it got) and 50 Cent's deserve praise (which it does). I do not hear much a difference. Does the name on the CD case make a noise?

[Guy]

Nice to see you attracting the AARP demographic, Daly. It's just what the newspaper industry needs.