LordBucket, unless you watch Boomerang more than cartoon network, the Powerpuff girls hasn't be on (random appearances not counting) for years. Also, although you've been right on some things like JLU, are you really going to say the likes of Regular Show are any less simpleminded than Tom&Jerry?
Powerpuff Girls was an example from the 90s. JLU was an example from the 2000s. I was comparing to cartoons from the 70s and 80s. I think that's valid. Never heard of the Regular Show. But instances of horrible shows now doesn't change my assertion. There might be both good and bad ones now, but
we didn't have intelligent cartoons when I was a kid.
I gave the exmples of Bugs Bunny and Tom & Jerry because they were especially brainless, but go through the list: Pepe Le Pew? Mighty Mouse? The Smurfs? Yogi Bear? Captain Caveman? Popeye? Scooby Doo?
All of these shows were completely formulaic, and never addressed anything intelligently. Some of them were obviously worse than others. Pepe Le Pew was about watching a skunk pronking around trying to seduce a cat against her most extreme insistence otherwise. Or, if you want to be less delicate about it...it was a about skunk raping a cat until she liked it. Captain Caveman was about a guy yelling and hitting things. And no matter how much some people might like Scooby Doo, every episode was exactly the same, and if you've ever seen a single episode you know what happens in all of them. Only the costume worn by the villain and the scenery changes.
The most clever cartoons were probably the Flintstones and the Jetsons, but I don't remember them really addressing anything, they were just more intelligent because their basic premise was more clever.
JLU, on other hand, addressed some very serious political and philosophical issues. It not only lampshaded faillings in the superhero genre, but them turned around and engaged them directly. Why didn't they just kill Lex Luthor? Ok, well...
they did. How are normals supposed to accept the fact their world is filled with world-altering powers? And how did it end? I'm guessing the last episode of Scooby Doo had the exact same premise as the first episode, and every episode in between, but the JLU finale...
...turned the arch villain into a
tomato in the mirror. Lex Luthor's discovery of the anti-life equation results in him realizing that the JLU universe is a piece of fiction, allowing him to "spiritually ascend" in a metaphorical sense because he can't continue being a villain knowing that his universe is a piece of fiction in which he plays a specific role. He then shares this information with Darkseid so that he can't continue being a villain either, all while the heroes in the story are helplessly flailing about, telling Lex to not give Darkseid the equation because they're concerned that it will allow him to kill everyone. Not understanding that the "anti life" equation is called that because once a character understands that he's a fictional character, it doesn't make sense for him to continue playing the role written for him, and therefore the author has to remove him from the story, resulting in him "dying" by virtue of no longer being written about.
So the whole thing ends with both Lex and Darkseid ascending in a ball of light, and the heroes standing around not understanding what happened.
That's
awfully deep for a kids show. And incidentally, the final episode of Powerpuff Girls was similar in that it dealt with some very serious political issues and the nature of freedom and self-determination, and it fact...was
banned in the US and even today has still never aired in this country.
Sure, maybe there are still mindless dumb cartoons. But the best we had when I was a kid doesn't compare well to what's been done since.
Seriously, you're sounding like a crotchety old fart and I've got you beat by a year. "Kids these days with their hippity-bippety noise! And the clothes they wear! Dagnabbit!"
...pretty sure you didn't read my post very closely. I've very specifically said that some things have definitely improved, and some of the examples you gave are examples that I already gave. In fact, I spent an entire paragraph pointing out that generic mass produced pop music has existed in every decade, and gave the specific examples of Tiffany and Debbie Gibson.
just because you don't like rap doesn't make it non-music.
An ancient debate. Please...humor me for just a moment. Try to understand what I'm about to say. If you disgaree with it, that's fine. If my view is no longer relevant to the modern world, I can accept that. I acknowledge that "generl consensus" now appears to be that rap is music. However...
this was not always so.
Unfortunately the dictionary definition of music has changed over my lifetime, and rap
is not music according to definitions you'd find in an 80s dictionary. But since I don't have an 80s dictionary on hand, let's consult wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music"Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch (which governs melody and harmony), rhythm (and its associated concepts tempo, meter, and articulation), dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture."Rap
does not have many of these elements. Rap is rhythm without melody. "Music" according to the common worldview when I grew up required both melody and harmony. If you tap your pencil on your desk, you might enjoy the rhythm, but it is not music. By definition it can't be. If you sing in the shower, you might enjoy it, but it's
not music. It's singing. A singular drum beat is not music. It's a drum beat. Beat is not music. Rhythm is not music. Melody is not music. Harmony is not music. It's when you
combine these elements that music is created.
Liking it or not has nothing to do with it. If you heard someone singing, and liked it...would you say "I like the music you're making." ? No. Because they're not making music. They're singing. If you saw someone playing on drums in their garage, would you say "I like the music you're making." ? No, because it's not music. You might say "I dig your drumming." or "That's a groovy beat." Because it
is a beat. It
is drumming. It
is not music.
Rap is not music any more than isolated, powdered soy protein is a soy plant.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rap"Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” (rhythm and rhyme), and “delivery”. Rapping is distinct from spoken word poetry in that it is performed in time to a beat.
Rapping is a primary ingredient in hip hop music and reggae"Rap may be a valid
component of music, but it is not music.