"Music" you consider to be NOISE

[Ickorus]

Metal.

 

[Aerodyamic]

And yet you also said this:

I don't like rap because I don't like it, and the vast numbers of "no, man, 'X' will totally change your mind" examples have yet to even come close to changing my mind.

Which contradicts your insistence that it's just about the crap on the radio and that you have an open mind. An open minded person doesn't make blanket statements about a genre, it's just counter to the traits of someone who actually gives things outside of his comfort zone a shot. I don't think any real rap fan would disagree that rap on the radio is bad. So is every other genre on the radio, so it's essentially a non-point you're making. Trust me, no one hates bad rap more than fans of legitimate rap. I think guys like Soulja Boi represent the death of lyricism which is amazingly sad.

Dude, I haven't come across anything that is obviously pigeon-holed as rap that I find enjoyable. Spoken word, beat poets and folk poets all entertain me, but the recurrent themes in most of what is consistently held out for my inspection and labeled as rap is uninteresting, uninspired and frankly, doesn't give me ANY of the same emotional responses as any of the genres that I do enjoy. I don't get it, and I don't have the frame of reference to understand much of the subject matter. However, I've never stated that I didn't enjoy some of it, so allow me to demonstrate:


Now, considering you haven't actually presented a SINGLE example of the artists you keep referring to, I just did a quick youtube search for 'Del', and most of the results came up as 'Del the Funky Homo-Sapien', who I am familiar with, although I don't frequently listen to his work, outside the Gorillaz, and that infrequently. That said, Del the Funky Homo-Sapien is at least similar to K-os, N.A.S.A or Sage Francis, inherently, and that would be part of why I occasionally listen to him.

That's besides the fact that as a white, heterosexual, 30-something, blue-collar, home-owning male in Western Canada, I simply do not identify with most of the themes portrayed in rap or hip-hop, regardless of the positive or negative colour those themes may have. My upbringing was middle-class, relatively stable, and blue-collar, so that rules out any themes involving living a tough life in a bad part of town, having any real exposure to drugs or crime, going without anything essential to a relatively safe and happy childhood, anything that would have made me or anyone close to me a less-than-functional adult, or the overarching societal effects of any of the preceding.

Wow, and you just made it racist, dude. Two of the men I listed are white. So am I. They also don't rap about life in the "ghetto" constantly. Race has nothing to do with it. Del raps about the ghetto but he also raps about how annoying AC Transit is and 3030 is a giant ode to science fiction. The fact that you just stereotyped the crap out of the genre is incredibly telling. It's not all gangster rap, man. I had a safe and happy childhood too. Why do people have to be damaged to enjoy rap, and why do rappers have to only do "I come from a rough neighborhood" stuff? Again, you just don't know what you're talking about.

So, as I mentioned above, I did a quick youtube search for 'Del'; the FIRST result was http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=del&aq=f

Go ahead, click that, and take a guess who came up first.

A certain amount of common identity is required for ANY artist to reach his target audience, and I don't have enough in common with the bulk of the artists in the rap genre to identify with the bulk of their messages. The fact that I'm white and didn't grow up in the 'ghetto', 'projects' or the 'hood' doesn't make me racist, but that same fact means that I don't understand all lot of the inherent struggles, choices and lifestyles that many rappers take for granted within their target audience.

For example, what the hell is the 'AC Transit'? I live in Western Canada, and I can't think of any cities that I've been in that call their transit systems that, and I can promise that I've never been on the 'AC Transit', which would make it PHENOMENALLY difficult to identify with ANY song concerning it. Hell, I haven't used public transit on anything approaching a regular basis in over 15 years, come to think of it.

That might make my ability to appreciate a song, rap or otherwise, about anything transit-related a little bit of a stretch, wouldn't it?

Plain and simple, my past does not include very many or the vast number of factors that would serve as a common identity with 99% of rap artists.

Then there's the fact that based on my age and where I've lived, at the time that many North American youth were being exposed to the early waves of rap and hip-hop, my local music scene was still hip-deep in the punk era. Maybe you didn't know, but old punks have exactly 4 retirement plans: go biker, go rock-a-billy, sell out, or burn out. I've chosen to go rock-a-billy, and I'm rather happy with it.

I get that too, but now you're sort of shoehorning yourself into being a certain person. People can grow with age, obviously I don't have to tell you that, so I think we both know that the "I decided my life course at 16" statement really doesn't carry a whole lot of convincing weight.

I'm not shoehorning myself into anything, I'm simply comfortable with the lifestyle I lead, and the music that happens to accompany it happen to be pretty bitching.

And unless the 'Del' you referred to is 'Del the Funky Homosapien', and 3030 is one of the various people that he's collaborated with over the years, the fact is, I know enough people with varied enough musical tastes that I should have heard of one of your examples by now, if they were that damn good.

