Music (rant)

[Deadman Walkin]

humm...
Anyways, my huge point is simply that music, other art, other things that aspire to be art, they're all something that have value primarily in how the individual experiences it. Part of their value is in the eye of the beholder, an indictment against the three behind y'all, but that another part of value is in understanding what the beholder values and why they don't get it from other places as well. If its the trivial case of ignorance or peer pressure fine. its trivial it doesn't help. However, if its more deep rooted and actually derived from other preferences, I think it'd teach us about that other person and more about what we as humans want from life. To react with anger initially is understandable, but to hide behind the anger instead of trying to understand their side limits the art.

Sorry for being so preachy. I'll at least half-heartedly back up my statements if i've offended any or all of you.

I am absolutely not offended, I try as hard as possible to remain neutral on the subject. I understand some people like people like Lil Wayne, but to tear down music that isn't like that is just ridiculous. I think people are ignorant to say that music is dead, because well, it isn't. A lot of people in my school DO enjoy Beatles and other oldies (even people like Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darin and The Ink Spots) which I am happy for.

Unfortunately, I would not strongly disagree that all teenagers are assholes. There are plenty good ones out there (such as my girlfriend, and other friends who aren't ignorant pricks) but with the preppy/ jock kids, smokers who just don't care and the gangster brown/black/white kids who look down at everyone like everyone else is nothing. Just pisses me off.

 

[Mizaki]

It's ridiculous how people can say and actually believe that it isn't music if there's no one playing an instrument on it. Or when people claim music was better 'back then'. Or people who spend their existance dissing rap and what they believe to be emo. And then there's the "I like everything but country and rap" lie. But I've already said this type of stuff before so I will copy and paste, then modify to fit the thread/add more awesome.

Talent is not the core of music. Sound is the core of music. I accept all forms of music as long as there is something, at least one thing interesting about it. I do not care even slightly about messages, emotional effect, talent, skill, or anything like that. Because when it comes down to it, I cannot dance/headbang/bob my head to any of the things I mentioned there. Why? They. Are. Not. The. Music. Judging music purely from that is like judging food purely off of the taste of its dipping sauce. I like I wish there were more people like me in the respect that they don't obsessively hold their cups of tea at an obscenely high level and spit on everything that doesn't taste like it. It bothers me alot. It seems every time people mention music, someone is always going "RAP SUCKS" "I HATE SCREAMING MUSIC" "EMO SUCKS" "NEW METALLICA SUCKS" every single time. And it's endless.

It is not easy work to make a good rap song. It really isn't. Even mainstream songs. I am unable to do what Soulja Boy does. If I tried, he'd still do it better than me. And I'm not going to deny it just because he does something I wouldn't. I respect Soulja Boy and I wish him the best of luck as a rapper because there are people who enjoy his music and it's a dick move to take that away. I cannot stress enough, music is still music despite the methods to obtaining the sound. So what he isn't trying to impress white teenagers with his talent? That doesn't matter.

The topic of 'modern music' is one that will never go well. The nostalgia glasses do nothing good for anybody, really. Music always will be awesome. It's amusing how there's so many artists out there who have loyal and rabid audiences, but when old music is mentioned, people only name a couple bands. Like I said about games, a long time ago had a long time to give us good music. And actually, I find myself enjoying more modern music than old because ideas and technology have evolved since the old days. And it's not like alot of music wasn't stagnant for most of the history of music anyway.

I've grown to appreciate tons of music because I learned to ask myself "Do I love/hate this because of how it sounds or how it makes me feel?" Maybe others should try that too. Because even though it makes people look smart and cool when they go "MAINSTREAM = SUCK I H8 RADIO", there are gems everywhere. Even in cultures and class levels that aren't yours.

 

[Berethond]

It's ridiculous how people can say and actually believe that it isn't music if there's no one playing an instrument on it. Or when people claim music was better 'back then'. Or people who spend their existance dissing rap and what they believe to be emo. And then there's the "I like everything but country and rap" lie. But I've already said this type of stuff before so I will copy and paste, then modify to fit the thread/add more awesome.

Talent is not the core of music. Sound is the core of music. I accept all forms of music as long as there is something, at least one thing interesting about it. I do not care even slightly about messages, emotional effect, talent, skill, or anything like that. Because when it comes down to it, I cannot dance/headbang/bob my head to any of the things I mentioned there. Why? They. Are. Not. The. Music. Judging music purely from that is like judging food purely off of the taste of its dipping sauce. I like I wish there were more people like me in the respect that they don't obsessively hold their cups of tea at an obscenely high level and spit on everything that doesn't taste like it. It bothers me alot. It seems every time people mention music, someone is always going "RAP SUCKS" "I HATE SCREAMING MUSIC" "EMO SUCKS" "NEW METALLICA SUCKS" every single time. And it's endless.

