André 3000” Benjamin on the state of music”

Where is music going to go? Radio’s getting more fragmented, we’ve got satellite radio, you’ve got computer casts, everyone in the world could theoretically be in a band and get their music out. Is that daunting as an artist?

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Andre: No. I think it’s great. I think everything is great, man, even when people say, “This is terrible.” Because whatever’s terrible, there’s going to be a reaction to it that’s going to be great. I’m not a music theorist or anything, but I feel like hip-hop, which is the most popular music right now, is at its most commercial point. If you look at the history of all styles of music, it all started as a raw expression, like jazz and bebop, and eventually it became elevator music. Hip-hop is almost becoming elevator music. They use it in phone commercials, they use it in cooking commercials, they use it to endorse products. Because it’s commercial, because it’s making money now, the people who get into it want to make the same money, so they follow same formula. So it’s not as experimental or as free and innocent as it was. So the reaction to that is going to be something really good. It’ll come from some kids in Idaho or somewhere, with a beat machine and a microphone.