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Are Certain Genres Not "Music"?

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Easy Money View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Easy Money Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 11 2021 at 19:13
^ Re: the previous posts:
There are also a lot more diverse opinions than just " I Like rap, or I don't like rap."
I really liked late 80s rap when it was based around classic funk sampled loops and creative add-on sampling. The rhymes had a swing beat to them and moved in double time like a jazz horn solo. The lyrics were often clever, humorous and unpredictable.

Enter the mid 90s and the music hit a severe down swing, boring rhythms, predictable subject matter, repetitive commercial sound etc.

These days rap/hip-hop has a wide variety ranging from tons of commercial crap to some really creative poetry set to equally creative music. The commercial crap is what most are exposed to.
As far as the op goes, music is what you feel like listening to. I can listen to the environmental sounds around me as if they were something that were meant to be.

Edited by Easy Money - March 12 2021 at 06:47
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote rogerthat Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 11 2021 at 21:03
Originally posted by Easy Money Easy Money wrote:

^ Re: the previous posts:
There are also a lot more diverse opinions that just " I Like rap, or I don't like rap."
I really liked late 80s rap when it was based around classic funk sampled loops and creative add-on sampling. The rhymes had a swing beat to them and moved in double time like a jazz horn solo. The lyrics were often clever, humorous and unpredictable.

Enter the mid 90s and the music hit a severe down swing, boring rhythms, predictable subject matter, repetitive commercial sound etc.

These days rap/hip-hop has a wide variety ranging from tons of commercial crap to some really creative poetry set to equally creative music. The commercial crap is what most are exposed to.
As far as the op goes, music is what you feel like listening to. I can listen to the environmental sounds around me as if they were something that were meant to be.


I tend to agree with this. Late 80s to early 90s was the first peak of hip hop. And in a way, the more experimental artists of the last few years are moving back to the jazz and funk roots of the genre and away from the commercial sound that dominated VH1 through the noughties and which turned off many, including myself, from hip hop.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Awesoreno Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 11 2021 at 21:44
On the same train of thought, it's important to remember that reactions like this happened before. The same argument of "this new music is all crap" or "this stuff is watered-down non-music" was thrown at most forms of rock and roll during the beginning of its proliferation, and that probably continued among snooty people well into the future, even now. 

It also works both ways. There are plenty of people who (regardless of what kind of hip-hop they listen to) think all rock just sounds like, say, Linkin Park. Now, all of us here would probably say "then you have barely heard anything of rock!" And one would be right. But that's just all that they heard. Many who bemoan rap or hip-hop or trap or etc. probably haven't really investigated that stuff either. It's just a circle of ignorance.

Maybe you have looked into it a bit, and you don't like it. That's fine. Maybe they looked into more kinds of rock and didn't like it. Also fine. There's no need to look down one's nose. Respect doesn't necessitate enjoyment or agreement.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote nick_h_nz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2021 at 02:22
Originally posted by Awesoreno Awesoreno wrote:

It also works both ways. There are plenty of people who (regardless of what kind of hip-hop they listen to) think all rock just sounds like, say, Linkin Park. Now, all of us here would probably say "then you have barely heard anything of rock!" And one would be right. But that's just all that they heard. Many who bemoan rap or hip-hop or trap or etc. probably haven't really investigated that stuff either. It's just a circle of ignorance.

This is definitely true. I’ve friends that only listen to hip hop, and don’t understand the appeal of rock. And even within those who listen to rock, the same “it all sounds the same to me” argument is often used by people when describing a particular genre (or subgenre) of music. The thing is, any music that someone hasn’t given a chance to, or investigated more than superficially, will inevitably sound to some extent “all the same”.

It’s not even a case of genre, either. Most people tend to stay within their comfort zone, which is usually a combination of at least one of the following: genre, geography and era. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, but it’s probably more constructive to discussion to state “I like x and y, and haven’t liked anything I’ve heard from z”, than “I like x and y, and understand why anyone listens to z - it’s all a load of crap/it all sounds the same/it’s not even music/etc.”.

But it’s important to realise, I think, that those who dismiss a form of music they’re unfamiliar with, are not necessarily doing so because they are a snob. And those who choose to pick them up on it, and tell them how wrong they are, can potentially be snobs themselves for doing so. Again, as I pointed out in an earlier comment, it’s fine to talk about it in a discussion like this, but otherwise it’s often better to step back and look at the context that the person dismissing the music has done so in. Sometimes it might be appropriate to say something (eg they look as if they are choosing to start a discussion by saying what they are saying), but more often than not I think it makes more sense to let it go.

I know what I like, and does it really matter to me what someone doesn’t like, or why they don’t like it? No. Before I had children, I probably would have pulled everyone up, because I could be an argumentative sod, but having children definitely teaches one about choosing one’s battles. Musical choices are not a battle I tend to like to take on. I might defend why I like something, but I’ll never challenge someone else to like it.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote geekfreak Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2021 at 02:33
If I like it it’s music to me
Friedrich Nietzsche: "Without music, life would be a mistake."



