What **Eve[/] said.
In my experience, a consoderable proportion of those people who like to listen to very loud music (of various kinds), either at home or in their cars, seem to feel it necessary to open their windows wide (even in the depths of winter) so that the whole world can marvel at their good taste, or something.
It still sounds like noise to me.
Cornbread is so disgusting and worthless! Everyone who eats it is just trying to seem more “downhome” - they’re all worthless posers! I mean, it’s not even bread! Bread is made with yeast, and it’s made out of wheat. Hell, I’m open-minded. I can accept that stuff made out of rye is bread - but even that usually has wheat in it.
I don’t care if other people like it. It takes no talent to make cornbread! People who haven’t the foggiest notion how to kneed REAL bread dough can mix a bunch of crap together in a bowl, call it cornbread, and everyone will ooh and ahh over it like it’s some kind of spectacular achievement! Cornbread is disgusting and gritty, and it’s ALWAYS, ALWAYS too greasy. And don’t even get me started on people who cook it with the windows open, and force me to smell it too!
That’s why cornbread is absolutely worthless!
Look, I’m not a fan of hip-hop myself. But why is it that people feel so compelled to scream and holler whenever rap comes up that it isn’t music, and it’s total crap, and the people listening to it are all posers, and it takes no talent etc etc etc?
Can’t you guys accept the fact that you may not like something, and that doesn’t mean it’s completely without value? Sure, pop rap is pretty devoid of deep meaning, as is pop music (as a very vague generalization.) Even that can be fun to dance to, though. Look, it’s ok that you don’t like it, and I grit my teeth whenever people play loud-ass music in their cars at night and wake me up. But anyone with a smidgen of intelligence is capable of inferring that “real” rap is different, and much broader than what you hear on the radio, just like real jazz is pretty dissimilar to the Kenny G and David Koz that you run into in elevators and smooth jazz stations. And most people should be used to the fact that some folks like some things, and other folks like other things, and that there’s nothing “special” about what you like that makes it inherently better than things you don’t like.
Fine. Hate rap. Hate it with every fiber of your being. But must people LOUDLY share this hatred with others EVERY time the subject comes up?
(Although I gotta say, I don’t like cornbread at all. But if you do, more power to you.)
I bet your grandmother says that about rock n’ roll. :rolleyes:
Electronica, punk, country, rock, hip hop, opera, folk, rap–they are all viable genres, with their fair share of suck and their fair share of excellence and they all deserve a little respect. The knee-jerk reactions in threads like this are really disturbing. If the OP had named another type of music, would people automatically assume he was some disruptive punk kid out to disturb everyone’s sleep? No doubt the OP also drives a ricer and hangs around on street corners scaring respectable folks. That’s what rap music does to you, kids! I drive to school every morning blasting Sleater-Kinney and the Jam and cheesy 70’s rock compilations. Of course, I take the interstate to school and keep the windows rolled up… so could this guy for all you know, but no, he listens to that terrible rap music so he must be a hoodlum!
I thought we were supposed to be fighting ignorance here. I don’t necessarily agree with the OP but there is absolutely no call for insulting him like some people have done. Shame on you.
Popular ‘music’ consists of some ratio of vocals vs. instruments. To say that rap isn’t music (IMO anyway) is just pointing out that it is 99% vocals. That the musical tracks are totally subservient to the vocal tracks. And, that the musical portions are almost always created completely electronically or even sampled from a previous hit.
I mean think about it. We rarely talk about ‘Rap Groups’, but rather ‘Rap Singers’. The lyrics are everthing. There essentially is no ‘band’ backing them.
And, IMHO anyway, that is why I’ll always consider rap less of an artform than a real ‘musical-instrument-playing’ group. Yes, it does take talent to flowingly rap lyrics in a very entertaining, sing-songy way. But that cannot compare to being a talented guitar, keyboard, or even drum player. Not even close. Its apples & oranges.
Lead singers of top Rock Bands usually write, sing, and play guitar. In other words they do everything Rap artists do AND they master an incredibly difficult instrument.
The OP said it all. Yes, rap is very versatile. But the reason its so versatile is because of its simplicity!
Sure he said he blasted his music on the way to school, but that’s all he said. It was you guys who decided to take it the most extreme, negative example of blasting music, rolled down windows, annoyance to everyone based on a stereotype, and assumptions based on rap music. Let’s see the original statement:
Right after this we have people claiming how much rap sucks, and how much of an ass they are. But that has nothing to do with this so we’ll cut that out.
Here we have Mangetoute, Eve, and Kalhoun make their assumptions.
Bolding mine.
Look at what the OP says, and look what you three manage to infer from it. I’d say the attack was pretty uncalled for. Also look at the bolded statment. I’d say it’s a safe bet that it was the fact that he was listening to ** The Evil Rap Music ** is why you jumped to asssumptions based on stereotypes and prejudice. So much for fighting ignorance eh.
