And speaking of music, can someone tell me if this is any indication of the future of music?

Well, it is not that bad, actually, compared to the other shit that is out there. (talking about the video, the music itself is mediocre.)
I also like this one here a lot.

There’s nothing new about this. Aphex Twin anyone? But more to the point, you’re talking about the video, not the music.

I think the only thing I could say about the future of music is that it will have greater diversity. That’s just a consequence of the availability of content via the internet. People encounter a wider ranger of things and develop tastes for more things because of it. That will include stuff you will find distasteful or violently distasteful. What’s different is now you are more likely to be made aware of its existence where as before it was far more likely to remain safely tucked away in the underground scene.

I don’t know the answer to your question about the future, @Trillian, but as one of us older people, I can’t say that I’m freaked out. I’m not especially impressed in any particular way.

It’s emphatically not to my taste, and once was enough, but my belief is that it speaks to young folks in a way that we don’t get, just as the music of our time spoke to us. The idea that it may gross out the elders is just a side benefit.

@fundevogel I don’t even know if I would go so far as to say that I find it distasteful. I expect younger people to come up with things different from what I grew up with. I actually watched an interview with them, and it had some clips of their other stuff. Again, I can see the talent there, as I already stated. And the ‘tude, which is to be expacted.
But yeah, the rats, the cockroaches and the general filth are a bit off putting.
I’ll still probably take a gander at the new stuff just to keep myself informed. I’ve seen that Come to Daddy thing before. Along with that guy who put his face into the sound somehow. Very Orwellian.
@Jeruba hehehehe. I’ll bet it is. Ahhh, youth.

@ragingloli That is awesome. I love the bit when the body bag sits up.

@Trillian Maybe this is one of those times where you’d be better off just listening and avoiding the video if it spoils it for you. Or don’t listen. There’s no rule that you have to keep up with new music. I think you should listen to what you like. You can search out new stuff that interests you, but there’s no need to dig into stuff that you know isn’t your cup of tea.

I think whenever a new medium becomes available some people push the envelope. It’s pretty disturbing but I’d rather encourage diversity to see what comes out of it, rather than stifle creativity. I think good music will always have a place. The cream always rises to the top.

@fundevogel I feel like you’re missing my point and the spirit in which I asked the question. I just like to have things explained to me that I may be missing. Like the other night when I asked about the symbolism in the Japanese dance. Thank you for the advice, be sure that I will give it all due consideration.
This is in the social section, so you can choose to comment and not actually answer my question.
If you wish to take it like I’m being critical, even after my second post, that is also your choice.
My interests are broad and fairly eclectic. I’ve never heard any groups from South Africa before, and while I’m sure they’re not representative, I do find them interesting. A bit disturbing, and…., well I’d like to discuss it with someone.
Someone who isn’t going to dismiss my questions and tell me to watch something else.
Cheers!

Wow, I just watched about ten seconds of the video, and I honestly hated it. I tend to like classical/instrumental music, like this or this. You can call me out of style, but the fact that I am currently learning to play a Bach duet doesn’t help.

I have a feeling that the piece of music that you found is more of a niche product. I’m going to say that a large majority would not listen to that music, but there will always be a sector of the population (as I’m sure there was when you were growing up) that will listen to it.

I might venture to say that this genre of music (the creepy genre) has been around and will continue to be around for a very long time. But will it ever become mainstream, I doubt it.

What do you think MY parents said when the Beatles first showed up on the Ed Sullivan show?

Oh – they are so dirty and have such long hair – they all need haircuts!!

There music doesn’t have any tone, all they are doing is shouting!

Same dynamic, but you have gotten older.

@Trillian “I feel like you’re missing my point and the spirit in which I asked the question. I just like to have things explained to me that I may be missing. Like the other night when I asked about the symbolism in the Japanese dance. ”

Clearly that’s why you said, “Because if this is it, kill me. Please.”

“Thank you for the advice, be sure that I will give it all due consideration. This is in the social section, so you can choose to comment and not actually answer my question.”

I answered your question in my first post. A brief summary of what I expected of the future of music and how this particular music related to it. It would have been nonsensical to repeat myself in my answer to you rather than respond to what you had written to me.

“If you wish to take it like I’m being critical, even after my second post, that is also your choice.

“Someone who isn’t going to dismiss my questions and tell me to watch something else.
Cheers!”

I thought your question was incredibly critical what with being littered with things like:

“I swallowed my horror”

“Here it is for those of you brave, foolhardy, insane or adventurous enough to watch”

“Because if this is it, kill me. Please.”

“What parent would allow their child, some of whom can’t be more than eight or nine, to present themselves like this?”

Your second post wasn’t so judgy. But I don’t see how commenting that this may not be something you will ever enjoy and recommending you stick with things that do bring you pleasure was dismissive. All I meant was you shouldn’t masochistically watch or listen to things you know you aren’t going to like. Unless you’re a masochist of course, in which case, go forth.

