Music Representation Quotes

I know what my sound is. I'm just trying to get it out there how I can explain it. I'm not trying to write or put out some music that doesn't represent me.

Ninety percent of the general public aren't gangstas, so all of the rappers aren't going to be gangstas.

Hip-hop kind of absorbed rock in terms of the attitude and the whole point of why rock was important music. Young people felt like rock music was theirs, from Elvis to the Beatles to the Ramones to Nirvana. This was theirs; it wasn't their parents'. I think hip-hop became the musical style that embraces that mentality.

I was frustrated in the past, like, 'Wow, why do they have to throw me in the R&B urban adult contemporary lane?' 'Woman' was a no. 1 hit at Urban AC, so there's no disrespect to that lane. But did it get a fair shot at urban radio? No, I don't think so.

I wouldn't use a song I didn't think was my brand or image.

My whole point is like, well, if I'm the pop star, then it should be whatever I am. There's, you know, room for Katy Perrys and Adeles and Rihannas and Lady Gagas and Ke$has and me and Pinks. I think what's great about all of us is that we represent something different.

It's beyond my wildest dreams to come out, represent my family, my father and the music of Led Zeppelin.

The Grammys are very wide-ranging but it's still within the Western world of music. So it would be lovely if that opened up more.

My music is simple stuff. Anybody can sit down, look at a set of symbols and produce sounds the music represents.

It's an honor for me to represent urban music, reggaeton, trap and hip-hop.

I think the idea is now for blacks to write about the history of our music. It's time for that, because whites have been doing it all the time. It's time for us to do it ourselves and tell it like it is.

I have friends that are reps and run labels, but I don't like to get into that world. I just like to pick what I like with my ears and play it for no other reason, not because of the label or the rep.

Louis Armstrong is jazz. He represents what the music is all about.

To all the musicians, to the Academy, with all due respect, reggaeton is part of our Latin culture. And its representing as much as any other genre at the worldwide level.

I've probably represented almost every major artist in the world, either directly or peripherally, at one time or another.

For artists of my caliber, we're not played on the radio, so we don't really get a chance to get involved in that debate at all. We don't get a chance, because this weird kind of ageism exists in pop music. If you're past a certain age, you're not relevant. That's the kind of cliched term.

You go to Miami, and you might only hear one Tyga song on the radio. You go to L.A., and you might hear six or seven on the radio. There's certain things you do for your city.

What's wrong with hip-hop is the system that controls the definition of it. There needs to be more balance on the airwaves.

People hear a powerful female singer in a rock and roll band, and they say, 'Janis Joplin.' I think people just make that comparison because it's easy. But I don't think I sound like her at all.

I mean, there's plenty of artists who are making R&B music, but because of their ethnicity, it's considered something else.

I think what we need is a more welcoming mode from the people who put on a hundred million country-western shows on television. How about a monthly jazz show?

I think that there's a singular emotion that goes along with what the bands that we love mean to us. I feel like people feel represented by that in a way that you don't get from saying, 'Oh, I like this book' or 'I went to college here' or 'This is what my job is.'

While not a musician, my father was a music agent for years before becoming pop culture icon Famous Amos.

I would love to see more women making their mark in the music that I love so much ... There are so many more out there just waiting for their shot. I hope they get it!

We just dig Southern rock 'n' roll. It hasn't been represented well at all. So, we want to see the people in the South get their music out.