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The search for the meaning in music is an ongoing issue, process, and debate. The consensus in regards to hip hop and rap is that is is an endangered genre. This arena of music, highlighted in the 80s and 90s by groups such as Run DMC, Michael Jackson, and lyrical poets of the late 21st century. Nowadays, music in general, not just hip hop and rap, is suffocating. It is losing its breath. Music was floetry, or oral poetry accompanied by a beautiful musical ensemble. Majority of the popular music today is a rebirth of classics. Music is currently experiencing a retro movement. The originality has become minimized, if not non-existent, thus artists now are merely recreating or revising older compositions. To the dismay of Motown, Johnny Cash, Garth Brooks, Led Zeppelin, the Dorsey Brothers, and other rock bands, these new, revised, cross-genre musical pieces have not only lost originality, but its lyrical content, which is the message and significance of music. What makes music such a powerful instrument is that one artist's struggle, experience, difficulties, fears, and joys and speak out to a nation. With the lack of creativity, lyrics, and passion, the music suffers. With all of the world's ills,particularly the struggles the United States has dealt with since the Bush era nearly eight years ago, i.e. War in Iraq, September 11th, inflation, petroleum and gas increases, a tarnished and shrinking economy and job force, no wonder the music, along with everything else, is suffering. After all, if music is a reflection of the world, a product of its environment per se, then the glass in the mirror is stained glass. The evident decline in music's validity is evident in the fact that record sales are the lowest they have ever been and have been steadily declining since the new millennium has begun. In accordance to lower record sells across all genres across the world, bootlegging and such music downloading websites such as Morpheus and Limewire have become household programs for any lover of music with a computer. You watch specials on MTV and VH1 and you hear hip hop moguls and icons such as Young Jeezy, Kanye West, and 50 Cent say it is not all about selling records. To sell records nowadays you have to uphold a certain image, which rap and hip hop has termed "swag." These are words spoken by artists on an MTV special I saw a couple weeks ago titled, "Hip Hop's Hottest Artists: Who's Hot and Who's Not." If these are the most influential musical figures of the present era and they are claiming that it is not all about making a good record and that so much more external factors determine an artist's album success, then it is evident that music has taken a turn for the worse. Songs of previous eras, the 40s, 50s, 60s, and so on talked about love, having a good time without the degradation of women (for if it were not for them, none of us would be here), overcoming struggle, living, and capturing the heart because they made us, the audience feel, as if they were ordinary people, people who everyone just happened to know their occupation. The vibe of the music was embracing, soothing, and relaxing. The music today is all about beating out the next man or woman to get your piece of the pie, to live with loose morals, do drugs, do women, and live conscience-free, all to the tune that a past music legend blessed us with years ago.

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