When rap came out 30 years ago I thought it was just a fad

Tostadosunidos, thanks for the well written and reasoned response.  It gives great insight into your previous statements.

You make the point that music has to be interesting, which I can see as necessary for music to be likable, but not for it (the sounds) to be music.  The question then becomes "interesting to who?"  Based upon record sales and 30+ years of staying power rap/hip hop is clearly interesting to a large part of the populace.  I just think it would be more intellectually honest for you to avoid statements where you declare "rap is not music" and simply say you don't find it interesting.  I too don't find most rap (or modern pop music) that interesting, but I do recognize it as music.

onhwy61, what I was saying is that in my opinion rap is not music.  I said several times that it is in the ear of the beholder and that there is no absolute definition.  There are, apparently, people who think "Variations on a Door and a Sigh" is interesting and that it is music.  Or some of the works of John Cage.  There are those who think Andy Warhol's soup cans are brilliant art.  I don't.  The fact that someone will pay 100 million for a Warhol piece doesn't convince me that it's art.  The fact that rap has sold well for 30 years doesn't convince me that it's music.  "I trust my ears" is appropriate in this case.  The beatnik with bongos is not music to my ears and neither is the man with the electronic drum.  Performance art, yes;  music, no.  Again, in my opinion.  YMMV.

"The fact that rap has sold well for 30 years doesn't convince me that it is music"

A man that has common sense! Thank you.

You can take Rap out of the 'hood, but you can't take the 'hood out of Rap.  It's poetry and music, like it or not, and derives from experiences no white person has ever had.

Furthermore, it sells to a large audience of white people.  If if stops selling the "fad" will be over.