Now "Kid Rock" can fall into the obscurity Nugent has occupied for how long now.

So, is Nugent playing the Monroe County fair in rural Mississippi this week?

My change of heart has nothing to do with his politics, just his music.

Bruce has always been an outspoken liberal.
His fans, especially here in NJ ,are both conservative and liberal.
We know we'll get a political PSA (Public Service Announcement) at most of his shows.

In 2004 he joined with with Moveon.org for the Vote for Change Tour to
support John Kerry.

When NJ started to look competitive, he added a show in NJ.

A lot of people at that show had Re-elect George Bush Tee shirts on.

Most of the classic singer/songwriters just are not as good at it as they get older. Roger Waters once said that the best songwriters all have/had an axe to grind. Besides himself, he named Neil Young, Bob Dylan, and John Lennon as examples.

Maybe it's harder to stay pi55ed off at an older age with millions of bucks in the bank... unless it's faux outrage like that comical "kid rock" thing. If you can call a 50-something year old a "kid." (maybe mentally he is)

That role he played in "Joe Dirt" was soooooooooo him.

As far as mainstream rock by old guys, that last AC/DC album was surprisingly not bad. It sounded just like stuff off "Flick of the Switch" and that was 1983.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54LEywabkl4&list=OLAK5uy_...

Guess it depends on how you define "relevant".

I've been going to Springsteen shows, since he played O.U.'s Folk Fest.

Been to well over 80 shows,(stopped counting at 80) all over the states.

In this area, it used to be next to impossible to get tickets to shows, except from scalpers, or if you were lucky enough to get "drops".
Still remember waiting on line for hours,outside Tower Records.
Or online at Izod Arena or Giants Stadium the day of a show waiting for drops.

On his 2016 tour,none of his 3 Metlife shows sold out in advance,even though they sold a lot less seats.
My wife and I got good seats,at the box office,the day of the shows.

He used to sell out 10 nights at Giants stadium,the day the shows went on sale.

He hasn't done any touring for his recent albums.
All he did was a "movie for Western Stars in 2019.

This indicates to me,that he's not as relevant or at least as popular, as he was.

Springsteen on Broadway was O.K.,but very expensive.
People liked it, in part,because of the small venue.

Seeing him in concert with the E Street and Seeger Sessions Bands at the Asbury Park Convention Center was much more "intimate" and fun.

As far as a 20202 Stadium Tour, I'm not optimistic.
A number of people,including my wife and I, noticed how much trouble Bruce had walking across the stage during S.O.B.

Saw him do a couple of songs with Joe Gurshkey a couple of years ago.

The video was up on you tube.
He had on really heavy duty knee braces.

Just don't see him doing a rocking 3 hour show anymore.

No Nukes was a Concert I tried,but couldn't get seats.

I actually got the CD's and DVD's the day they came out.

Hoping I get the vinyl records fro Christmas.

Interesting thread. Relevance is a relative term. Relevance to whom? Saw Springteen at Polaris when he did the Seeger Sessions tour and cracked up when some folks walked out. Did they read the advertisements on what the show was about? Saw CSN&Y at the same venue when Neil released Living with War and saw lots of pisssed off future Trumpeters walk out cussing down the aisle. What did you expect folks?

How many of us over 50 can still dunk or go to the hoop with authority? The average age of the classic bands is 75 yet lots and lots of folks still listen to them and know many if not most of the words. Will the 20 to 40 year old cohort do the same in 50 years with the stuff coming out today? It ain't happening.

Manufactured music with profane lyrics isn't what one of us wants our daughters and granddaghters to listen too. Don't Step on the Grass Sam and The Pusher are lame compared to this stuff today

Alan, I was at that Seeger Session concert with my brother.

My daughter, 22 and Ohio University class of 2021 grad, still gives me a hard time about attending that show because it was the only time I missed a game in her soccer/softball playing career.

What you've found is correlation that does not necessarily create causation. The reality is that you are speaking about gang violence. Many of these cases you speak of were carried out by members of gangs, sometimes on other gang members. It may or may not have been rap music-related. Many of these artists (and yes, I do think it's a talent...Tupac was quite a poet) were involved in gang life before they were famous. Watch the Biggie special on Netflix. It talks about his days on the streets selling drugs before he became famous. That's an entirely different upbringing than Dylan or Springsteen.

