Anytime I hear someone say that rap music is a fad I always wonder where they have been for the last 20 something years…how can anyone honestly say it’s a fad when obviously it’s here to stay just like any other style of music.
I prefer the Underground Hip Hop though. Underground or Mainstream rap will be around for as long as music itself and people like me will continue to annoy others that don’t have an appreciation for the art form by dressing and identifying ourselves with the rich Hip Hop culture and bumping the music in our cars.
Maybe I should have posted this in the Cafe section but oh well…I admit I wasn’t even alive during disco but what I do know about it is that it did not last 20 years. Anyone that hates rap should actually sit down and listen to it and then they will see why so many people young and old can’t get enough of it. I started liking it when I was 10 I am now almost 18 and the only thing that has changed is that now that I am mature I appreciate it all the more for some of the deeper insightful lyrics.
No one would mistake me for a fan of rap, or hip hop, or really much popular music in general, but certainly Faucet is correct. Rap is a very well established musical idiom, and has shown far greatly longevity (and, frankly, greater artistic achievement) than disco.
I dunno about comparing it to disco. The difference between the disco of 30 years ago and pop-techno of today is only greater than the difference between the rap of 25 years ago and today in that the names are different. Both genres have changed quite a bit since then.
Disco was, and is, clubbing music. I would prefer the cheesiest of disco to be played in a dance hall rather than the most cutting-edge-yet-accessible rap today. Not to mention the hardcore grooves the DJs seem intent on foisting upon us :rolleyes:…oops[/hijack]
“Word”, “G”. Gregorian Chant was a fad. Beethoven was a fad. Minstral was a fad. Big Band was a fad. Elvis was a fad. Lesbian Rock-a-billy was a fad. The Beatles were a (fab!) fad. Disco was a fad. Rock-n-roll is a fad. Rap is a fad. Don’t get hung up on it.
I like a few rap artists but wouldn’t be considered a fan by any means but I agree with Faucet; rap is here to stay.
Sure, you can be pedantic about what you consider a fad and say that everything is just that like **gatopescado ** has but I don’t see the genre dying any time soon. For better or worse, it’ll be around as long as the other mainstream genres of music - Rock, R&B, Country, et al.
I think it’s safe to say that rap is no more a fad than rock and roll was. Both will, no doubt, one day fall by the wayside, but both have already been around long enough that no one should question their credibility as musical genres.
I love rap, and I’m a nearly-38-year-old balding white guy. I heard rap for the first time when I was about 13YO. That would have been around 1979. The song was Rapper’s Delight by the Sugar Hill Gang. I was hooked. I loved it! It was different, and cool. Unfortunately, being 13 years old back then, it meant I had no money to search out and buy more rap. And of course rap disappeared from the “mainstream” for several years.
When rap re-entered the mainstream, I used to annoy the crap out of my fellow white folks by rapping all the time. Nobody could understand why I liked it. They all thought I was some kind of wierdo!
However, I have to confess that I really prefer the more lyrically-complex, “old school” rap to the stuff that I hear on the radio today. I find most of the current stuff to be lyrically weak.