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Now granted every genre has similarities or they couldn't be grouped together as a musical genre. But with rap it's taken to the extreme of severely bending the words to fit the rhythm. Which leads to the next point of dislike. It favors percussion over melody so much that even instruments and vocals end up being percussion instruments. As though everything is a bongo.
And the method for that? Well... "the loop".
From the perspective of musicians that learned to actually play an instrument and compose, this is one of their primary arguments against calling "music" per se. "Ah, it's all a bunch of samples. Those guys don't know how to play!"
Well, it's debatable where the line between music and non-music is, of course. But I tend to feel it's more of a "performance art" or "recording art" because of the prevalence of loops and sections of loops.
So, those are some of my reasons why I dislike it as music. I think I've successfully stayed away from the points of dislike that relate to the culture from which it eminates. Which is probably the real reason most folks who dislike it, dislike it. It often agrandizes "ghetto" culture, "gansta" culture, whatever you want to call it. Basically the black, criminal counter-culture.
Can't say as I recall Paul McCartney ever pulling out a gun and taking a shot at Mick Jagger, can you? Even the nastiest rockers have tended not to go that way, LOL!
Prior to it becoming the flag for such, you could probably find examples that even the current haters liked.
I'm a former drummer (Classic Rock era) and I don't hate/dislike Rap......wife and I just don't listen to it! Oh, I like the old Rap "Can't Touch This" by M.C. Hammer and Aerosmith-Run DMC done "Walk This Way", but that is it. Of course, at ages 60-61, Rap sure wouldn't be a part of our era! Rap got somewhat of a "blackeye" due to some of the song lyrics and the crime surrounding the Rap community (artists, etc). The groups like Chicago, AC/DC, BTO (Bachman-Turner Overdrive), Boston didn't have lyrics/crime like that!
Now granted every genre has similarities or they couldn't be grouped together as a musical genre. But with rap it's taken to the extreme of severely bending the words to fit the rhythm. Which leads to the next point of dislike. It favors percussion over melody so much that even instruments and vocals end up being percussion instruments. As though everything is a bongo.
And the method for that? Well... "the loop".
From the perspective of musicians that learned to actually play an instrument and compose, this is one of their primary arguments against calling "music" per se. "Ah, it's all a bunch of samples. Those guys don't know how to play!"
Well, it's debatable where the line between music and non-music is, of course. But I tend to feel it's more of a "performance art" or "recording art" because of the prevalence of loops and sections of loops.
So, those are some of my reasons why I dislike it as music. I think I've successfully stayed away from the points of dislike that relate to the culture from which it eminates. Which is probably the real reason most folks who dislike it, dislike it. It often agrandizes "ghetto" culture, "gansta" culture, whatever you want to call it. Basically the black, criminal counter-culture.
Can't say as I recall Paul McCartney ever pulling out a gun and taking a shot at Mick Jagger, can you? Even the nastiest rockers have tended not to go that way, LOL!
Prior to it becoming the flag for such, you could probably find examples that even the current haters liked.
Man...you are a poet!!! Rap jumped the shark when The West Coast Gangsta stuff hit. It's popularity was a perceived notice to all other rappers that you better go "hard core" too. How stupid that was....rap used to be just "fun".
Now you hardly get samples from old school records....it's all computerized casio keyboard sounds. Thank you Pharrell and Timbaland..."groan" Like this garbage......
I think everything that you guys wish rap had (live instruments, melodies, no hard bass-driven beats, non-abrasive lyrics, etc) can be found in hip-hop... I just think you hear the wrong stuff...
Some rappers use nothing but jazz and live instruments. It's just the popular BET, MTV, VH1, radio stuff that sucks. If you base all of your opinions of rap on those sources, people who bash hip-hop really don't have an accurate frame of reference.
If somebody said, "I hate rock 'n' roll!" Are they referring to Elvis, Guns 'n' Roses, Little Richard, Nirvana, Marilyn Manson, David Lee Roth, Chubby Checker, Black Sabbath, or the Beatles? All of these sub-genres of rock have some similarities but are all very different. Hip-Hop/Rap is the same way.
It would be unfair for someone to say, "I hate rock" and all they every heard was the likes of Megadeth...
Good post and excellant points. If all I had to judge rap music by was the crap that the media loves I'd hate it too
First, because as a midwestern white woman over the age of forty, rap really doesn't resonate with me, and most of the time, I can't even understand it.
Second, because the kids who drive through my town at night seem to think that everybody loves rap as much as they do.
CITIZENKANE:
Thats because the lawyers got involved and started suing everything in sight if it even smelled like a sample. Starting with Biz...now every song is programmed (cookie cutter) Software beats and the producers seem to be using the same software=- same beat = same electronically altered vocals = yawn.
'Braggadocio ', that cultural thing that runs all the way back to playing the dozens, is a pretty limited window of entertainment.
Rap needs many, many more visionaries that don't see race and poverty as the defining idea of their artistry...heck, rap needs artists and not materialistic egotists looking to get rich and then crowing about how good business is.
Some beat variation and a real ear for music wouldn't hurt either.
First, because as a midwestern white woman over the age of forty, rap really doesn't resonate with me, and most of the time, I can't even understand it.
Second, because the kids who drive through my town at night seem to think that everybody loves rap as much as they do.
CITIZENKANE:
Thats because the lawyers got involved and started suing everything in sight if it even smelled like a sample. Starting with Biz...now every song is programmed (cookie cutter) Software beats and the producers seem to be using the same software=- same beat = same electronically altered vocals = yawn.
Some beat variation and a real ear for music wouldn't hurt either.
I figured that's what happened. But all the rapper had to do is ask permission.
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Like this garbage......
