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| From | Stewart Mason <flamingo@theworld.com> |
| Subject | Re: pseudo-bands on "American Dreams" |
| Date | Fri, 02 May 2003 12:30:01 -0400 |
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At 12:19 PM 5/2/2003 -0400, Harris, Will wrote:
>>>How about "rap is not predominantly melodic"?
>
>>Add a "Most" to the front of that, and I would buy it. On the other hand,
>>Schoenberg or Stockhausen weren't predominantly melodic either -- would
>>anyone say their compositions are not music?
>
>I wouldn't. But, then, I'm not familiar with their compositions...
James Brown too, come to think of it.
>I wasn't really arguing with your point, which I think was that it's maybe a
>little closed-minded (and you may feel free to insert a screamed "Maybe?!?
>A LITTLE?!?!?" here, if you wish) to think in terms of rap not being music;
>I can see where that could happen, though...particularly with folks on this
>list, who clearly tend to look for a strong melody with their music.
I can see it too, but I can't help but find it offensive. Hierarchical
views of music are innately idiotic: no one form of music is intrinsically
"better" or "worse" than another.
>I'm sure I'm not the first pop fan to listen to some of the rap songs rising
>the charts (not all, but some), then listen to songs from my preferred
>musical genre, and think, "Man, I just don't understand why anyone would
>listen to the former over the latter." Everyone's allowed to listen to what
>they want, of course, but, given the choice, I would never pick rap over
>pop. I like rap alright, but it's something I can only listen to in small
>doses; I suspect there are others who feel the same way about power pop...in
>fact, I'm positive of it.
As many of us have pointed out on-list, judging all rap by Jay-Z and Pork
Dildo or whatever he's calling himself this week is like judging all rock
by Britney Spears and Matchbox 20: what's most popular is almost never
what's best. (A current exception is Missy Elliot, who is a huge star
making the flat-out weirdest, most experimental music currently to be found
in the Billboard charts.)
>
>Maybe it's just because I didn't grow up listening to rap; I'd guess that
>future generations, where you have children AND parents who've never known a
>world without rap music, will be less likely to shun the genre as a whole.,,
It's already starting -- as an old man of 33, I was only 10 when "Rapper's
Delight" was all over the place; rap's been a part of my musical landscape
for coming up on a quarter-century!
S
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