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Chad.mundt
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Posts posted by Chad.mundt
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The lyrics thing...hmm...Well, I cannot believe that these lyrics can do anything but harm. Look at the feminist movement. Feminism is not unshaven armpits and burning bras. It is about equality for women AND Men. But, Rap lyrics, IN GENERAL (DMX has made exceptions in his music), objectify women into body parts. I have never heard a rap song profess the rapper's love and respect for his woman. Rap basically undermines everything that the feminist revolution tried to accomplish. Also, lyrics talking about drugs make it seem cool to do them. You can't tell me that this is a positive influence. Again, there are exceptions, but the most popular brand of rap does says these things.
[snip]
Summarily, it's not the technique or music that I disapprove of. It is the message. You have to admit it. There are definitely dangerous messages in there.
Have you listened to old blues lyrics? Stagger Lee? Murder ballads? Metal lyrics? Lots of objectification of women, lots of violence. Watch a boxing match or a UFC match. People cheer for two men to pound each other into submission then hoot as scantily clad women strut around between rounds. Sex and violence are everywhere in this culture. Why single out rap for something that permeates the culture as a whole? Doesn't it make much more interpretive sense to see rap as yet another symptom rather than the cause?
Also, have you considered the comic elements of the extreme cartoonish hyperbole that characterizes most rap? My 18 year old and her friends love rap and they find it hilarious. Slim Shady is a persona for Marshall Mathers much like Alice Cooper is for Vincent Furnier. I loved Alice Cooper's early seventies recordings and at 13 I found the song "I Love the Dead" to be hilarious, not enticing me towards necrophilia. There are more levels than the literal and while I'm not endorsing the misogyny or homophobia in any lyrics, I find the danger attributed to rap to be greatly exagerrated.
You know...you are right. Rap is just the next logical step in our morally ambiguous society. Alright. SOCIETY is off track. Rap is a symptom. What this makes me wonder is what the next step will be...will the next symptom be the deadly one?
I don't think that many people listen to rap because it's funny. Eminem, maybe...I'm one of them.
BTW, it's not the sex so much as the drug references and the lack of a message that bothers me.
Mr. Drew, I do believe that what you have said was biased and destructive. Many, if not most jazz musicians appreciate bluegrass. Isn't that "ignorant" music? I think that the art form and society of hip-hop is just as valid as the "higher" art forms.
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Michael Moore??
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But, I DO NOT BELIEVB THAT CENSORSHIP IS EVER NECESSARY. It is an affront to the Right to Free Speech
....As is the Patriot Act...Spying on Americans...
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This is thoughtful and interesting though I'm not in agreement.
I love atonal music. And believe me, I don't intellectualize it. I find it completely a-rational. It is soothing. I listen to it and I escape.
My take on what's happening now is that with diy artists selling their own cds and music downloadable directly from indy artists' websites, it is not the death of an art form but the death of marketable demographics. There are so many different "types" and styles of music to satisfy everyone's tastes but fewer that appeal to large targetable masses. It's a marketing problem and the record companies are not prepared or perhaps not designed to deal with it. Artistically there is a renaissance going on but not many of the emerging art forms have mass appeal.
As to your negative evaluation of rap lyrics and their damage to our society, look at the pervasive misogyny, violence, and sex in traditional blues music. I remember reading one critic who condemned the "soothing sounds of the saxophone" because they led youth into illicit sexual behavior. The major rap marketing demographic is teenage white suburbia. Where is the damage? There are no reputable studies linking rap or heavy metal to an increase in real life violence though there are plenty of studies linking extreme poverty to violence and crime. In fact, inner city crime was much higher during the hey day of the Motown era.
I love atonal music, myself. I don't intellicualize it, either (well, not all the time). But, we are the exception. Most people don't care for it. I'm talking about the masses.
The lyrics thing...hmm...Well, I cannot believe that these lyrics can do anything but harm. Look at the feminist movement. Feminism is not unshaven armpits and burning bras. It is about equality for women AND Men. But, Rap lyrics, IN GENERAL (DMX has made exceptions in his music), objectify women into body parts. I have never heard a rap song profess the rapper's love and respect for his woman. Rap basically undermines everything that the feminist revolution tried to accomplish. Also, lyrics talking about drugs make it seem cool to do them. You can't tell me that this is a positive influence. Again, there are exceptions, but the most popular brand of rap does says these things.
I do respect hip-hop in general, though. I think my musical are quite eclectic. There are artists who are concerned with more than pimpin' hoes and the such. Eminem, for example, uses a lot of political and sociological themes in his work (underneath the whole "rape my momma" thing...). I enjoy getting drunk and dancing (quite badly, IMNSHO) to Jay-Z as much as anyone. It is music that you don't think about. It wouldn't make sense to do that. That is it's merit and one of it's problems.
