2013 Entertainment Industry Obituaries

[Thomps2525]

Your critique is duly noted, as well as justified. I'll try to avoid any further editorializing. No cause of death was given in the earliest reports of Monteith's death but now a drug overdose is suspected.

Hundreds of American movies and tv shows are dubbed into the Italian language for showing in Italy. When the Italians saw Tom Hanks and Eddie Murphy and Jim Carrey on screen, and when they saw Homer Simpson on television, they were hearing the voice of Tonino Accolla. He died on July 14 in Rome at age 64. Here are the details---I hope you can all understand Italian:

http://www.daw-blog.com/2013/07/14/e-morto-tonino-accolla-la-voce-di-homer-simpson-e-eddie-murphy/

 

[landtuna]

C'mon guys....it's not just the music...it's the movies today..TV today.....Magazines ..OMG! the intranet..it's 2013

quite classifing RAP as the root of all evil today...

I may have missed it but I cannot recall anyone accusing rap as the "root of all evil". It is, particularly among certain ethnic groups a major contributor.

compare the classifieds of a 1955 newspaper and then go to craigs list where you can buy anything drugs, sex, viagra, and worse..my god you guys talk like the world stood still except for RAP...

You are comparing apples to oranges. Newspapers are a regulated business operating by a series of laws and requirements, including having professional editors and publishers. Craigslist is an electronic kiosk with none of those.

Comparing a 1955 newspaper with one today finds almost the sole difference being some mildly erotic ads that would not have been published in the 50's but even that depends upon the market. Big city newspapers always tended to be much more liberal than others. Other than the obvious technical improvements such as color there are no significant differences.

it's a progression and If I have to dig and find examples of profanity, homophobia, misogmy, murder, suicide and every thing you all have cited in RAP I can find the same in todays rock and POP, ....

I do not listen to today's Rock and Pop so I won't argue this point other than to say I don't hear the very vocal and widespread criticism of Rap in the other genres.

and I am sorry but the majority of the kids love it.

Actually they don't. According to "Preferred music genres among U.S. teenage internet users as of August 2012" http://www.statista.com/statistics/245743/preferred-music-genres-among-teenagers-in-the-us/ and many other sources Rap is in 7th place with a bit over 7% of teens regularly listening. It is the bottom of what we would call the popular genres of music.

 

[michael hagerty]

and I am sorry but the majority of the kids love it.

Actually they don't. According to "Preferred music genres among U.S. teenage internet users as of August 2012" http://www.statista.com/statistics/245743/preferred-music-genres-among-teenagers-in-the-us/ and many other sources Rap is in 7th place with a bit over 7% of teens regularly listening. It is the bottom of what we would call the popular genres of music.

A minor point. The question asked in that poll was:

"If you could only listen to one genre of music for the rest of your life, what would that be?"

That's very different from "name your three favorite types of music".

A good meatloaf would probably make my three favorite types of food, but I wouldn't want it as my only meal the rest of my life, even if I only live another month.

On the other hand, if I answered something generic like "American", I'd probably get meatloaf once in a while.

When you consider the influence of Hip-Hop on Pop music in general, and the nature of the question, the results of the poll start to make some sense:

1. Pop: 18.4%
2. Country: 15.3%
3. Other: 13.6%
4. Rock: 13.1%
5. Christian: 9.0%
6. Folk/Singer-Songwriter: 7.7%
7. Hip-Hop/Rap: 7.3%
8. Blues/R&B: 4.6%
9. Classical: 3.9%
10.Easy Listening: 3.4%
11.Jazz: 2.4%
12.Electronic: 0.7%
13.Ska: 0.2%
13.Worldbeat: 0.2%
13.Latin American: 0.2%

Given that list, I'd love to know what constitutes "Other", which came in third.

And, checking the fine print, there were only 413 respondents and no data on how they came to participate in the online poll, so the numbers really are meaningless.

 

[TheFonz]

Yeah, the deaths of Brian Jones, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Gram Parsons, Keith Moon sure brought drug abuse in the 70s to a screeching halt.

