ladyofthenile

[ladyofthenile]

My morning thought is this: the decline of true vocalists—alongside the fall of club music—is a big part of why music today feels like it’s lost its sparkle. And I don’t just mean EDM/pop/house music—I mean ass-shaking, head-bumping tracks paired with the vocal presence of real singers. That combination is what made so many artists from the early 2000s iconic. It created room to genre-bend while still appealing to the mainstream.

Ironically, I think we’ve become so obsessed with categorizing ourselves—our identities, our aesthetics—that it’s started showing up in the music too. Now it feels like everyone wants to stay in one lane: just R&B. Or just pop. Or just alt-pop. Or just rap. There’s little crossover—at least not the kind that resonates widely enough to move beyond a niche audience. The masses can’t feel it, and they don’t want to.

And worst of all, as a consequence, a lot of the music within those genres has started to blur together so much that I can’t tell one artist from another. It’s all become so reproductive and templatized, without the creative exploration and innovation that could actually push those sounds further.

I need all creative and artists to stop being afraid—not necessarily to reinvent ourselves—but to allow change, and adapt to it. Or better yet, to be so intellectually and creatively curious that the version of you that didn’t evolve simply couldn’t exist.

And in the absence of that? I blame a lot of this on COVID. That cultural standstill triggered both a regression and a fast-forward unprecedented split in time. The sound that could’ve evolved out of the early 2020s might’ve looked so different if we were still dancing in clubs for fun, instead of performing coolness under the pressure of being seen.

People craved nostalgia, but instead, we just repackaged old things into new people—and it doesn’t feel like it’s working. At least for me, the sparkle just isn’t there anymore.

I have way more to say about this—but I think I’ll save it for an essay.

[ladyofthenile]

[ladyofthenile]

sorry i haven't been posting. i've been too busy contemplating returning to catholicism

[ladyofthenile]

you Applied to 200 jobs and are still unemployed . hope u dont mind we Leak ur data. and no, we will Not be calling back

[ladyofthenile]

Beyonce: Dangerously in Love (2003)

[ladyofthenile]

beyoncé, baby boy (2003)

[ladyofthenile]

Beyoncé. Come home. NOW!!!

[ladyofthenile]

You’re 20s are sleep nights nights, crying alone in bed, when there is no one to comfort you any longer.

[ladyofthenile]

Tadeusz Różewicz, tr. by Magnus J. Krynski and Robert A. Maguire, from a poem titled "In The Midst of Life,"

[ladyofthenile]

André Gide, from a journal entry featured in The Journals of Andre Gide, Vol. 2: 1914-1927

[ladyofthenile]

Beyoncé on the set of the Me, Myself & I Music Video in 2003 — If I had to choose personally, I would name that song as one of my top ten Beyoncé songs to date and the bob she had in the music video? Chefs kiss in every way. [ xxx ]

[ladyofthenile]

Mahmoud Darwish - “Memory for Forgetfulness” 

[ladyofthenile]

[ladyofthenile]

DA BRAT, MISSY ELLIOTT, AALIYAH, & LIL KIM.

[ladyofthenile]

[ladyofthenile]

Sylvia Plath, from a letter featured in The Letters of Sylvia Plath Vol. 1: 1940-1956

[ladyofthenile]

Poster for “Orfeu Negro” Black Orpheus - 1959 by Marcel Camus.