Hip hop music’s popularity, like any of the other genres before it, is beginning to plummet. The internet ushered in an age of instant music downloads that made music fans more critical, preferring quality over quantity. Hip hop artists can no longer rely on being able to make the same style of song over and over, just to boost sales. Today’s fans expect creativity from them to capture their attention and keep them wanting more.
Back in the days, a proper beat is all you need to have a hit. Beats were the core of hip hop music for years, but not any longer. In hip hop music today, you need something different to draw the fans in, without completely moving away from the traditional hip hop genre. today your lyrics need to be unlike anyone else’s.
Likely, history is to be repeated. All over the hip hop industry today are artists who believe mixing beats to lyrics written by others is all they need. Remixes had become popular in the late 70s into the early 80s, when die hard disco fanatics just couldn’t let go of a dying art and used snatches of older recordings mixed with disco beats to make dance club hits. Some artists resorted to this old trick after being faced with the need to improve record sales and bring fans back.
It did work, for a little while. But fans are fickle, and those artists who rode on another’s coat tails soon found that their sales were falling off once more. Then artists like Ludicris and TI came along, they and others like them found writing their own words a better way than copying. A new period of hip hop music was given birth: themed albums. Following the footsteps of early 80s’ groups, new artists reexplore the art of making albums revolving around a central theme and pursued writing original lyrics. It worked like a charm.
Artists of today filled hip hop music with high quality songs that they write and compose on their own. With themes that range from finding love to living a charmed life, hip hop artists are reaching greater heights in popularity that is not easy to achieve in a digital world. Digital downloads command today’s music industry, and it is through releasing top quality exclusive tracks that albums sell and the rivals scramble. The next chapter of hip hop music is forged, and those who cannot cope up with the continuous demand for creative work fall behind, leaving standing the true poets of present hip hop.