Music Is Live

Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed.



Keep Calm And Listen To The Music…
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote nick_h_nz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2021 at 02:44
Originally posted by geekfreak geekfreak wrote:

If I like it it’s music to me

And that’s what matters. As Lewian suggested, the concept of the death of the author (a bit of Barthes for you all) applies to music. Music is what the listener makes of it, and the listener can create music from anything they hear. It is possible to hear music in the wind. No one composed the music of the wind, but I heard it. Not everyone will agree on what is or isn’t music, but ultimately it doesn’t matter. So long as you enjoy the music you hear, does it really matter if there is someone out there who doesn’t even consider it music?

There’s a difference, I guess,  if they’re attacking you, rather than the music (eg “what do you know about music? You listen to that rap crap!”, as opposed to “I like rock. I don’t listen to any of that rap crap.”) But most of the time, all people are doing is stating the limits of their comfort zone. Perhaps more dismissively and insultingly than is necessary, but that seems to be human nature, because humans can be dickheads. 🤷🏻‍♂️

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Progishness Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2021 at 07:19
Originally posted by Awesoreno Awesoreno wrote:

How do you define music?


"The arrangement of sounds to create a desired pattern or effect" is my (very) loose definition of music.
"We're going to need a bigger swear jar."

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Grumpyprogfan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2021 at 07:38
Originally posted by nick_h_nz nick_h_nz wrote:

because humans can be dickheads. 🤷🏻‍♂️
Nature and animals can also be dickheads.   
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Easy Money Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2021 at 07:45
Originally posted by Awesoreno Awesoreno wrote:

On the same train of thought, it's important to remember that reactions like this happened before. The same argument of "this new music is all crap" or "this stuff is watered-down non-music" was thrown at most forms of rock and roll during the beginning of its proliferation, and that probably continued among snooty people well into the future, even now. 

It also works both ways. There are plenty of people who (regardless of what kind of hip-hop they listen to) think all rock just sounds like, say, Linkin Park. Now, all of us here would probably say "then you have barely heard anything of rock!" And one would be right. But that's just all that they heard. Many who bemoan rap or hip-hop or trap or etc. probably haven't really investigated that stuff either. It's just a circle of ignorance.

Maybe you have looked into it a bit, and you don't like it. That's fine. Maybe they looked into more kinds of rock and didn't like it. Also fine. There's no need to look down one's nose. Respect doesn't necessitate enjoyment or agreement.

Any genre produces mediocrity once music industry types realize there is money in that genre. Thats what happened to rap, and that is what has happened to different types of rock and RnB over the years.

Edited by Easy Money - March 12 2021 at 07:51
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Icarium Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2021 at 08:17
Are spoken word music or poetry

Edited by Icarium - March 12 2021 at 08:17
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Progishness Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2021 at 08:33
Originally posted by Icarium Icarium wrote:

Are spoken word music or poetry


So presumably, 'Fairy Tales' the first Mother Gong album would fall into that category?
"We're going to need a bigger swear jar."

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote siLLy puPPy Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2021 at 09:04
Anybody who says that all hip hop is crap clearly hasn't been exposed to the wide range of what exists these days.

Check these out. Just a really small sampling.

The BLazing Arrow album is best experienced as an album experience. This is just one cool track.


M.I.A. has some intersting stuff


Same with Run The Jewels

https://rateyourmusic.com/~siLLy_puPPy
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote nick_h_nz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2021 at 09:08
Originally posted by Progishness Progishness wrote:

Originally posted by Icarium Icarium wrote:

Are spoken word music or poetry


So presumably, 'Fairy Tales' the first Mother Gong album would fall into that category?

Or much of Lou Reed’s Raven. Or for that matter, his manner of “singing” on Lulu. Both of those albums, like Metal Machine Music so many years before, received criticism that they weren’t even music. Blatantly untrue, even if the performance at times wasn’t conventionally musical. The thing is, they were just another couple of albums where Reed took some of his fanbase outside their comfort zone.

David Bowie, John Cale, Lou Reed, Frank Zappa - you name it, there are renowned and well-liked musicians who have alienated some of their fanbase at times, by making music in quite different ways and styles. Some less “musical” to some ears - but each of those still music to the ears of others.

Once again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and music is in the mind of the listener. What’s music to one person isn’t to another. And some listeners find it easier to take leaps out of their comfort zones more than others,

(And for anyone who wants to show their appreciation of Reed’s Raven or Lulu, both appear in a poll I made for his last few years: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=125586 )

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Icarium Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2021 at 09:13
Or Leonard Cohan whos carear is based around talk-singing, and is almost earned him a Nobel Literature price.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote ExittheLemming Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2021 at 09:14
Originally posted by nick_h_nz nick_h_nz wrote:

Originally posted by Progishness Progishness wrote:

Originally posted by Icarium Icarium wrote:

Are spoken word music or poetry


So presumably, 'Fairy Tales' the first Mother Gong album would fall into that category?

