# What do you call these songs?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-these-songs/224302>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [January 13, 2004, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-these-songs/224302 "2004-01-13T20:48:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![gex\_gex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/94ad74/32.png) [@gex\_gex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gex_gex)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-these-songs/224302/21 "2004-01-18T12:44:04Z")

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What genre are these?

> [@](#):
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> R.E.M.- It’s the end of the world

Alternative rock/Indie rock/ College rock

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> Blues Traveler- Hook

Don’t know it.

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> Billy Joel- We didn’t start the fire

Pop.

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> Barenaked Ladies- One Week

Pop.

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> INXS- Mediate

Don’t know it.

The vocals in these songs are not rhythmic enough to be called rap. If you’re looking for a term to describe this vocal style, maybe **Nightsky** ’s suggestion of ‘patter’ is more accurate.

> [@](#):
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> _originally posted by Alan Smithee_
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> > [@](#):
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> > _Originally Posted by Wumpus_  
> > Shattered, Walk this Way, and even Life is a Rock all trace their roots back to the talking blues. As does rap, of course.
> 
> I agree with the first sentence, but I thought rap developed more or less independantly. According to a thread about rap somewhere on this board (I can’t find it while they’re still reindexing the boards), the original purpose of the MC (rapper) was to get the crowd at a dance club worked up and excited while promoting the DJs next event. If so, it has more in common geneologically with routines warming up a crowd, carnival barking, and sales patter than talking blues. I’m curious if htere really is a connection, or if you’re just assuming that there is.

The information that **Alan Smithee** recalls is correct, and I would not be surprised if I posted the information in the thread he refers to (as it’s not the first time I’ve responded to the erroneous assumption that rap derived from the talking blues). Of course, I would be eager to see a reliable cite establishing a link between rap and the talking blues, if **Wumpus** or anyone else can find one.

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**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-call-these-songs/224302/22 "2004-01-18T20:54:34Z")

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> [@Hampshire](#):
>
> Yuppie rap?  
> Frat boy rap?  
> Novelty rap?
> 
> R.E.M.- It’s the end of the world  
> (six o’clock, tv hour, don’t get caught in foreign towers)
> 
> Blues Traveler- Hook  
> (suck it in, suck it in if your rin tin tin or anne boleyn)
> 
> Billy Joel- We didn’t start the fire  
> (pope paul, malcolm x, british politician sex)
> 
> Barenaked Ladies- One Week  
> (like kurosawa i make mad films, okay i don’t make films, but if i did they’d have a samurai)
> 
> INXS- Mediate  
> (the number eight, a white black state, a gentle trait)
> 
> What do you call these type songs and what ones do you have to add?

“Frat Boy” rock, what we called “Beach Music” when I was in college back in the 80s, is more recently incarnated as Hootie and the Blowfish, “Music to make the world safe for guys who wear Dockers.” Uncle Kracker is sort of in this lot, too; this type of music is immediately released to oldies stations and VH-1, totally bypassing hipper, youth-oriented venues.

Barenaked Ladies, Smash Mouth and the guys who did “Steal My Sunshine” are what I call “Canadian Beach Music.”

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