Summarily, it's not the technique or music that I disapprove of. It is the message. You have to admit it. There are definitely dangerous messages in there.
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Please don't get me wrong here; I think that rap is the death of an art form. I think (above all, in fact) that the lyrics' subject matter is damaging our society. There is definitely a loss of respect for people who put their lives into the musical art form. But, I also believe that there is something else here or, at least, potentially.
Rap is just the latest incarnation in the split of musicality. What I'm talking about is the split between folk and "serious" music (I hate the term "classical"). Once, the popular music of the time was opera. In the late 1800s, it hit it's climax with Wagner and Verdi. But, in the early 1900s, serious music became too serious. Can you really expect the masses to enjoy serialism and atonality? People want to get away from life with music, not think about it. Jazz was music that was played for dancing. So, that became popular, even as the serious music continued to evolve. As we all know, soon bebop came round, and I bet none of us loved bebop from the first Parker solo we heard. So, people look for something else...Rock & Roll. But, jazz continues to evolve. Look where we are now? We have Lovano, Corea, Brecker *get better Mike*. But, the masses want to dance and cry, not think or study. This leads to Marvin Gaye, EWaF, James Brown, etc. But, look at the 80s. We had heavy metal/hard rock/80s stuff. That is another drop in dancibility. And, thus Hip-hop gets it's chance.
Look at how this progresses: Opera => 20th Century ||Break|| Jazz => Bebop ||Break|| Rock => Metal ||Break|| Rap...
Complexity
|.........(serious)....../.........................................................................................................
|.._____________ /.................(bebop)....../......................................................................
|./.........................................__________/........................................................................
|/........................................ /.............................................80s (metal, etc............................
|............(jazz)......_______/..................................................... __________/.........................
|.............. _______/..........................(rock).....____________/............................................
|...................................................________/................................(rap)........___..............
|...............................................................................................__________/...................
|____________________________________________________________________ Time
So, the music gets less easy to dance to, and so people get bored and find something else. Strange though why it gets progressively less complex. But, even hiphop is an art form, too. It has spawned Break Dancing, Beatboxing, Rapping, Djism, etc. What I'm waiting for is a rapper who raps usuing bebop-rhythms...That'll be cool. Maybe some better lyrics....
Please excuse me for possibly being narrowminded and for not taking into account other types of music, among other things, but this is my view. I would love feedback...
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Yes, I laughed at the Wittgenstein's Brother Plays Two-Handed Melodies. Good stuff. Ravel's Left Handed Concerto is an amazing piece! Love it everytime I hear or see it.
Bird Plays Stitt...ha!
My fav so far, though, is Spyro Gyra...hilarious.
What about Pat Metheny: Kenny G, A tribute, or maybe Miles Davis: plays Hank Williams.
Sorry for all of the Kenny G, but Kenny G: 72 Minutes of Circle-Breathing in Bb; Um Album da Nota
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These can be real or imagined,
My favs so far:
+ "Michael Bolton sings the Duke Ellington Songbook"
+ "Yanni: A Tribute to Art Tatum"
Thanks to Ken Dryden
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Oh, my gosh...I almost peed myself.
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Topic is self explanatory. I saw him a few years agao, and I was left breathless. Let me know.
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I Pm'd you before. Just lookin to see if I'm on the list.
Thanks
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Fabio
Chris Farley
Scott LaFaro (sorry)
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So, what do you guys think of the thorough-composed concept here?
I personally love the melodic content, as it is Pat/Mays. I do think that it gets a bit stale around the middle of part III.
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...except by the greatest trumpet player of all times (I won't even qualify it with "in my opinion") Clifford Brown.
I love Clifford. Love him...but...I think Dizzy deserves that title (Louis is in there). He made this stuff, man. I'd definitely put Brownie in the top five, though:
1) Dizzy
1) Satchmo (tie)
3) C. Brown
4) F. Hubbard
5) B. Shew (I'm gonna catch hell for this)
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What about Otis Brown III? That guy is so fun to talk to.
edit is this:
Sorry. He's touring with Bobby Watson.
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Brown on A Night at Birdland. I especially like Quicksilver. Donaldson is awesome too. Makes me go
But, then again, I haven't heard everything.
Carl Fontana
in Artists
Posted
Not sure where you got the whole 6-string bass thing from, cause I distinctly saw 4, but they do exist. Love the sound of that high C, bowed, played well.