It is not easy work to make a good rap song. It really isn't. Even mainstream songs. I am unable to do what Soulja Boy does. If I tried, he'd still do it better than me. And I'm not going to deny it just because he does something I wouldn't. I respect Soulja Boy and I wish him the best of luck as a rapper because there are people who enjoy his music and it's a dick move to take that away. I cannot stress enough, music is still music despite the methods to obtaining the sound. So what he isn't trying to impress white teenagers with his talent? That doesn't matter.

The topic of 'modern music' is one that will never go well. The nostalgia glasses do nothing good for anybody, really. Music always will be awesome. It's amusing how there's so many artists out there who have loyal and rabid audiences, but when old music is mentioned, people only name a couple bands. Like I said about games, a long time ago had a long time to give us good music. And actually, I find myself enjoying more modern music than old because ideas and technology have evolved since the old days. And it's not like alot of music wasn't stagnant for most of the history of music anyway.

I've grown to appreciate tons of music because I learned to ask myself "Do I love/hate this because of how it sounds or how it makes me feel?" Maybe others should try that too. Because even though it makes people look smart and cool when they go "MAINSTREAM = SUCK I H8 RADIO", there are gems everywhere. Even in cultures and class levels that aren't yours.

First off, you in increasingly high levels of error, except the last paragraph.

First, the music is the sum of ALL of it's parts.
Secondly, the core of music is NOT sound, it is emotion. Music is and always has been about how it makes you feel.
Thirdly, it's not music if it doesn't have rhythm, harmony, and melody of some sort.
That's a lot more than just if you can 'cannot dance/headbang/bob my head' to it.

You completely missed the reason why most people hate Soulja Boy and other rappers. They don't write their own songs, all they do is talk with a beat. That's it. A six-year-old kid could do that.

And you say that

a long time ago had a long time to give us good music

Look up how many pieces Beethoven, Bach, Schubert, and Chopin wrote over their lives and tell me they used a long time to write it.

 

[Clashero]

What bothers me, is the group of people that seem to have the notion in their heads that the only modern music is either rap or pop. Try some ska.

You can haz my internets.
Seriously, ska is amazing to listen to, not to mention easy to get into. Most people have no love for reggae and ska, which really saddens me.
I did get one of my female friends into ska and now we skank (dance ska, for those not in the know) everywhere we go, it's loads of fun.

 

[TheSKSpecial]

You completely missed the reason why most people hate Soulja Boy and other rappers. They don't write their own songs, all they do is talk with a beat. That's it. A six-year-old kid could do that.

Okay maestro, go ahead and make a song "just talking with a beat" and have it be as popular as "Crank Dat Soulja Boy" was. I dare you. Hell, try to rap, period. And you don't even have to write a good lyric, just rhyme and stay on beat without taking a breath every 4 words. Then come back and say how rappers just "talk with a beat".

I don't even like Soulja Boy as a rapper, but as an entertainer, what he did was undeniable. He turned Youtube and Myspace into promotional monsters, and he made hit records before he was even old enough to vote.

 

[wordsmith]

First off most of them are rapping about how horrible and "living in the ghetto" is. It is a ridiculous perspective on what the hood is like, because most of them are ridiculously rich, as well as living in giant mansions with sick cars.

Whilst I see your perspective, I've gotta disagree. "Most" of them aren't talking about all that "ghetto" shit. "Some" of them have come from that shit and fair play, they've done well. "Most" of rap is pushed to one side in favour of the "I'm-so-m-fing-gangsta" genre. This is why we've got guys in England saying "blud" and wearing red bandanas everywhere. It's all bullshit.

Also, Akala is another rapper well worth a listen. He's an english guy (london) so yes, his accent can get annoying, but his lyrics are pretty witty. I know I'm gonna regret it, but also listen to Dizzee Rascal's stuff. He's started looking around at the kids on the streets and realised that gangsta is destroying this genre of music.

 

[Arntor]

Intent is the core towards everything that humanity creates and everything that is created by us produces a reaction, whether it is disgust, awe, or utter indifference. Once an idea has penetrated other minds, it does not leave, only suppressed. Art is what we will it to be and it's true--all art appeals to us in a subjective fashion. It's a reflection of culture, of the human condition. Art is found when there are eyes to see, ears to hear, and minds to conceptualize. We can spend our entire lives discussing the technical merits of a certain piece of work but at the end of the day, you can't take away what someone finds value in no matter how logical your words are or appear to be.

