WELL. If that wasn’t the most depressing version of the song ‘Fight For Your Right (to Party)’ ever, then I don’t know what could be. But I guess it does speak volumes in talent for Coldplay’s Chris Martin.
The song makes me feel sad, and feel old, and feeling sad and old together aren’t necessarily the nicest things to feel in conjunction with one another. When Martin says, “Aw, Mom, you’re just jealous—it’s the Beastie Boys,” I actually felt a pang in my chest, guys. A pang. And then I felt a few more when I read a really moving tribute on the Huffington Post earlier in the weekend. Here’s an excerpt:
… Whitney Houston died a few months back, the network [MTV] went silent, choosing to show its rebroadcast of the ever-important Teen Mom 2 series in its entirety. I suppose cutting into programming to cover the biggest death in music since the King of Pop was too much for the one-time giant. An hour or so ago, Twitter blew up with news that Adam Yauch, one-third of pioneering rappers the Beastie Boys, had passed away. I found myself looking for someone like Loder to not just tell me the news, but to cover it like the music news story it is. Instead, I had to rely on TMZ to confirm the story, and for Rolling Stone to confirm the news.
When you have to rely on TMZ for news — that really says something. There has been a huge void in music since the days of Loder and Tabitha Soren, and we need it back. Reality TV killed the music video star. It’s time for MTV to return to its roots. The music has been gone long enough. So has the credibility… the revolution? It’s dead. I want my MTV back. I want Gilbert Gottfried cutting promos. I want to watch music videos of my favorite artists and new ones I never heard of. I want to mourn the death of an icon by watching tributes on a so-called music station. Yauch and the Beasties were pioneers in the hip hop and pop culture world. This news hurts. I have been a long-time fan of the triple trouble boys ever since I purchased “License to Ill” and saw their “Fight For Your Right” video for the first 2,000 times. I’ve always admired the group’s music, advocacy (free Tibet), and other passion projects. Over the years, I’ve seen them in concert about eight times — the last of which was at Madison Square Garden with one of my best buds and longtime Beastie devotee Rich Tarantino in 2004.
Reality TV killed the music video star. It’s time for MTV to return to its roots. Cut the crap, cut into your programming now, and discuss Yauch’s legacy (SiriusXM’s Alt-Nation is as we speak), and how damn influential the Beastie Boys were and are. Return to a time long before Snooki and deadbeat teen moms infested the station like roaches to a city studio and… to MCA, thank you, and rest in peace.
Oh man, so true. And, without opening an entirely different can of worms on a post that just doesn’t require it, even if MTV did relaunch its actual Music Television thing that garnered them so much fame in the early days, it wouldn’t be the same. There’s no more Beastie Boys out there, there’s no more Rage Against the Machine out there, and there’s no more Nirvana out there. These things have passed, and now we have artists of the likes of Justin Bieber, Demi Lovato, and Rihanna. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, nor is it saying that those particular artists are inferior—it’s just different, and it wouldn’t be the same even if we tried to make it the way it used to be.
Oh, those “artists” are certainly inferior.
No no no. Say what you mean, and mean what you say.
There’s no more Beastie Boys out there, there’s no more Rage Against the Machine out there, and there’s no more Nirvana out there. – These things are unfortunatley very true. What do you expect from an entitled generation?
These things have passed, and now we have artists of the likes of Justin Bieber, Demi Lovato, and Rihanna. – yeah, and they suck ass. They are auto-tuned, half talents that can’t sing anything without dripping of insincerity.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, nor is it saying that those particular artists are inferior— Yes it is & yes they are.
it’s just different, and it wouldn’t be the same even if we tried to make it the way it used to be. – Sadly, true.
Yes
They are not, NOT!!! artists. They are produced commercial acts designed to sell product. Equating them with a genuine artist like Adam Yauch is like comparing the Mona Lisa with a Twizzlers wrapper. I am not saying that the Twizzlers wrapper isn’t kind of cool, but it isn’t art. Mona Lisa was not “produced” to sell whitestrips. Nuff said.
Has he always been such a mouth breather?