Why are we such bigots? (or are we?)

you should try Tech 9ne his an amazngly skilled underground rapper (the moust famous underground rapper actually), i also have a soft spot for Rap before 1999 (with some few exeptions like Eminem) the best periode in rap/hiphop is betwean 1990 - 1997 in my humble opinion, my favorits are Outkast witch i find is the moust fresh and original of the moust famous rap artist the are very experimental al ther records from 93 to 2006 are amazing and classics) they pick influence from Parlament/Funcadelics, Bootsy Collins, Sly n the family stons and have hip hop combining elemnts from funk, jazz, r.n.b (the real stuff not the 00s copycats), rock and ofcourse real drums and intruments. 

Raff wrote: One thing is for sure: I'd take good pop any day over bad prog.

I'll just say one thing: there are no good or bad genres, there's only good or bad music!

I'm not sure if this topic belongs here, but I'm wondering if I'm alone in my defense of other genres of music besides prog, particularly rap/hip-hop and country/folk music. These genres seem to take regular blows from members of this community, and the only reason I can think of to account for this is the bulk of garbage that is the mainstream music scene.

Nowadays it seems rare to me that rock albums composed entirely of worthwhile songs ever float to the top, especially in popular music. We have to dig deep sometimes for music that is either truly fantastic or speaks to us on a personal level. That's why this site is so great to me.

However, the same applies to other genres of music. I've been listening to a lot of rap and hip hop recently, and I love what I've managed to find that I like because there is a lot of creativity in the music some of these underground and alternative artists are doing. Mike Patton has done some fantastic stuff (Peeping Tom, General Patton vs. the X-ecutioners), and so have Dalek and Atmosphere. I will continue to explore rap because there's a lot of talent that I don't think I've discovered yet.

And country/folk done right is fantastic too. Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Wilco, Leonard Cohen; these are all praiseworthy artists. Once again, there are probably plenty of other artists that are overshadowed by the terrifying awfulness of the pop-country singers

So I pose my question to those people who don't have a problem with writing off rap or country with insulting comments; can you justify that level of bigotry with actual experience listening to the music? I'm looking for reasonable arguments against accepting these forms of music.

And to the main body of the community: what do progressive rock listeners think of these genres and our attitudes toward them?

Feel free to move/remove this post if it doesn't quite fit in this forum.


Edited by fighting sleep - June 23 2009 at 17:42