 

[zen5887]

Most teenagers are pretty stupid when it comes to subjects like this.

 

[Mizaki]

First off, you in increasingly high levels of error, except the last paragraph.

First, the music is the sum of ALL of it's parts.
Secondly, the core of music is NOT sound, it is emotion. Music is and always has been about how it makes you feel.
Thirdly, it's not music if it doesn't have rhythm, harmony, and melody of some sort.
That's a lot more than just if you can 'cannot dance/headbang/bob my head' to it.

You completely missed the reason why most people hate Soulja Boy and other rappers. They don't write their own songs, all they do is talk with a beat. That's it. A six-year-old kid could do that.

And you say that

a long time ago had a long time to give us good music

Look up how many pieces Beethoven, Bach, Schubert, and Chopin wrote over their lives and tell me they used a long time to write it.

ooh it's fun time!

1. When the core of music is emotion, people lose their will to make music when the emotion is gone, thus the faded stars of once great bands of every emotionally-charged genre, most recently nu-metal and emocore. I do not have any feelings toward music, thus I enjoy more of it. It does not offend me if its emotions or cultural background do not interest or relate to me. I can enjoy it regardless of race, style, genre, or language. And it's a shame that most people tend to believe all forms of creativity MUST be emotion-based. It puts a big damper on what could be. The fact that emotion is behind alot of music is why so much of it causes polarized fanbases and genre wars. It's almost.. painful to watch. I said in my previous post that I wish I knew people like me that understood the sound (Note: That word right there? It says sound. Say it with me!) of music and enjoyed it to the extent that I do, but I don't. So I'm stuck having to see people spout opinions based on cultural background, amount of apparent talent, and emotional affect. I know for sure I began enjoying music much more when I stopped viewing it exclusively emotionally. It started sounding better. I heard more things. Some songs stopped sounding as good due to that, but I at least can enjoy more music and never be bored with it. And people actually think they can argue with that? How come I'm always on the positive side if I'm so full of error? That is ridiculous.

2. TheSKSpecial's post was right on the money. Guess what? There are rappers who make songs like Soulja Boy's, and still don't make it! Guess why? They aren't as good as Soulja Boy. He's number one, they're not. I definately couldn't do what he did/does. Sure he isn't, as I said, aiming to please the masses of iconoclasts and cork sniffers, but that doesn't matter to me or any of his fans. I am not a fan of him, but that doesn't mean I have to put on this big act and pretend I'm the boss of good music. And, no. No. NO. Rap is not 'talking'. That is incredibly ignorant and ethnocentric. Not to mention rude. It takes rhythm. It takes rhyme. It takes the right voice and the right tone of voice. I've heard rappers with uninteresting voices and stiff flow, and others I can't tell apart from one another. But there are others (and this includes Soulja Boy) that I can tell apart from other ones and I can immediately recognize their style as soon as I hear the song. I don't even have to like them to recognize them. To use cliche insults and comparisons to children is as ignorant as it is irritating.

3. All the music that gets ragged on DOES have at least two those three things. Don't be ridiculous. You have no right to claim what's music and what's not. You aren't that special just because you hate stuff. The internet lies when it tells you that. And how the hell can I dance/headbang/etc to it if it DOESN'T have any of those? I can't believe you hit the post button after typing that. Do you actually believe that the enjoyment of music means nothing? Are you kidding me? You actually believe that the sound of a song causing me to want to move to it means nothing? That is appaling.

4. Once again, are you kidding me? You didn't even read what I posted did you? I will attempt rephrasing now so that it can't be removed from its context. People claim that music was 'better back then'. When they talk about this oh-so-great golden age, they only name a handful of things. Things build up over time. Great things happen every so often. That every so often doesn't happen instantly or over the course of a few days. It takes a while. The days of old had plenty of time to give us music. But people aren't willing to give today time. And then in 10 more years, people will claim that music was better during this time period. It has nothing to do with the lives of classical composers. I don't even know why you brought that into this. But I'm assuming it was to appear more intelligent to me since you used the magic words "look up".

 

[curlycrouton]

Okay, so I was sitting in class today and we were talking about the very interesting topic of Globalization. We started to talk about music because it is a major type of the subject. We then watched a short clip on Australian/England rappers, which I actually quite liked (I live in Canada.) Then, the three people sitting behind me started to outburst about how these rappers sucked balls because they weren't rapping about how awful there life is and how awesome they are (like it seems most rap is now adays in North America.)

I respect that they can have their own opinions, but disrespecting other cultures music just... isn't cool. Then they went on, and it got quite a lot worse. They went on how The Beatles were an AWFUL band, as well as there are only three genres of music.

