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| From | "John L. Micek" <jlmicek@mindspring.com> |
| Subject | Re: Is Rap music? |
| Date | Tue, 10 Feb 2004 14:21:48 -0500 |
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> Yeah, I'll 2nd Ira's notion that the typical pop/power pop >fan probably
has a greater appreciation and understanding >of music in general than your
average sheep....
The above is probably no more or less true of power-pop fans than it is of
specialist fans of any other genre. I hardly think Audities members/pop fans
have cornered the market on musical wisdom. To suggest otherwise, I think,
smacks of the worst kind of elitism.
If a person is geniune in their pursuit, a deeper involvement in any
discipline or art form necessarily fosters an understanding and appreciation
of the various permutations of that art form or discipline, or, at minimum,
a genuine attempt to do so.
And it simply follows that the knowledge of the specialist will be both
broader and deeper than someone who takes only a general or passing interest
in any discipline or art form.
To the rest of the earlier post:
> While Rap is obvisouly a unque branch of "music"...the >negative
connotation of a lot of it is a real turn off, >especially when you have
dudes filling a whole album with >rhymes about bitches, ho's, poppin' caps,
drinkin 40's, >not having a job and partying all the time.
Unless, of course, it's an honest attempt to depict the realities of inner
city life, where unemployment and social ills such as alcoholism are a fact
of the land, and, yes, gang-related murder does happen with depressing
frequency. Spend enough time as a police reporter and you'll become only too
aware of it.
I'll agree that bling-bling for its own sake is silly and the sexism that
permeates *some" rap is simply wrong and has to be changed.
But a rap musician's attempt to chronicle the world around them as, I think,
Ice Cube and Ice-T have done with remarkable clarity, is simply fulfilling
an artist's obligation to filter life through art.
This is no less true of what Dylan did in the 1960s than it is of what any
responsible artist -- Billy Bragg, Steve Earle, and yes, even Dr. Dre are
doing now. The milieu and the form are simply different.
John Micek.
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