Is rap music detrimental to society?

[Bulldog19892]

No. It is however detrimental to your intelligence.

 

[Ares Tyr]

I love how all these people will join the conversation with a simple "No, but it's really stupid" without reading any of the previous posts.

 

[Space Spoons]

The situation with rap is the same as the situation with any other kind of music: When it's good, it's great, and when it's bad, it kills brain cells.

It's the difference between J-Live (the former) and 50 Cent (the latter) that people fail to recognize. Translated to other genres, it might go something like this:

Johnny Cash and Kenny Chesney (Country)
Crowded House and Michael Buble (Folk)
Nirvana and Panic! At the Disco (Punk Rock/Alternative)
The Jackson Five and The Backstreet Boys (Pop)

I'll leave it to you to figure out who's who in that list. Different strokes for different folks, after all. Still, I think my point has been made.

 

[Ares Tyr]

No. It is however detrimental to your intelligence.

I go to one of the most academically difficult research universities in the world and just about everyone here listens to hip hop. Same goes for my friends at places like Harvard and Princeton.

Your response?

I'm befriending you. We're friends now... okay?

 

[Space Spoons]

Listening to awesome pop music like the Backstreet Boys doesn't kill brain cells unless you're already dumb.

Maybe. Personally, I find corporate prepacked sugarpop to be mind numbingly repetitive and somewhat dishonest. But like I said...
Different strokes. Different folks.

 

[Space Spoons]

Listening to awesome pop music like the Backstreet Boys doesn't kill brain cells unless you're already dumb.

Maybe. Personally, I find corporate prepacked sugarpop to be mind numbingly repetitive and somewhat dishonest. But like I said...
Different strokes. Different folks.

I don't let dishonesty get in the way because that would mean I couldn't listen to Wagner because he's a bad bad man (or really any of the Russian composers either since they're all depressed alcoholics).

And mind numbing repetition is found in all the artists you listed so I chalk that up to more a "problem" of Western popular music than anything else.

That's not what I meant by dishonest. Lord knows most of the great musicians of our time have been plagued by their own personal demons. What I was referring to was the corporate creation of this image for the Backstreet Boys that they were actually musicians instead of just pretty meat puppets lipsynching to some of the most heavily modified vocals in history.

No real argument for that point. When you get right down to it, pretty much all music is the repetition of notes and beats, so maybe it wasn't so great a point to begin with.

Still, there's no excuse for an album of 12 songs all containing only the various rearrangements of the words "heart", "love", "soul", "girl" and "together forever".

 

[Treblaine]

Considering the definition of Rap goes from N.W.A to Will Smith, I'd have to say this genre is as legitimate as any other genre like Rock, Pop or (shudder) Country music.

I think many will focus on Gangster Rap that encourages violence, racism, misogyny, drug use, jaywalking, terrible fashion sense and other dumb shit. Well is that any worse than Rock which has Death metal and Marylin Manson which people (wrongfully) say cause so called "white boy gun crimes" like mindless killing sprees.

It is my opinion that Death metal and Gangster Rap are not the disease which causes the symptom of gun violence, but that it is larger social and economic problems which are the disease which gives the symptom of both gun-crime and these music genres.

I am also rather frond of Death Metal and Gangster Rap but only in very small doses as like gory horror movies, they often become overbearing.

I also find it interesting that all the "dangerous" Rappers and Rockers are now happy family men with wives, children and MTV shows while the 'sweet n innocent' Pop singers like Britney Spears and Michael Jackson have turned into complete fuck-ups, with paedophile Gary Glitter (USA will thankfully not know him) being more hated than Osama.

 

[BallPtPenTheif]

Bone Thugs is considered hip hop and not pop because of the cultural intent and reception of the music turns it into hip hop and not 60's pop music.

For another example, mashup artists like Girl Talk and Party Ben are ostensibly referred to as mashup artists and not "hip hop vocals over rock backing track" artists.

and in this regard i think we are muddling up terms here since genrefication of music is a confusing endeavor. typically i use genre terms to reference musical waves or movements... to identify the span of a musical scene. however, in this case i am referring to the loose application of these terms in the mainstream music market place.

and basing genre on cultural intent and cultural reception is just getting too far from the music for me to care. using those identifiers is more useful for the identification of a subculture rather than crafting any functional or useful musical genre term.

 

[Zeromaxx]

Well...rap isn't detrimental to society but by all means it doesn't help. Though as I'm sure has already been said (150+ replies...I'm not reading all of that) through the literal definition of music rap isn't music but words put to rythem.

 

[Perwer]

but these mainstream artists I think are just dumbing down generation after generation of kids. LONG LIVE HENDRIX! Cheers

I wholeheartedly agree. Although I believe this applies to most of the mainstream music since 1990. My kids will grow up with Beatles, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Guns'N Roses,ZZ TOP, Kiss, Iron Maiden etc. Just like I did.

But I realize now that this is just a matter of taste within music.

 

[BallPtPenTheif]

Do you really think so? I think it's far more functional and useful to classify Dr. Dre via cultural intent/reception as hip hop even though he makes extensive use of 70's funk samples.

if you're recommending it to somoene who is interested in the rap subculture then it is effective however identifying it by the music would allow funk fans to identify with the Chronic album.

 

[TheSteeleStrap]

I am a metahlead but I actually like some underground rap. I like the Juggalo stuff and stuff that has some actual deep meaning to it... For example, Tech N9ne and Potluck... They have talent because they actually dig inside themselves to write their songs, unlike these mainstream rappers who talk about b*tches and h*es... Getting wasted and Driving a pimped out car, then say they're "from the streets maaaaaan, life is tough"... They even have started ripping off each other's lyrics, if you notice... I'm going to cut it now before I end up typing forever...