The OP is the easy bit. Yeah, hip hop can be pretty versatile because it often makes extensive use of sampling. This can be done in creative and non-creative ways. However, electronic music will often make use of sampling and is as versatile as hip hop in this regard. Similarly, the wide scope of electronic music means that it has versatility that hip hop lacks, in that for something to be considered electronica it just needs to be dominated by music produced by synths or computers. That can basically be any form of music - there are classical electronic compositions, just as there are new wave pop compositions and found sound compositions. This isn’t to praise or denigrate either form of music, but rather to look at what is included in each genre. I’d say that electronica is possibly the most versatile because it is the widest banner.
As for rock, I’d say it is pretty versatile. Rock has been married with each sort of music listed in the OP. I’d also say rock fits more easily with non 4/4 time signatures than hip hop. I’ve never heard a hip hop waltz (though, when I get time I’m going to try to make one).
Now, the rest of you. Why do we have to keep going through this shit all the time?
OK. You’re a full paid up member with search powers. I’m not. Do yourself a favour and use that search engine to examine the other million threads in which I’ve debunked this kneejerk piece of bullshit. Rap is music. Any argument you can come up with I can shoot down in my sleep. There is no way you can define music so as to exclude hip hop but at the same time to include things you would consider as music. I speak from experience. Try If you’d like to, but you’ll just be wasting your time. If you really are still thinking about it, here are a few common arguments I hear.
“Hip hop isn’t made on real instruments!”
- Neither was Kraftwerk’s music. The Roots (Philly hip hop group) do play real instruments. A number of Outkast (Atlantan rap group) hits were written on guitar.
“Hip hop has no vocal melody”
- Any number of choruses have vocal melodies. Many are original to the writer (check any number of Neptunes’ hits for this). If you require every single vocal to have melody, hip hop still qualifies - there is transcribed hip hop that features the melody line of raps. Meanwhile, renowned rock group R.E.M. has a song called Belong which features Michael Stipe speaking (rather than singing) his lyrics over musical backing. If hip hop is not music, then neither is R.E.M.
Trust me. There is no way you can win this argument. I’ve seen it all too many times. If you try, I’ll make you look like an idiot.
Listen to some Stockhausen, Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Boards of Canada, Bjork, Dntel, Postal Service. Then come back to me.
There is a lot of hip hop that has no sampling. Sampling can be a creative artform that recontextualises sound elements to create new compositions. See, for instance, Jay-Z’s Izzo (H.O.V.A), which takes the Jackson Five’s I Want You Back and although simply looping it, uses rhythm to accentuate some parts and create a new song with a new feeling. Check also Danger Mouse’s remix of Jay-Z’s Dirt Off Your Shoulder, which takes the Beatles’ Julia, chops the shit out of it and creates a new musical landscape that is recognisably formed from the remnants of a Beatles song, but at the same time, is a unique, original composition.
And meanwhile, what do you think of the album cover of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts’ Club Band?
Kalhoun has forgotten we are not in the pit, and allowed his post to devolve into idiotic flaming. Inaccurate also, as I’ve demonstrated that hip hop is not “bad poetry set to a stolen beat.”
Eve and Mangetout decide to use someone else’s enjoyment of music to fling stereotypes around. Boring, guys.
What is it about hip hop that makes usually rational people start foaming at the mouth? It’s just music, y’all. Get over it. I don’t like Metallica, but I’m not going around telling people that heavy metal isn’t music or accusing those who like to listen to it of unfairly inflicting it on everyone else.