That goes back to the earlier poster who said nobody made a big deal over THOSE deaths.

 

[TheFonz]

Yesterday I didn't really want to get into a debate about whether I'm "inhumane" but today, ladies and gentleman of the jury, I've prepared a short speech. There have always been drug-related deaths in the entertainment industry, just as there have always been drug-related deaths in the general population. But since the 1980s, when rap music first became popular---and Michael, don't you dare try to insist that Walter Brennan's Old Rivers was a rap song!---I have seen an inordinately high number of drug-related and gun-related deaths among rap artists. The rappers, for whatever reasons, adopt the "thug" lifestyle and it no longer surprises me when one of them is gunned down or dies of an overdose. Mister landtuna phrased it quite well: Most of them die of "stupidity."

I'd be curious to see if the drug-related deaths are in fact any more frequent in the music industry now than in previous decades. Gang-related homicide, certainly. It really wasn't a factor in the music business decades ago (and the Mob considered it bad business to whack the artists that made them money).

And, no, Steve, Walter Brennan's "Old Rivers" wasn't the first rap record.

That would be Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues".

Nope. Chuck Berry's "Maybelline".

 

[landtuna]

A minor point. The question asked in that poll was:

"If you could only listen to one genre of music for the rest of your life, what would that be?"

That's very different from "name your three favorite types of music".

Not necessarily. If any of us were asked your question the typical response would be to reply with our favorite (or most tolerable) genre. That said I don't think any of us would want just one genre the rest of our lives.

Given that list, I'd love to know what constitutes "Other", which came in third.

I'm guessing it totals up all the genre's what weren't listed such as techno, grunge, instrumental, German military marching music and the like.

And, checking the fine print, there were only 413 respondents and no data on how they came to participate in the online poll, so the numbers really are meaningless.

For virtually every poll taken no matter the technology, scope or math applied you can bet someone will raise this issue. We are not talking about anything world-important here so some slack could certainly be cut for importance. It does give a pretty good picture though of where Rap sits and it directly refutes the previous statement that all teens like it. They absolutely do not and I would warn anyone not to DJ a Rap record in the middle of a Country playlist. Someone will get shot! (and that is said only partially in humor)

There are many other online examples similar to this. None of them I saw show Rap anywhere near the top of preferred music. Just look at radio station genres across the nation and take a mean of the "urban" ones within demo. That will answer your question.

 

[landtuna]

Yeah, the deaths of Brian Jones, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Gram Parsons, Keith Moon sure brought drug abuse in the 70s to a screeching halt.

That goes back to the earlier poster who said nobody made a big deal over THOSE deaths.

I remember quite a big deal at the time of Janis' death and the continuing anguish by some people over Jim Morrison seems to be significant. Only Gram Parsons was on my personal favs list so as a group I wasn't affected.

 

[landtuna]

And, no, Steve, Walter Brennan's "Old Rivers" wasn't the first rap record.

That would be Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues".

Nope. Chuck Berry's "Maybelline".
[/quote]

Or the Playmate's "Beep Beep"

 

[michael hagerty]

A minor point. The question asked in that poll was:

"If you could only listen to one genre of music for the rest of your life, what would that be?"

That's very different from "name your three favorite types of music".

Not necessarily. If any of us were asked your question the typical response would be to reply with our favorite (or most tolerable) genre. That said I don't think any of us would want just one genre the rest of our lives.

Given that list, I'd love to know what constitutes "Other", which came in third.

I'm guessing it totals up all the genre's what weren't listed such as techno, grunge, instrumental, German military marching music and the like.

And, checking the fine print, there were only 413 respondents and no data on how they came to participate in the online poll, so the numbers really are meaningless.

For virtually every poll taken no matter the technology, scope or math applied you can bet someone will raise this issue. We are not talking about anything world-important here so some slack could certainly be cut for importance. It does give a pretty good picture though of where Rap sits and it directly refutes the previous statement that all teens like it. They absolutely do not and I would warn anyone not to DJ a Rap record in the middle of a Country playlist. Someone will get shot! (and that is said only partially in humor)

There are many other online examples similar to this. None of them I saw show Rap anywhere near the top of preferred music. Just look at radio station genres across the nation and take a mean of the "urban" ones within demo. That will answer your question.