3030 is an album, and it's a critically acclaimed masterpiece. Look, there's no rule that says you have to venture out of your comfort zone in terms of taste or as a person, but to deny or downplay the rewards of doing so just comes across kind of...sad. I don't mean this to come across as a battle and I don't think this should devolve into some kind of game of oneupsmanship. I just don't think you're being fair to a genre, and furthermore I think you think you are.

3030 is an album, and it's a critically acclaimed masterpiece.

Critically acclaimed by who? I've got to be honest, and say that I don't watch TV, and I only rarely read the paper, but I'm apparently missed the boat on this 'critical acclaim'.

EDIT: If the album you're referring to is Deltron 3030, the guy doing a lot of the rapping on it is Del the Funky Homo-sapien, and you really need to communicate yourself far more clearly. There is a massive difference between Del the Funky Homo-Sapien and Deltron 3030, and just 'Del' and '3030'. If those are in fact what you're referring to, I heard of those I dunno, 6 or 7 years ago, and sure, they're alright, but nothing I went out of my way to retain copies of.

Fact is, I've highlighted several examples of artists that I do find entertaining, but I'm personally not willing to be so narrow-minded as to jam any of them into the 'rap' category, because I don't think it does them justice. Beyond those artists, you're right, I don't feel a need to reach out and go looking for exemplars of artistic merit, because I've found that the music I'll be likely to enjoy finds me. The other, truly sad fact, is that I don't feel an urge to punish myself by sifting through the midden heap to find the gems, because they're a depressingly small percentage of that particular pile.

That said, watch that youtube clip I posted above, and then watch the following one, and tell me what you see, or what your get out of the pair of them.

Spoiler: Tom Waits

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

Says the guy with a "Trout Mask Replica" avatar.

Hell yeah. I'm a hypocrite. I'm human and can't help it, and I don't care .

And guys, stop dissing on Sunn O))). It is an objective truth that they are awesome. Everybody's narrow-mindedness regarding music here is really disappointing me, because only my narrow-mindedness is valid, which is also an objective fact.

Agreed. Sunn O))) isn't really my cup of tea, but I can appreciate what guys like them and Merzbow are trying to achieve with their particular styles.

 

[Kajt]

That kind of metal where they sing with a really dark voice. I can't remember what the name of the genre is, but I can't stand it...

And when I say dark, I mean really dark. Not Children of Bodom, whom I love. I'm talking about far darker singing.

 

[Jake the Snake]

Black Metal. I don't understand how people enjoy that genre of Music.

Also some of the really obscure Hip hop/rap/pop gets annoying as fuck.

 

[mew4ever23]

Justin Bieber
Myley Cyrus (and her alter-ego, Hannah Montana)

There was something else, I know it...

 

[Ldude893]

Heavy metal and anything above that. It's unintelligible screaming and electrical guitar solos. Sure it's art, but not all art appeals to me.

Christian Rock

It's an genre where all the songs are about the same topic. Yes, it is irritating as heck.

 

[A Raging Emo]

Screamo and emo. That is virtually all I have to say.

A few Examples? Brokencyde. Bring me the Horizon. 30 Seconds to Mars.

 

[Ashcrexl]

the only music i would consider noise are songs actually MEANT to be noise. such as

 

[Kirch Libre]

Gangsta Rap and Go-Go just fills me with rage. Ol' Skool rap is okay though. Everything else is okay.

 

[Dys]

that horrible 'only girl in the world' trash that keeps getting airtime on aus radio.

 

[Kirch Libre]

All music is noise. Not all noise is music.

This. This so hard, it hurts.

 

[SkoopMaster]

All sound is just sound, all noise is just noise, but humans can interpret it as music. Any sound is music as far as I'm concerned, because someone, somewhere, will find it musical in some way.



...except for this:
I don't understand, it's gotten to the point where it gets so fast that you might as well call those beats 8th or 16th notes, just like in other forms of music, because when you get a series of consecutive beats or sounds going really fast, there is a point where each individual beat stops feeling like the pulse, and instead every other beat, or every 4 beats, ect. feels like the tempo. There are million different ways you can count and feel the rhythm in music, to the point where a slow rock song could technically be at some ridiculously high beats per minute. But noooooo, it's fucking insane!!! The tempo is soooo high! I'm so hardcore, I listen to 1920 bpm! It almost sounds like one drawn out tone!! Woah!!!!

You though that was bad. Please

 

[theguitarhero6]

Woah man, the weirdest thing right now, I can NOT stop listening to Milk Lizard and Setting Fire... Idk why, but its just hooked, you were so right!

 

[Magic Cheese]

/thread

 

[Rachel317]

I'm pretty open minded when it comes to music, but I honestly think that doom/death/black metal is purely just noise.

Screamo...I see where you're coming from but, for the most part, it seems to me to be just a bunch of kids screaming with guitars behind it.

Sometimes it has melody...In This Moment's Maria Brink's a screamer, but their music isn't just noise. Arch Enemy's Angela Gassow spits demons at you every time she opens her mouth but...ok, AE IS just noise, sometimes