I will cheerfully concede that, according to the definition posted by Cisco, rap is a form of music. But that definition is not consistent with any definition I would use of “music”. I would define “music” as being an art form based upon a pattern of tones in sound. I’ll leave “art” undefined here, but since I agree that rap is art, I don’t think that’s important. And rap is certainly patterned sounds, so it’s akin to music. But the patterns are not based on tone, so I’ll continue to maintain that rap is not music. I’m not familar with Penderecki’s “Threnody” or Pierrot Lunaire (at least not by name), so I can’t comment on those.
Nor is my issue with rap merely that it’s not what I like or grew up with. I’ve heard folk rap, for instance, of which I am quite fond (note that contemporary urban rap is not all of rap). And to reiterate, despite not liking the most common form of rap, I still think it’s a perfectly worthwhile art form. But it’s still not music, by my definitions.
Bold all you want, I stand by every word I said.
I mean, typed.
Sorry, y’all, but I gotta stepo up and support Eve here. I like hip-hop, but she’s right, when one hears Ludakris blasting from the hoopty at the stoplight on New York Avenue in DC, when one hears Eminem’s bass beat thumping from the POS at rhe stoplight on Clarendon Avenue in Arlington, one has to conclude that rap lovers are some generous sumbitches, sharing their songs with passersby.
And, no. it’s not a racial thing because hip-hop knows no race—IMO, it’s a stupid young male thing. Now, it’s rap, 20 years ago it was Night Ranger being blasted from car speakers.
I’m going to have to say you’re wrong here. Read my first post in this thread. I guarantee you, guarantee you, guarantee you that I could pick up a guitar and become proficient at it before you could pick up a pencil and write a respectable rap song.
Mainstream rap all sounds the same. I’m going to say that again, just for emphasis. Mainstream rap all sounds the same. Try listening to some Deltron 3030 or Dr. Octagon, or Buck 65, or the latest album from DJ Signify, or in the field of turntablism, DJ Shadow, Kid Koala, or Philip Jeck.
Then come back and say it’s all the same, and I’ll just chalk it up to the inaccountability of human taste and move on.
“I was just thinking about how Rap and Hip Hop music can be effectively mixed with Jazz, Heavy Metal, Rock and Roll, R and B, Gospel, Classical, Country, etc.”
The flaw with this theory is that every single one of the forms you mentioned has also been mixed with each other countless times over the last 10-50 years.
Heavy metal bands playing with symphonies, jazzers playing with country artists, gosplers singing with rock bands … all been done a million times. Tossing rap into the mix is nothing novel.
For that matter, you could say the same thing about disco. 
Just got done reading every single post…thanx for those “dopers” that defended me…I’m not a jerk with my music I turn it off when passing by the Senior Citizens home and I make sure I can still hear the ambulance so I can get out of the way. I’m a nice guy who needs my Hip Hop to get me ready for 7 hours of school.
Rap is a lot of things, but “the most versatile music”? - Nah. Offhand, I’d say songs that have rhythms and pitches would be ipso facto more versatile.
Rap is too versatile!, the discs can be used as coasters, targets, ornaments, they can balance a wobbly table there must be a zillion uses for Rap music.
WARNING, THE FOLLOWING IS MY OPINION!!!
Rap is (mostly) repeats of the same beats and the same ideas ad nauseum, it had a bright and promising future which disappeared way too fast, Rap was born, lived and died with “Public Enemy-Fear of a Black Planet”, Chuck D was a poet!, but Flavor Flave (Chuck’s ignint bitch/sidekick) sold more records ($ the great corrupter) so the record company went his way and flushed a promising new art form down the proverbial toilet, on FOABP Chuck D. was angry at the state of politics and world affairs as it affected the young, black male, but that “Rap you got to think about” doesn’t sell like the “pop music” stuff so that is what gets pushed.
And besides, Rap sucks
Unclviny (longtime disc jockey and major music nut)
Looks like ignorant assumption isn’t a one-way street then (look at the bolded statement).
I knew that if I waited long enough, some Doper would come along and formulate my opinion for me with much more aplomb than I could’ve mustered myself. I’m even comfortable with calling rap ‘art,’ since it seems half of people call ‘art’ today I would call ‘crap.’
Thanks, Chronos.
Is there an insult in here somewhere? C’mon, I’m too old and decrepit to decode your hip hop mumbo jumbo.
If your music is loud enough that you feel a need to turn it down when passing by the Old Folks’ home, it’s way too loud in general.
I suppose we should wonder exactly what is meant by ‘versatile’ here; if it is defined as 'drawing from the widest possible range of existing resources, then maybe the OP has a point, but if we defined it as ‘appealing to* the broadest possible spectrum of music listeners’, then I don’t think it could fairly be described as the top dog.
*[sup]Or even replacing ‘appealing to’ with ‘found inoffensive by’, I still think it would be a struggle[/sup]