[atlantaprog] Re: Artistic value...

Anything is better 'on ice', right?  I got dragged down to The Loft a couple 
weeks ago for some independent hip hop festival/competition, and it was... 
underwhelming.  Of course seeing a bunch of random rock bands would be too.  
But there was one rapper there who definitely had talent in his delivery and 
rhyming cadence.  It's hard to describe but he sounded and looked like he 
belonged on stage more than anyone else.  
   
  I still don't have much appreciation for the genre though, regardless of 
lyrics.  I would never say it's not music or devoid of relevance, but I can't 
help but think it's somehow 'less'-- at least as repetitive, structurally 
simplistic and bereft of melody as rock or country music, much less classical 
or jazz.  Maybe I'm being elitist, but generally speaking, how can _talking 
over a drum machine_ measure up to _singing over live instruments_, all other 
things being equal?  My girlfriend listens to a good bit of hip hop as well as 
hard rock, and the only thing I can tolerate is the Yin Yang Twins.  I'm 
willing to take recommendations if you have any, for the sake of openmindedness.
   
  Brian
  www.myspace.com/echohotelband 
  (2 new songs online now; gig @ 10 High/Dark Horse on Tu/5/2/06) 
   
   
  

Allen Welty-Green <agmedia@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
  In order to wake ya'll up a bit, I'm posting a comment I made to the 
artnews listserv, in response to a discussion thread about artistic 
value of certain type of art - it has a bit of relevance to some of you 
guys I suspect!

Quote:

I'm always engaged in this sort of debate about music. You'd be 
surprised how many otherwise progressive and forward thinking musicians 
I know don't think twice about bashing rap & hip hop as being somehow 
unworthy to be called music. Same with techno, industrial, improv, etc.

I always maintain that exposure is the key. If all you know of hip-hop 
is the bling-bling-booty-pop-a-cap-in-yo-ass video images - as is the 
case with most of my middle-age white friends - then yeah, you might 
have a hard time calling hip hop music. But I'm quick to point out that 
if the only thing someone knew of prog-rock were Wakeman's ice shows 
and Emerson Lake & Palmer's 30,000 Persian rugs on stage, then you 
might have a hard time seeing the artistry in THAT genre too (my 
friends are mostly a bunch of prog-rock geeks!)

But dig a bit deeper in any genre and the artistry emerges. I have yet 
to encounter ANY type of music that was devoid of artistic relevance. 
That doesn't mean you have to enjoy listening to it, but to deny it's 
artistic value is extremely short-sighted.




                
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