I'd like to see them.

Here's the fundamental problem with the survey (apart from the question): It's a SurveyMonkey poll. We can't tell (without becoming members) who commissioned it and what if any measures insured respondents were all teens and protected against multiple votes by the same person. We don't know what region or regions of the country the responses came from or how those people found or were led to the survey.

Total responses....413 people.

I went to high school in a town of 3500 people, in a remote area almost 300 miles from the nearest major metropolitan area. There were 2 African-American people in town.

There were 800 people attending my high school.

So the size of the sample would be equivalent to a bit more than half my high school (assuming one vote per person).

It could also be the youth group of a large church in Dallas.

We simply don't know. But to put anything online asking teenagers' opinions and to only get 413 responses suggests to me that it was set up for and pitched to a specific group of teens, likely in a specific geographic area.

 

[Thomps2525]

An online poll ain't exactly scientific. Instead of a "random sample that is representative of the general population," the results reflect "those who decided to vote." By the way, I just conducted a poll in my house; of the two people who responded---myself included---100% say that I deserve a pay raise.

Regarding the first rap song, I had mentioned the Two Black Crows series of comedy recordings by Moran & Mack in 1927-28 but they don't fit the modern definition of rap music: "A genre of African-American music of the 1980s and 1990s in which rhyming lyrics are chanted to a musical accompaniment." That's from TheFreeDictionary.com. The Sugarhill Gang's Rapper's Delight (1979) is usually considered to be the first rap record...but what about King Tim III by Fatback? What about the early 1970s recordings of Gil Scott Heron and the Last Poets?

And could someone tell me what the original topic of this thread was? I've forgotten.

 

[michael hagerty]

An online poll ain't exactly scientific. Instead of a "random sample that is representative of the general population," the results reflect "those who decided to vote." By the way, I just conducted a poll in my house; of the two people who responded---myself included---100% say that I deserve a pay raise.

Regarding the first rap song, I had mentioned the Two Black Crows series of comedy recordings by Moran & Mack in 1927-28 but they don't fit the modern definition of rap music: "A genre of African-American music of the 1980s and 1990s in which rhyming lyrics are chanted to a musical accompaniment." That's from TheFreeDictionary.com. The Sugarhill Gang's Rapper's Delight (1979) is usually considered to be the first rap record...but what about King Tim III by Fatback? What about the early 1970s recordings of Gil Scott Heron and the Last Poets?

And could someone tell me what the original topic of this thread was? I've forgotten.

Celebrity deaths of 2013, respectfully reported regardless of their manner of death or niche within the entertainment industry.

 

[Thomps2525]

Michael, you may be surprised to learn that I don't post every obituary, especially those of people who are only indirectly connected to the entertainment industry. For instance, I didn't bother to mention the July 12 death of Amar Bose, acoustics pioneer and founder of the Bose Corporation.

http://gigaom.com/2013/07/12/amar-b...nd-founder-of-bose-corporation-is-dead-at-83/

Oops.

 

[michael hagerty]

C'mon guys....it's not just the music...it's the movies today..TV today.....Magazines ..OMG! the intranet..it's 2013

quite classifing RAP as the root of all evil today...

I may have missed it but I cannot recall anyone accusing rap as the "root of all evil". It is, particularly among certain ethnic groups a major contributor.

compare the classifieds of a 1955 newspaper and then go to craigs list where you can buy anything drugs, sex, viagra, and worse..my god you guys talk like the world stood still except for RAP...

You are comparing apples to oranges. Newspapers are a regulated business operating by a series of laws and requirements, including having professional editors and publishers. Craigslist is an electronic kiosk with none of those.

Comparing a 1955 newspaper with one today finds almost the sole difference being some mildly erotic ads that would not have been published in the 50's but even that depends upon the market. Big city newspapers always tended to be much more liberal than others. Other than the obvious technical improvements such as color there are no significant differences.

it's a progression and If I have to dig and find examples of profanity, homophobia, misogmy, murder, suicide and every thing you all have cited in RAP I can find the same in todays rock and POP, ....

