Whatever Happened to the Blues?

"Has hip hop and rap taken over? "Whatever happened to the Blues?
To start things off, this is my personal opinion from being a musician. I don't claim to be a great player, but an experienced one. (You can judge for yourself by clicking here

or simply look under triond's list of content by me (keyboardologist).

It seems to me that rap and hip hop have made their way into a lot of formerly "traditional" styles of music, such as rock, R&B, funk, and EVEN COUNTRY! Now, I know that music changes over the years, for instance: Pearl Jam or Eve 6 probably wouldn't go over too well in James Brown's time. (I Feel Good knowing that). (Get it?). I think it's unfortunately becoming a reality that musicians are forgetting the early stuff. Just because it's "old school," doesn't make it bad.

It's like Mike Tyson. He may not be the number one boxer today, but I would be pretty sure the average guy wouldn't last long in the ring with him. The same goes for music. Take a piano player like Art Tatum. He was so good, he was often accused of sounding like there were two sets of hands playing. Even some of today's best players can't play Art Tatum's stuff. In fact, a lot of really good players today, haven't even heard of him.(If you really like jazz piano he's the man).

I'm shocked at how many people (especially kids), don't know-and don't care about where the music they listen to came from. For example, what we would call "classical" music Bach and Mozart would have most likely considered "hip" in their day. ( Those two would have been the "hippest"). Then you have rag time and jazz, which were borrowed from classical; blues and swing borowed from jazz; country, rock, funk, and disco borrowed from blues. How did rap get in there? I would think rap is more like
poetry or a writing style than music.

Whatever happened to straight forward blues? Or straight forward rock and roll; or sraight forward country. (And so on).
Then there is the lifestyle associated with the music. Just because a person listens to classical, doesn't mean they have to be an "Ivy League snob." If a person listens to hip hop and rap, does that mean they have to become a violent, drive- by shooting thug? I don't think so. How about country? Does that mean you are automatically a redneck; or you have to be a drunk; or drive a beat up truck. Does that mean that you live on a farm?(I know people who wouldn' know what a tractor even looks like). If you are a rock listener, does that make you a drug addict just because you like Pink Floydd?
Whatever happened to the blues? Three chords, a good beat, and raw instruments like piano, guitar, organ, and maybe a little clav thrown in?

Let' appreciate the art of the many forms of music, and not the lifestyle attached to it. I hope I struck a note here.

Writing for Triond.com

Online writing and blogging sure has caught on, but why not make some spare change doing it. I wrote this ( and a few more) for a site called triond.com. I write under the pen name "keyboardologist." You can submit pretty much any text, audio, video, and photos as long as they are yours. We all have an inner voice that wants to be heard, and that of course, is one thing that separates us (most people) from animals. The desire to achieve. To accomplish something.
While you probably won’t make a living writing for Triond, unless of course you either write 10 good articles a day, or at least one hot article on something like “how you cured cancer,” Triond is by far the easiest place to publish your content with the least amount of hassle.
I have checked out helium.com (they advertise on Triond), and associatedcontent.com, and Triond seems to be the best in my opinion.
Helium takes forever, while associated content has a bunch of rules on how you space things, using all caps, spelling, etc.
Also, Triond lets you see how many views you have, they publish quickly, and the only time they decline your content is if you have published your stuff somewhere else. So in the advice of Melanie Schwear (a writer for Triond) put your stuff on Triond first, then place it other places.
Another nice thing about Triond is that they don’t monkey with your title, while helium will change your title if they feel like it. You also have no idea how many views you have, and they seem to pay less than Triond.
In a nutshell, if you want to publish your stuff for enjoyment and not the money, Triond seems to have the “competition” beat. AND you get some sort of feedback.
I’m off of my soapbox now.