It just seems like you want someone to justify aesthetics that you don’t understand and I don’t think anyone should have to justify their aesthetic preferences. No matter what aesthetics we’re talking about they are going to be subjective and as such the appeal for them can and will vary from person to person.

I don’t take issue with the video, which seems to be all we’re talking about despite the fact that this was a question about music, but I can’t explain it to you. I don’t have strong feelings about it either way. And even if it was my thing I could only explain one person’s take on it, I couldn’t give you a definitive explanation of the the merit and purpose “freakiness and filth” in the digital age.

Did anyone hear that Afro American musicians are now treading their music to the country side?

Blues and country music…...it will never work.

No, I don’t think they are any particular indication of a trend. Your video shows some pretty standard hip hop sounding music. The only thing vaguely shocking is the use of images of poverty and squalor. I think those are deliberately provocative because one of the roles of the music of young people is to try to be provocative. It carves out new space for people and it often expresses a rejection of the prevailing set of values.

You’ve got your rats and roaches and anorexia (but no way was she 14—she was well into her 20s, I’d say). You’ve got the graffiti and the semi-nudity. All images selected to shock and you are doing exactly what they want.

@ragingloli‘s video was just plain silly. It had nothing of the shock value of the OP’s video. It was a zombiethon, and lord knows that zombies are real tired now. They are merely a joke, these days.

I think both videos share a desire to be shocking. One is more effective than the other. How shocked you are depends on who you are, I think. Neither were realistic enough to shock me. To me, both were relatively unsophisticated and obvious and thus were not really interesting enough to make me ever want to see them again.

@wundayatta
Well, the zombie video had to be censored on german MTV.

@fundevogel wow. You really thought this through.
Ok, well, I didn’t ask the question to start an argument. I said filth because it all looks dirty and dingy. And there ARE penis noses, which is weird. And a bug in the eggs, and rats crawling over her. And little kids covered in dirt.
But as I said, you seem to be missing the spirit in which I intended the question. I don’t ask for “justification” just an explanation. Like with the dancing the other night.
If you feel like my own brand of humor is too literal, then you won’t ever laugh at my questions. Because, really? I said claw my eyes out and horror. Did you think I meant it literally? If you did, then my wit is wasted on you, and you’ll feel the need to be exactly how you were and you and I will never have an enjoyable, bantering conversation. That’s a shame.
I can say that in your first post you gave me the choice of distasteful or violently distasteful. Neither of which really describe how I felt. But I don’t want to drag this out.
I still feel like you misinterpreted the purpose of my question.
I wanted to discuss the video and what, if anything people knew about this group. I just threw out the key elements that made the biggest impression on me.
You win, ok?

@wundayatta I noticed the eyes, did you? There was a group in the 80’s, (I want to say Dead or Alive) where the lead singer had those black lenses in. Very effective.
Yes, I recognized the rejection of values. In the interview he said something like “Bad Afrikkaners and good Afrikkaners, you decide which is which.” something like that. The interviewer was speaking in another language, but the young man was answering in English. He seemed fairly articulate and intelligent. The young lady reminded me a lot of Alannah Curie from the Thompson Twins, if you remember her. In fact, now that I think of it, the dynamics between the two of them and between the man and the interviewer were similar to the twins twenty years ago. He seemed to take the lead. And he ended the interview very decisively though politely when the interviewer said something… I wish I knew what.
I just… remember when we were kids, we had Alice Cooper with his snakes and abstract evil, “Raaaahhhhhh, blood, blood!” Ozzy gnawed flying mammals, Nazareth used the word “bitch” in a song and parents were properly horrified. All was right with the world.
Then we did a weird sidestep and the 80’s gave us glam and Rick Astley. Sure, it was all about how much coke you could suck up your nose and still function, but the colors were so pretty and shiny that you couldn’t think of any of it as really threatening. Silly, yes, but even Dead or Alive was more showy than really disturbing, black lenses and all.
Next thing I knew, kids were nodding their heads and they had an actual agenda of who they thought should be killed. And I thought “Well, the next generation is going to have to really work for it to come up with something to beat that. Cheers Dr Dre!
I guess they did it. Rats? Bugs? Dirt? Maybe my 12 year old isn’t into it. I’m almost afraid to ask.

@Trillian I fink (pardon me…) think that video is cool, though I would never listen to it to relax. It reminds me of some of the harsher punk music that came out right after Disco. Think Generation X or Black Flag.

My 12 year old caught me watching @ragingloli‘s video and demanded an explanation. I said I was trying to stay current on cultural trends. He wasn’t having any of it. I wonder what he would have said if he’d seen me watching your video? He is a big fan of Usher’s and likes top 40 music. I don’t really enjoy top 40. But that’s nothing new. Even as a kid I was out of it, culturally speaking. I was way late to the Beatles, even.

