No. Did I hurt your brain?
The Straight Dope is the first I’ve ever heard that Pearl Jam refered to “spunk.” I asked my brother and a couple of friend who are Pearl Jam fans to obsessive degrees, members of the Ten Club and all that crap, and they, too, dismiss the notion that Pearl Jam is named after semen. But, RickJay if you have a better source than Eddie Vedder, Jeff Amenet, and Mike McCready, I’d like to hear it.
I’m not sure what these means. Both carpenters and engineers can be as much artists as artisans.
I mean check this out. Maybe you won’t be as impressed as I am, but as a musician and listener, I find the talent and artistry of such DJing absolutely mind-blowing. I mean, improvosing (both rhythmically and melodically no less) by scratching a record over a blue progression is definitely musical talent. I would have to practice for years to even hope to attain that sort of expression, and I doubt I ever could do it. What this guy does is magic.
The juvenile, anti-intellectual ass-hattery going on here from my attackers like Miller is just what I have come to expect from people who praise rap/hip-hop and for just the reasons I’ve outlined. The poster who associated my reference to Nietzsche’s and others’ warnings about the mass-man with a 15 year old mentality is woefully ignorant of Nietzsche’s philosophy and philosophy in general, which only validates my point. In fact, their arguments are just plain ignorant. You attackers should consider reading a book once in a while. I recommend you start with Anti-Intellectualism in American Life because it’s talking about you.
The author of the OP was repeatedly abused using the argument to the effect that “I don’t like it” doesn’t equal “it’s not good”. However, what’s being argued by all you who claim against the evidence that rap/hip-hop is artistically valuable is just same argument in reverse; i.e., “I like it” equals “it’s good”.
I’ve seen 8 Mile - yes M and M has a talent for putting words together and saying them with rhythmic timing. I too think that a large amount of music is not inspired or necessarily clever, however, my point is that the vast amount of hip hop is the least skillful of any music genre. Even if you came up with the lyrics: “baby I’m a want you”, the person singing it has to have excellent singing skills, the musicians have to know how to play their instruments well. A mediocre band in any other genre requires more talent and skill than a mediocre hip hop band.
It’s amost de facto cumpulsory to listen to awful Rap/Hip-Hop here, especially bad Korean Rap/Hip-Hop. It’s blaring from the outdoor speakers of numerous stores, quite a few Internet cafes, and many college-aged youth with too rich daddies have it blasting out of their super-powerful car stereos. If I could choose the genre I would be listening to, it would be (in order)
[ul][li]Classical[/li][li]Country[/li][li]Easy listening[/li][li]LDS music[/ul][/li]
Just as with another poster, I have heard two, perhaps three, Rap/Hip-Hop songs I could actually like. And from the utter garbage I am constantly encountering in that genre, I feel no reason to actually invest my money and time into proving to myself that the genre is not populated with trash.
I also have a good friend who’s a fairly good Rock musician. His opinion of Classical and Country is almost identical to mine about Rap/Hip-Hop.
Basically, it boils down to personal preference. My preference is what I already like when it comes to music. I’m guessing the OP’s preference is what he already likes.
Miller is not an asshat, but he sure made you look like one. This rant is just priceless:
Oh, so hip hop fans are ignorant asses who don’t read books. We’re undermining the intellectual content of American culture. We’re just low men, with no ability to distinguish between art and crap. We’re the reason this country is going to Hell in a handbasket. Do you HEAR YOURSELF? You sound so self-righteous and shrill. Hip hop is ruining America! Everyone who likes it is stupid! I’ve read Nietzsche, so I’m right and can call my critics names! :rolleyes:
God, this is just WRONG. As in, NOT TRUE. We have offered the names of artists who are creating music that is unique, interesting, and groudbreaking. Have you listened to any of them? Can you admit that maybe, just maybe, some of this is a matter of taste, and your aesthetic is not the only valid one? Your categoric dismissal of an entire genre of music, with only Nietzsche to back you up, is absurd. What are your credentials as a music critic and a critic of hip hop? I want to see them.
Oh, and by the way, Miller, it’s possible that Nietzsche might have some small respect for Ayn Rand, but I certainly don’t. But the fact that you think that someone with at least a moderate understanding of Nietzsche would also admire Rand demonstrates that you are a complete ignoramus. Not everyone who grasps Nietzsche is a juvenile pop-Nietzschean, you know.