1. Rap (in there opinion rap = god.)
2. Trance/ Techno/ House
3. Everything else (emo kids and anarchy and really bad music.)

I could not believe my ears. I have never gotten so angry over bullshit like that. They took it too far and continued to dis all of the music I grew up with/ have gotten to love. Robert Johnson, The Doors everything. It drove me mad to hear music being thrown out the window just like that! I had to just write that down.

Arghhhhhhh

People like that really annoy me. The best thing to do is utilise Curlycrouton's certified favourite insult:

"You fucking specimen".

Either that, or point and laugh for five minutes straight.

Y'know, sometimes I'd like to go round to their houses, burn them down, sever their legs and shoot them in the face as they crawl pathetically from the flames. If it weren't illegal, of course....

I'm sane, ok?

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Take a page from Marty McFly: "He's an asshole! I don't care what he says!" Either that, or deck them one. On a side note, modern music doesn't necessarily suck, just as classic music isn't instantly good.

 

[gremily]

Do you ever notice that in todays rap, rappers just talk instead of sing through the songs?

 

[Arcyde]

i personally hate rap... with a fiery passion


Rock FTW!

 

[TheSKSpecial]

i personally hate rap... with a fiery passion


Rock FTW!

May I ask why? Or is it just "talking over a beat" to you?

 

[BubbleGumSnareDrum]

i personally hate rap... with a fiery passion


Rock FTW!

Do you at least recognize that rap and hip-hop take talent to perform and that mainstream popular rap is not really representative of the genre?

For that matter, no mainstream popular music is really representative of the genre it claims to be. Bullet for My Valentine is corporate bullshit metal, Soulja Boy is corporate bullshit rap, Fall Out Boy is corporate bullshit "punk" and so on and so forth.

The underground is where it's at, man.

 

[Jonathan Hexley]

Stuff like that flares me up quite bad. It's just general ignorance towards music itself.
Many people call me a 'Rock n' Roll fan', but I think of myself as a taster. I liked lots of bands from lots of different genres. Including Rap. Not that new stuff, god no, I like it oldschool. Like Run DMC and Beastie Boys. That was when it owned.

Also, it isn't a matter of whether the Beatles sucked. They can't have sucked. You may not like them, but gosh darn it they revolutionised music and influenced millions of bands. If that's a band that sucks, a good band must have dieties on EVERY INSTRUMENT.

 

[Arcyde]

i personally hate rap... with a fiery passion


Rock FTW!

May I ask why? Or is it just "talking over a beat" to you?

i hate rap because its usually about complete garbage, like being a gangster or killing and stealing.


i know there are rappers out there that actually dont sing about garbage like that, and those people should be called rappers

not "50 cent" or "lil wayne"

 

[TheSKSpecial]

i hate rap because its usually about complete garbage, like being a gangster or killing and stealing.


i know there are rappers out there that actually dont sing about garbage like that, and those people should be called rappers

not "50 cent" or "lil wayne"

For that matter, no mainstream popular music is really representative of the genre it claims to be. Bullet for My Valentine is corporate bullshit metal, Soulja Boy is corporate bullshit rap, Fall Out Boy is corporate bullshit "punk" and so on and so forth.

The underground is where it's at, man.

What Cap'n Egypt said. The crap you see on TV is in no means indicative of what rap is about. Rap isn't "usually about killing and stealing and being a gangster", not even 10 percent of rap is about that. But the few who do rap about it are the most popular. Kinda like Marlon Brando will always be remembered first for playing Vito Corleone and Al Pacino will always be remembered for Scarface.

Saying all rappers talk about is guns, drugs, etc. is like me writing off all metal as screaming into a mic while everyone else wails on their instruments as loud and as fast as they can, just because I heard one Bullet For My Valentine or Disturbed song.

I know that's not true, but I can't be bothered to actually know what the fuck I'm talking about, so I'll just jump into any music discussion and say "lol metal sux". See how stupid I sound?

 

[speedcoreXdandy]

Hilltop Hoods are AMAZING. Especialy Hard Road Restrung, it's rare that I'd describe a hip hop track as beautiful but that's definitely how I'd describe that. Also british hip hop = winnnn.

Not trying to come off as an elitist here but the majority of people (or at least the ones I know) are so ignorant about music. They seem to think that anything that isn't in the charts is pure radgie goth music. Srsly I was listening to Drumsound and Bassline Smith and was asked "is this what goths listen to?" But it's not just an attitude when it comes to music, these same people think anyone who doesn't have a shaved head is a mosher and the Evil Dead is an emo film. URGH.

 

[AgentNein]

Most teenagers are pretty stupid.

Fixed that for you.