As you say, Gah!

As a musician, I am sympathetic to other musicians, but the stuff I’m into is all instrumental. I never have been able to understand words in music, except for singers who have the most elegant diction. Even then, the music has to be way understated, or it grabs my attention and there’s nothing left for words. I’m not a big music video fan, either. I don’t go to concerts much, either. Mostly, if there’s going to be music, it’s going to be music I’m making (with my fellow musicians). I guess I’m saying that I see almost all contemporary and non-contemporary music as a kind of anthropologist. It’s just not natural to me. FWIW.

I guess that I get some of it at a metaphorical level. The freakiness, the zombie stuff, a lot of that is a metaphor for the way people see themselves (and the world around them) with some people (freaks) as “normal” and those of us who think we’re “normal” as zombies just going through our motions of what seems like life to us.

But I don’t buy into any of that, either.

I’m surprised how much modern music I do like. I was pretty taken with Rammstein’s Ich Will, for example. I like Cee Lo Green’s F*ck You. I still enjoy Green Day’s Minority. And I like nearly everything by The Shins. I’ve even started to enjoy rap as performed by Karmin. (Not that I would only enjoy rap as done by cute white kids from Nebraska, but still… I do like their take on others’ work, and some of their original stuff, too.)

I get a lot of music from my daughter’s Facebook page, then when I find something I like I look them up on music-map and find even more.

But I agree with you that there’s something too far off about Fink You Freeky. I like sour cream, but I don’t like sour milk, if that makes any sense.

btw, here are the translated lyrics to the zombie video.

@fundevogel Holy fecal matter Batman, what the hell did you post, a David Lynch movie? That was awesome. also, Rubber Johnny anyone?

@Trillian Ha, that was awesome, I like it. The video is really artsy, which I always appreciate. (the whole sombre slight goth/horror feel makes me biased) I certainly get your concerns and disgust on the lack of morality this shows, but seriously, how is this any worse than all the mainstream hip hop crap they show on TV all the time, and that everyone always sees? It’s no different. It’s as degrading, offending, sexist and blablabla…at least this video tries with the originality. I love it, and I think the music is pretty catchy, too. Thanks for the cool discovery. :)

I guess it’s kind of an indication, since the video and lyrics borrow from the same trite pool that so much popular stuff does, and which is largely defined on the musical spectrum as a known form of music. But there’s too many music genres out there, all different ones, that thrive and go on strong, to say that this particular style indicates where all music is heading off to. I don’t know how mainstream or not this is, probably not much, but it doesn’t have a chance in hell to lead the future of music, when considering how that works out currently. They’d have to add color or something.

The bottom line is they just wanted to get your attention and they did.

Mr. Clean needs to give them all a bath and then set them free in the jungle they came from.

Is this Funky Rap???

Hated it.

@john65pennington You are just old. And mister clean is a white skinhead neonazi.

So’s that guy from the Glad garbage bag commercials, even if he has hair. They’re related I tell thee.

@Symbeline, @filmfann, @CWOTUS , etc…
Thank you. I guess what weirded me out most was the little kids. And the penis nose thing. ....what? And… the goofy faces she kept making. And the bug. Was she going to feed that food to that guy? Yeesh.
Whatever, it also made me think of ancient Rome. But that would be a really long thought process to explain and I haven’t had my coffee yet.

It’s like when I hear old folks sing songs from their youth, usually war time songs sung terribly.
I wonder, will today’s youth be belting out Lady Gaga hits when they’re in their 70’s/80’s?
That would be fucking hilarious to see, please make it so.

As far as the music goes it isn’t very good or original, but maybe that is the future of music. The video had shock value but not much else.

@Symbeline You win. That is the freakiest.

I actually enjoyed the hell out of that video. It was visually stimulating, and so much more interesting than the kinds of videos you see in the main stream. I don’t think there was actually anything in it that was all that new in concept though. Shock value is something humans have relished probably as long as we have existed, and anyone who has seen Eraserhead or Rubber Johnny would see that this sort of imagery is nothing new.

I really ought to check out Eraserhead and Gummo. I’ve got that thing where hearing about them in high school got me thinking they were way freaky beyond what I could handle…but that really doesn’t reflect the tolerance for weird shit I’ve developed since then. I mean, it’s hard to top watching What Is It? and It Is Fine! Everything Is Fine in a sold out theater. So NSFW.

@fundevogel Both Eraserhead and Gummo are really special, although both for their own reasons. Your disturbance meter is probably pretty high, but something tells me you’d enjoy both. You should check em out if you can. :)

@Symbeline Good to hear, they’re on my list.

Let me know what you think. I always love exchanging theories about Eraserhead. damn fucked up movie