Trends come and go they say. Nothing is new under the sun I hear. What comes around goes around. Frankly speaking, music can be seen to travel in the same kinds of time warps as well. If it started out with Kraftwerk and Africa Bambaata I believe that we have reached full circle now as most of the so called modern Hip-hop music tends to deviate towards this electronically inclined sound climate.

Taking a few steps forward would be to go into minimalist Drum machine breaks and simple enough rhymes, yet then again it seems we caught up with times on this one as well (Remember 50 Cent and “I get Money”?).  A fair share of mainstream musicians are now all Daft Punk inspired and top of most charts are infused with this House/Hip-Hop dance character. We should however remember that Daft Punk created their sound somewhere in the late nineties and it basically took us 10 years to catch up with their recipe. Looking at the grander design of time, come the early nineties with that New Jack Swing kind of sound with Teddy Riley as the undisputed front man. If you think about it, the people that carried Teddy’s legacy forwards were none other than Billboard regulars Chad Hugo and Pharell Williams. No introduction needed but over the years they have sold over millions of records and have had top spots on the Billboard charts. Trivia is, Pharell wrote a verse for Wreckx’N’Effex hit single Rumpshaker way back when. Now in the wake of MJs death I honestly foresee a revival for Teddy’s older sound designs.  Check the video below and see what Chad and Pharell say on keeping things simple, real and fresh in order to adapt to technology and new things.  Honestly, this might be the next big thing to hop on if you are jumping bandwagons: start from scratch instead of jumping into the sea of hype and drowning in it …

So, timing is everything in terms of when and how to adapt to the changes of time (if you are planning to do so that is). Being where we are, I foresee a revival in most things  classic and it’s only a matter of time before what has been forgotten comes into light again. Let us just hope the trendsetters pick stuff worthy picking up. J

The increasing sales in vinyl speak it’s own story. The big thing after that is the Golden Era where terms such as Keeping It Real, will be a fashion all over again!? Personally I think we are to foresee a more rough and rugged musical landscape take shape somewhere within a year or two and going from digital to analogue pretty much underlines this. Let us all try to steer things forward into a right direction while having the right roots grounding us as we stand against the winds of change! Two steps forward – One step back ..

“We got all these machines emulating older machines but If you don’t even know what you are emulating-what’s the purpose?“- Chad Hugo

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