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

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

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!

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. 

I love country music. It is one of the first types of music I heard as a child. Without Hank Williams we would not have had the genre of Honky Tonk in Country and from that genre sprang Rockabilly. Without Rockabilly Sam Philips may well have not bothered to open Sun Studios. The list of early Rock and Roll and country greats that got their start there is the whos who of music in the States as well as around the world. Modern music including prog would not be the same without Hanks Contribution.

Good music is good music, no matter what category or genre we place it.  Saying that, I have to admit that I do have preferences.  I defended country music on another forum even though I generally don't like it.  At te same time, Chet Atkins, who used to play for Hank Williams, became a legend in his own lifetime, and an institution in himself for the guitar.   A person who searches for appealing and sophisticated music will tend ot become very biased towards it once found.  This is the case with many proggers, I think.

I for one refuse to be a snob or musical bigot.  There's a lot of stuff out and sure some of it crap.  But just because I don't like something, doesn't automatically make it crap.

Unless it's not Scottish.

Perpetual myth of the snobbish prog fan....

Please take 5 minutes of your time and visit this site: http://zip.4chan.org/mu/imgboard.html

Look at all the prog fans snobbing up that place!




Bonus points: start a topic about Prog and see what happens.

Extra bonus troll points: start a topic on Magma and see what happens.

Ridiculous bonus troll points: Harry gets mad at me for linking to that site.


Edited by stonebeard - June 23 2009 at 22:40

Does this mean I can watch Americal Idol next season and not be arrested by the Prog Po Po?  

 

Ivan_Melgar_M wrote: I'm sure that in no POP site people jump to defend Prog when the music we like is attacked...why must we?

because we're not bigots



Edited by Atavachron - June 23 2009 at 23:13

Ivan_Melgar_M wrote: Why bigots or even snobs?   Because we know what we like and whar we don't like?   There are lots of music I like, there's outstanding Pop, excellent mainstream Rock, Hard Rock, Metal, Jazz, Fusion, Country, Folk even some Punk..   But I don't like Rap or Hip Hop, I don't have to like everything, if you like rap and Hip Hop good for you, but don't judge people for not liking everything, I don't consider Rap as music, but some sort of street poetry with music in the background, and Hip Hop the worst thing that happened to music....And what about it?   I'm sure there's lots of music you don't like.   BTW: Bigotry is an offensive term  related mainly with intollerance or hatred against an ethnic, racial or religious group, so shouldn't be used to qualify people who simply know what they like and what they don't.   Iván