Musical Musings

This week has been uneventiful thus far.  Well, except for this:  Josh's boss was interviewed by Katie Couric (if you're interested, visit here) after President Obama's Wednesday State of the Union address.  That is big, if you ask me!  She was interviewed after last week's Presidential townhall meeting in Elyria, Ohio where the economy and job situation were discussed. 

My drive to work is not a very long one--usually about twenty to twenty-five minutes when traffic is at its most normal.  I do hear quite a few of the same radio songs played over and over again, no doubt because they are the most popular ones from the Billboard charts.  This brings me to a couple of questions I have been asking myself upon hearing most of these songs.  Now I'd like to ask you these questions.  Not because I expect an answer, per se, but because it will be therapeutic for me to ask.  These are pretty rhetorical, but if anyone has insight, maybe it will make me more musically appreciative.

Question Number One:  Why do you think rap//hiphop (whateveryoucallthegenre) artists (I use the term loosely in most cases) insert their name into their songs (sometimes multiple times)?  If a song is popular, won't we know who sang/rapped the 3-4 minute wonderhit?  Prime example is a song that I like by Jason Derulo.  Jason's first few words of his song are--you guessed it--his name.  The last few words are plugging "Deluca Heights."  I am not motivated enough to research the meaning behind this, but I'm venturing to guess that it is the neighborhood where he was raised.  That's a nicer tribute than the one to himself in the beginning.  Now I do like the song, don't get me wrong.  But sheesh. 

Question Number Two:  Why does Rihanna always incorporate the sounds "eh" and/or "yeah" and/or "eaaaaah" and/or "ohyeeeeaaah" into her lyrics (which end up making up about 98% of the song)?  That kind of noise isn't as musical to me as, say, any other musician's songs (besides chants--that is normal for chants I suppose).  But those chants aren't making it to the Billboard Top 40 on a regular basis, now are they?  Most profound in her recent hit are the lyrics "Wheredem blonde girls at, wheredem blonde girls at, where dey at-wheredeyat-wheredeyat?" followed by more chant noises.  Just what is "Rihanna rain" anyway??

I'd planned to examine some older music that I consider more, for the lack of a better term, musical, to see if these famous artists like to plug their name, or the name of their arch nemesis in real life, into their lyrics.  I will search high and low for lyrics that exclaim the glory in shooting people who get in the way of these artists' careers, while I'm at it. 

I have some initial results here, in case you're interested.  I began my research with Johnny Cash.  Nowhere that I can find does Johnny Cash (almost as famous in his time as Rihanna or Snoop Dogg) plug himself into his songs.  He doesn't insert any lyrics on divorcing his first wife for June Carter Cash or refer to women as (insert the word for female canines here) in his music.  Strange. 

I think that lyrics today are more autobiographical for some musicians than actually telling a story about someone or something else--or someone or something imaginary.  If I were to become a female rapper or hiphop singer, I'd be much too boring.  No, I don't hate men, I can't make chanting-noises proficiently enough, and I do not consider myself extra-extra-independent to where I don't want men in my life.  I also don't like to party as much as say, Ke$ha apparently does (amazingly enough, she sings last week's top downloaded song Tik Tok without plugging anyone's name but P Diddy's).  Possibly because no one would know who Ke$ha was without P Diddy's help?  Who knows.

Ok, now that that's off my chest, I am going to try hard to think about more important things.