What isn't evident is that these murders were necessarily the cause of any of their music. It is a group of individuals who come from a rougher upbringing and they aren't always able to outrun their past. Tupac was in jail before he had a successful career. 50 Cent was shot before ever starting on the scene. Some of them use rap to get out of their tough neighborhoods. However, it's not necessarily their music, but rather other things, that leads to their demise.

And as for the many posts regarding Suge Knight, he wasn't ever a rapper. He used drug money to found a rap label, but he himself was not on records. Wouldn't that be like connecting the Beatles to Phil Spector?

As for the likely lifespan of some of this music, I can tell you this. My son is into Tupac at 13. I was also into Tupac at 13 and still enjoy listening to it when I'm skiing, working out, or running. Similarly with Biggie or many other rappers from the 90's. It's far more impressive than the heavy metal music from my childhood in my eyes. Today's doesn't interest me at all, but that's less for the lyrics and more for the fact that it sounds so synthesized. However, if I hear a new song by Nas (whom I saw at OHIO in front of a sold out crowd in 2002), I'm always in.

This thread is a golden example of "old man shakes fist at cloud"

You cherry-picked the example of Iron Maiden and their lyrics, but there were PLENTY of other metal bands around the same time with violent and grotesque lyrics. Just look up a few lyrics from Cannibal Corpse, Slayer, and Exodus and tell me how "poetic" they are... And there are plenty of metal acts today that play the same angsty/violent/misogynistic schtick, but you don't hear people saying that these lyrics are causing people to commit mass murder on the same scale that rap allegedly does.

Its literally the same weak argument that "Dungeons and Dragons is turning children into devil worshipers" was prevalent in the 80s and 90s. its ridiculous and is just an easy way for people to blame problems to a single point, rather than acknowledging that there are a multitude of factors that are really at fault.

If you dont like rap or its various sub-genres... "yeah... well you know that's just like, your opinion man."

I've never heard of "Cannibal Corpse" and have never met anybody who was a fan of him/them. If they created an entire epidemic of "thug life" drugs/gangs/violence, never heard about it. (because it didn't happen)

Johnny Cash sang "I shot a man in Reno" in 1957. I'm pretty sure that didn't create an entire epidemic of "thug life" drugs/gangs/violence. Sun Records never had a gang war vs RCA Records. No amount of "but-but-but...what about" deflections can excuse hardcore gangsta rap garbage. It's vile and degenerate BS.

So was the people who said the emperor was naked. His package was hanging out for the world to see, but they insisted his new clothes were awesome. Sort of like the people who are gangsta rap apologists. Just like people who can't quit smoking cigs, so they insist it's not toxic and carcinogenic. Just like people who won't go get vaccinated even after their previously healthy 23 year old nephew ends up in the ICU on a respirator from covid.

Denial. It's not a river in Egypt.

This was 2006.

quote:
A recent study by the Prevention Research Center of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in Berkeley, Calif., suggests young people who listen to rap and hip-hop are more likely to abuse alcohol and commit violent acts. Ed Gordon discusses the issue with Denise Herd, an associate professor at the University of California Berkeley School of Public Health, and David Jernigan, executive director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown University.

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=539...

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Drugs, gangs, violence... rap is the soundtrack to thuggish destructive antisocial behavior and glamorizing criminality. And that is NOT opinion. It is undeniable and factual.

And the crime rates in places associated with gangsta rap has gone off the charts.

Memphis crime rates are 237% higher than the national average; Violent crimes in Memphis are 506% higher than the national average.

Oakland crime rates are 175% higher than the national average · Violent crimes in Oakland are 233% higher than the national average.

With a crime rate of 54 per one thousand residents, Atlanta has one of the highest crime rates in America - the chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime in Atlanta is one in 18.

And in the emerging rap stronghold of Baton Rouge, LA... it is the 7th least safe city in America.

-----------------------------------------------------

And to call the University of California Berkeley School of Public Health and the executive director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown University... scattered anecdotes...

Again, "denial" is not just a river in Egypt.

The findings seem to be that the society is influencing the music, NOT the other way around.