On Mar 31, 2006, at 10:50 AM, Robert Patterson wrote:
Is this thread just about rap bashing?
Me, I was surprised at how much this thread *wasn't* about rap basing. In the opera group that I frequent, I'm the *only* one who has anything good to say about rap. Here, we seem to be a minority, but a significant one.
A few observations I would add, as one who has heard quite a bit of rap and likes some of it:
- Rap is far from uniform. There is a lot of good rap, a little bit of excellent rap, and a whole lot of garbage rap. Pretty much the same as any genre.
- Whether you want to say rap counts as music is just a matter of semantics. It's an art form in which rhythm, words, and the sound of the voice are important but pitch is pretty much absent. If by your definition melody and harmony are essential to music, then rap is not music. That's fine, but I think a lot of people, when they say, "I don't consider that music," are really saying, "I don't like that."
- Not all rap is about demeaning women and killing cops. That's a small segment of rap (often called "gangsta rap") that gets a disproportionate share of the attention.
- "Rap" and "hip hop" aren't quite the same thing, though usage is inconsistent enough that it's hard to get an exact definition of either. The term "rap" alludes to rap's origins in the rhythmic talk that certain DJs used in introducing songs. The term "hip hop" is more associated with the whole cultural movement and particularly with a style of dance. Thus, one might reasonably say that the parlato songs in The Music Man are a form of rap (but not hip hop); while on the other hand a certain style of clothing might be described as hip hop (but not rap).
It may be just more semantics, but I tend to use "rap" for the style in which the emphasis is on the voice, the lyrics, and the singer's delivery; and "hip hop" for the style where the emphasis is on the beat, the sound, and the production. My usage is no doubt influenced by the fact that I like the former and dislike the latter. That's consistent with my attitude toward other genres of music: I tend to like music which emphasizes the voice and not the noise.
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