I do not listen to today's Rock and Pop so I won't argue this point other than to say I don't hear the very vocal and widespread criticism of Rap in the other genres.

and I am sorry but the majority of the kids love it.

Actually they don't. According to "Preferred music genres among U.S. teenage internet users as of August 2012" http://www.statista.com/statistics/245743/preferred-music-genres-among-teenagers-in-the-us/ and many other sources Rap is in 7th place with a bit over 7% of teens regularly listening. It is the bottom of what we would call the popular genres of music.

Back to LandTuna's survey for a moment...I decided to risk having my inbox filled with spam and registered for a free account.

That unlocked the source of the survey: Stageoflife.com. It's a self-described "literacy initiative" that has a writing contest each month, for which there's a small prize (movie tickets, unidentified swag and "exposure in our news release about the winner"). In addition, anyone entering the contest each month has to take a survey. The "musical preferences of teens" survey was what you had to do if you wanted to enter the August, 2012 Teen Writing Contest (they have 10 monthly contests sorted by life stages, Teen, Getting Married, Starting A Family, Retirement, etc.).

Stageoflife.com has been around for 5 years. In its annual report (published on the founder's blog), they say they got about 350,000 page views last year. So it's small.

And of that group of people, 413 teens wanted to write an essay and had to answer questions first.

Well, maybe 413 people. You can enter twice. And it looks like you take the survey each time.

Again, the big problem (past the unscientific, tiny sample from a small universe) is the question:

"If you could only listen to one genre of music for the rest of your life, what would it be?"

The number one answer was "Pop" at 18.4%. That's 76 votes. Hip-Hop/Rap appears to be way down the list at 7.9%...but that translates to 30 votes. Pretty healthy. Almost half as many of these teens would choose rap or hip-hop as the only music to listen to the rest of their life as chose pop (which, the past 23 years or so, includes a considerable hip-hop influence).

When you look at the responses to the question "What's the last song you listened to?", there's a fair amount of hip-hop there.

Ultimately, too small a group to represent the tastes of young America. Since Billboard has Soundscan and accurately measures music purchases (both physical and download), sales figures and CHR/Rhythmic CHR radio ratings in the Top 50 markets would give a much better picture of teenagers' appreciation of Hip-Hop.

It's more than 7.9%.

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

Hot Rod Lincoln Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, but, again, we digress. Quick LAR, more obits! HURRY!!!

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

...quite classifing RAP as the root of all evil today...

I agree; rap is not the "root" of all evil, but rather it's most revolting voice.

 

[landtuna]

It's more than 7.9%.

It may or may not be but that isn't the point.

...and I am sorry but the majority of the kids love it.

That is the statement I was refuting. It is clear, no matter how you measure it that the "majority" of kids do not listen to rap.

 

[michael hagerty]

It's more than 7.9%.

It may or may not be but that isn't the point.

...and I am sorry but the majority of the kids love it.

That is the statement I was refuting. It is clear, no matter how you measure it that the "majority" of kids do not listen to rap.

Well, now I think we need definitions. Do you include Hip-Hop with Rap?

 

[landtuna]

Well, now I think we need definitions. Do you include Hip-Hop with Rap?

No.

 

[michael hagerty]

Well, now I think we need definitions. Do you include Hip-Hop with Rap?

No.

Okay, because the survey you linked to lumped them together. How would you define rap, what sets it apart from hip-hop?

 

[landtuna]

Well, now I think we need definitions. Do you include Hip-Hop with Rap?

No.

Okay, because the survey you linked to lumped them together. How would you define rap, what sets it apart from hip-hop?

I think most people link Hip-Hop and Rap together but I see two different, if closely related, genres. Hip-Hop, IMHO, has more of a musical base than does Rap (although I would not call HH "real" music either - it's more like dance noise). Rap is spoken word to a rhythm but there is no significant musical element. Rap content is most often confrontational, violent, misogynist, vulgar and crude although it doesn't have to be.