Anyone with at least a moderate understanding of Nietzsche would laugh at it for the adolescent nihilist twaddle it really is.
And you, sir, have absolutely no comprehension of art whatsoever.
You’ve never played in a punk band, have you? 
I think it takes more skill to rap well than to play the guitar competently. Hell, I play the guitar competently. I play bass competently. I play piano. I play harmonica. I play drums. I couldn’t rap to save my life. I think it’s harder to do convincingly than you think.
Thank you for the link! That made my whole morning brighter. Lovely stuff.
(Not addressed specifically to Dio, but to all who decry sampling)
My wife makes quilts. She digs through piles and piles of fabric to find interesting bits (with patterns that she did not design or create), and then uses an established set of techniques to combine them into something interesting and beautiful.
How is this different from what a DJ/turntablist (which I am trying to learn to be) does? He finds interesting bits of music and combines them into something new and interesting using established techniques and flourishes.
This attitude is pretty common among my age cohort, and IMO there is one person to blame–Puff Daddy. Or at least that was his name when he released “I’ll Be Missing You”, his abomination of a tribute to Biggie Smalls that didn’t sample The Police so much as played the instrumental version of the song that was probably on the other side of the 45 back in the day and rapped over it.
Unfortunately, the current reality of sample clearance makes it a lot easier to use a single sample for a track, and makes cut-and-paste masterpieces like Paul’s Boutique by the Beastie Boys just about impossible. There’s an album out right now called Night Ripper by Girl Talk that was released by Illegal Art without clearing the samples; it would have been impossible, since there are so damn many of them. It will probably set up a court battle and get pulled, which is a shame, because it’s a hell of a disc.
I could probably turn anyone with a vague ear for music into a really crappy but servicable bass player in about a month. Does that make Jaco Pastorious or Flea or Victor Wooten or Les Claypool any less impressive?
I am probably at the “crappy but serviceable” point with my turntables, and the rift between me and someone like Cut Chemist or Kid Koala is just as great as the rift between Victor and some loser banging out quarter notes on his used Fender knockoff bass.
(Incidentally, I saw Cut Chemist spin a set at SXSW, and it was like a 45-minute response to people who don’t think turntablists are musicians. I just wish more of them had been there.)
This sums up my view on Rap and Hip-Hop completely.
I absolutely despise all forms of rap and hip-hop that I’ve heard so far, and I have no interest in learning or hearing any more.
In fact, I hate it when people try and tell me that I’m missing out on some aspect of it and I should listen to (band/artist).
I HATE ALL RAP/HIP-HOP MUSIC AND NOTHING ANYONE CAN SAY OR DO WILL EVER CONVINCE ME TO CHANGE MY VIEWS ON THIS.
There, I said it. I’ll get my flame-proof Cranky Old Man Pants now.
Eh, maybe his early stuff, but his war horses are definitely Romantic (“Erocia,” Moonlight Sonata, the 9th).
I agree wholeheartedly, except for the the Cranky Old Man part. Why must one be considered old and out of touch just because they don’t like every form of dreck that comes down the pike? Doesn’t appreciation of *anything * really only come down to personal opinion? Opinions aren’t right or wrong, they’re just the way a person feels. How can someone even think they can tell another they’re *opinion * is incorrect?
I know this. And…your point is? Do you think that the fact that these bands took small parts of the genre and turned it into something infinitely better somehow ‘legitimizes’ hip hop? I could create a masterpiece loved by the masses after being inspired by Achey Breaky Heart, which would still be a craptacular song nonetheless.
That’s perfectly acceptable. It’s one thing to state that you don’t like a certain type of music and are not interested in really learning about it, and another to blanketly dismiss an entire genre as being unmusical, uncreative, and unoriginal (as some posters seem to be saying here) without knowing anything about it. I’m not saying you or even the OP are saying this, but certain posters here are.
But this damn thread comes up every so often. It is so played out and so stupid and so twenty years behind its time. Where are all the “nu-metal SUCKS” threads? And the “country SUCKS” threads? And the “German oom-pah SUCKS” threads? Because, lord knows, Top 40 nu-metal sucks way harder than Top 40 hip-hop.
Bah. The last good band was Nirvana. /Cranky
Rock bands don’t use hos on stage? What about that band, Bare Naked Ladies?
Huh? They are neither bare-naked nor ladies? What a rip-off!