Rock was/is built on sex.

Like “Slide It In”, “Slow And Easy” from Whitesnake style of sex. Or the “Liquor And Poker” tour from Whitesnake on the back of the “Slip Of The Tongue” album.

Or “She Goes Down” for some “Sticky Sweet” from Motley Crue.

Or pulling the trigger of someone’s “Love Gun” while getting a “Plaster Caster” done from Kiss.

Or how she’s got the “Big Guns” from Skid Row.

But Rap is also built on sex and it has taken over rock when it comes to the mainstream.

Rap artists used any means necessary to spread the word and they embraced the internet.

They had their tracks on SoundCloud for people to listen to and they gave away mix tapes for free to download. This Vice story covers what a mixtape is/means in the world of rap.

In case you don’t read the article, MixTapes are “street albums,” that don’t use the label distribution process for albums. In comparison, albums are designed to move units and issue singles. They are designed to chart. And depending on the artist/label, an approval is needed from the label, before the artist can start recording it.

MixTapes are not designed to do that. They operate outside this sphere.

Mixtapes bring in new fans and provide something for the core fan base to talk about on social media.

MixTapes give the artist a reason to tour.

MixTapes can be jams with other arists.

Basically in the rap world, MixTapes move a rapper’s career forward and it’s done without selling a single copy. Although Bootleg copies of these MixTapes do make their way to iTunes and Spotify from opportunistic people. But the rappers don’t care.

“Embrace the future and don’t complain about it”, is a phrase I hear a lot. The general view from journalists is that rock and metal artists didn’t embrace this future and that’s why the genre is in the rear view mirror but it makes bank on touring.

And there’s been a lot of discussions recently on social media about the comments of Daniel Ek for artists to create more content.

But rock and metal fans are loyal and if they have the means, they will find a way to support the artists they like.

There’s a cool post at Seth’s Blog about deliberate lo-fi.

He talks about communication and how it’s gone downhill.

Like face to face contact went to landline phone calls to cell phone calls to text messaging and to Zoom calls.

And how music went from a live setting to vinyl to cassettes to CD’s to mp3 to streams.

This transition is because people want more and more, so things get condensed to fit this new norm.

But there’s always a shift. Because something that was better in the past will always be better in the future.

Maybe it’s a pretty good reason as to why vinyl has a Cult following. It won’t overtake streaming revenues but it will exist because it’s better.