Or much of Lou Reed’s Raven. Or for that matter, his manner of “singing” on Lulu. Both of those albums, like Metal Machine Music so many years before, received criticism that they weren’t even music. Blatantly untrue, even if the performance at times wasn’t conventionally musical. The thing is, they were just another couple of albums where Reed took some of his fanbase outside their comfort zone.

David Bowie, John Cale, Lou Reed, Frank Zappa - you name it, there are renowned and well-liked musicians who have alienated some of their fanbase at times, by making music in quite different ways and styles. Some less “musical” to some ears - but each of those still music to the ears of others.

Once again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and music is in the mind of the listener. What’s music to one person isn’t to another. And some listeners find it easier to take leaps out of their comfort zones more than others,

(And for anyone who wants to show their appreciation of Reed’s Raven or Lulu, both appear in a poll I made for his last few years: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=125586 )



Metal machine Music
"Well, anyone who gets to side four is dumber than I am." (Lou Reed)


Edited by ExittheLemming - March 12 2021 at 09:14
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Progishness Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2021 at 10:09
And where would music in general (and prog in particular) be without innovators and experimentation?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Progishness Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2021 at 11:45
Originally posted by siLLy puPPy siLLy puPPy wrote:

Anybody who says that all hip hop is crap clearly hasn't been exposed to the wide range of what exists these days.


Anyone making a stupid generalisation like that has clearly never heard 'The Score' by the Fugees - a masterpiece of an album regardless of your personal tastes & preferances.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SteveG Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2021 at 12:28
One man's noise is another man's symphony. So no.

Edited by SteveG - March 12 2021 at 19:57
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MortSahlFan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2021 at 15:24
Originally posted by dougmcauliffe dougmcauliffe wrote:

I don't see how hitting a drum with the same force 10 times and getting the same sound out of it is any different than playing a sample 10 times on a drum machine. They both achieve the same thing. I also believe using pitch correction or tuning, which has been used for several several years can actually be used in really interesting and creative ways to manipulate sound. Also.... I mean.... the mellotron itself is sampling, and that's once again, another technique that goes back years long before hip hop was a thing. If you don't believe Hip Hop is music, and you say that as a big one size fits all statement, you are old, probably white, a embodiment of a certain stereotype (a certain 6 letter b word that last I heard was banned on this site, go figure), and probably don't have enough respect or understanding of music as a whole, let alone that genre and its history, to be commenting on it. Beer


This is the most ignorant comment I've read here. Probably the only one.

I'm not white, I'm not old, I've been a professional musician since the age of 17.

Your comments are not only incorrect and ignorant, but it seems I hit a sore spot with you, so you resort to the trendy sh*t. Maybe you're mad because you can't play an instrument.

Later,  you racist stereotype.


Edited by MortSahlFan - March 12 2021 at 15:47
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote nick_h_nz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 12 2021 at 15:34
Originally posted by MortSahlFan MortSahlFan wrote:

Originally posted by dougmcauliffe dougmcauliffe wrote:

I don't see how hitting a drum with the same force 10 times and getting the same sound out of it is any different than playing a sample 10 times on a drum machine. They both achieve the same thing. I also believe using pitch correction or tuning, which has been used for several several years can actually be used in really interesting and creative ways to manipulate sound. Also.... I mean.... the mellotron itself is sampling, and that's once again, another technique that goes back years long before hip hop was a thing. If you don't believe Hip Hop is music, and you say that as a big one size fits all statement, you are old, probably white, a embodiment of a certain stereotype (a certain 6 letter b word that last I heard was banned on this site, go figure), and probably don't have enough respect or understanding of music as a whole, let alone that genre and its history, to be commenting on it. Beer


This is the most ignorant comment I've read here. Probably the only one.

I'm not white, I'm not old, I've been a professional musician since the age of 17.

Your comments are not only incorrect and ignorant, but it seems I hit a sore spot with you, so you resort to the trendy sh*t. Maybe you're mad because you can't play an instrument.

Later, stereotype.

I’ve refrained from replying to the posts I’ve seen from you so far, because while they are ignorant and narrow-minded, they have not been personal. Insulting Doug in this way is not on. The only sore spot that appears to have been hit is your own, and you clearly haven’t been paying much attention to the forum if you’re unaware of Doug’s musical knowledge and ability.

By all means, stick to your comfort zone, and insult music you don’t like as much as you like - but don’t make it personal. Doug was suggesting that most people who suggest some genres of music live up to a stereotype, which he described, but included the word probably.

Age is relative anyway, so perhaps you are old in Doug’s eye? And just because you are a professional musician doesn’t mean your views are correct, and that Doug’s are incorrect, you clearly have a difference of opinion, but there is no objective way to say his views are wrong and yours are right.

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