Modern Teenagers and the Classics...

[ChrisA83]

I'm going to have to defend rap here. It is music, and if you listen to the words you can tell that many rap artists are very talented indeed. A lot of it is over commercialised but the raw stuff is just guys who have generally had a tough upbringing speaking about their problems much in the same way as the old blues masters.

 

After all it's basically just an extension of the talking blues.

[august_reader]

I'm going to have to defend rap here. It is music' date=' and if you listen to the words you can tell that many rap artists are very talented indeed. A lot of it is over commercialised but the raw stuff is just guys who have generally had a tough upbringing speaking about their problems much in the same way as the old blues masters.

 

After all it's basically just an extension of the talking blues.[/quote']

 

I'm not sure about an extension of the talking blues. I'm not enough of a musicologist to tell.

 

Bue I do agree. I like hip-hop ... I just prefer country/folk.

[albertjohn]

I just re-read my earlier post. The English was clumsy.

 

What I meant to say was that those who I have seen on JH were great and they have helped change my previously held view that they were all crap. I no longer think that.

[milod]

Chris...

 

I can't argue that rap is an extension of talking blues. To an extent it is, although it lacks the degree of formalization. Talking blues had at least a 2-3 chord background that held things together as opposed to essentially a rhythm section.

 

OTOH, if it's as crude and nasty as some I've heard, it's also beyond the pale of stuff I consider acceptable - and believe me, in ways I'm perhaps far more broad minded than most.

 

For example, the old very sexual blues songs weren't putting women down as "ho's" but rather on occasion being celebratory of ... well, let's say a common male-female recreational goal. <chortle>

 

"Off the cops" and "Do the ho" may reflect a certain subculture that we mustn't ignore, yet it ain't something I want playing anywhere I might be.

 

Secondly, although I rather enjoy Lakota drum sets (where guys sit in a circle or partial circle around a drum, play it together and sing), I think rap isn't even that "musical" but rather more like a rhythmic backing for poetry.

 

The "music" as I've heard it isn't there for a traditional musical buildup - even the Lakota songs have that as an example of something dating back in style to the neolithic - but it seems to me "rap" is a fancy rhythm backing for spoken poetry.

 

So... "art?" Yeah, I'll buy that for sure whether it's an art I care for or not. But it's closer to the fringe of poetry as opposed to music as far as I'm concerned.

 

m

[bkharmony]

Rap is not music.

[sjl200]

Does any one remember a group called "The Last Poets" around 68 71 I think. They may have been the prelude to what is rap today.

It was very different from the norm of the day and had many friends and foes.

Music or not is an individuals decision.

Music is very much an individual taste. Some days ya feel like a rap some days ya dont.

[milod]

sj...

 

I do not, as I wrote above, consider rap "music" but that it still is "art."

 

To me it's a good example of how our arts are not always clearly separated by strong, bold lines.

 

I'd consider it more a variation on theater or poetry than music per se. The recitation of commentary accompanied by rhythm is not at all a new art. It is closely related to music but just ain't quite there.

 

No, I don't like the content of much of it, but that's irrelevant. What "counts" to me is, "Is this music by a traditional definition," or is it another sort of "art" that borders on a relatively tight definition of music, but isn't.

 

I go with the latter. Otherwise, one then has poetry readings to a pencil tap as being considered "music." I don't think so.

 

m

[McDuff]

My big problem with rap is not actually the content of it as some times it can be quite poetic but rather the fact that many famous rappers are more based in commercialism than music/writing. Perhaps I am ignorant to the genre but it seems that many of the artists are essentially created from a marketing formula. What's more I find that much of it glorifies ignorance and as such is somewhat backwards as music is supposed to illicit an emotional or intellectual response, and bring a sense of community to those who hear it.

[brundaddy]

Corrosion of Conformity's "Animosity" album

 

In the 1990s CoC abandoned the crust in favor of stoner metal. Most fans of the current "Pepper Keenan" lineup have no idea what their original style was like.

 

Part of the whole repugnant crossover thing I guess. In fact, DRI titled an album of theirs "Crossover" marking their shift from hardcore to metal as well ... Bad Brains went reggae, Suicidal Tendencies went for metal/funk, etc etc etc

[august_reader]

Does any one remember a group called "The Last Poets" around 68 71 I think. They may have been the prelude to what is rap today.

 

 

White Man's Got A God Complex.

 

I remember this pouring out of the soul brothers' hooch in the 'Nam.