«Today’s Lyrics Are Pathetically Bad» Rick Beato

This 'kid' I'm talking about...His name is Kendrick Lamar

@tyray

As a listener, rhythm is extremely important to me. On a wider scale, the contribution that African culture has contributed in this regard to the world (and to my enjoyment of Jazz, Rock and Blues) is unquestionable and profound.

However, for me, rhythm alone is not enough to hold my interest. Melody is even more important. And the colors and shifting tensions and resolutions provided by harmony please my ear enormously. The sophistication of melodic and harmonic elements, coupled with infectious rhythms, is what drew me from Rock into Jazz in the first place.

The fact that Rap is the dominant genre, worldwide; that Rap is relevant; that Rap practitioners have garnered prestigious awards, have no impact on my response to Rap as a listener. There are other genres I find equally unengaging that can boast of their own particular attributes.

As vibration, music acts upon us on a variety of levels/aspects, simultaneously. The left brain is only one of them. If this were not true, then the facts you list regarding Rap would ensure that I enjoyed the genre. Obviously, this is not the case; we also experience music physiologically and emotionally and our tastes are conditioned by still other factors, as well-- some that can be difficult to pin down.

I’ve expressed my fondness for melody, so why don’t I enjoy every genre that has strong melodic content? We may try to justify our subjective preferences with objective rationales and they may hold up to a certain degree, but they do not tell the whole story. 

 

@stuartk 

Where does it say that Rap music doesn’t have Melody or Melodies? The Rap that I’ve had the limited amount of time to listen to not only has melodies but very good musicians backing the artist, whether live or recorded. Key word - artist. Even in rap itself the phrase ’the beat(s)’ is actually a misnomer. In rap a beat is a construct of many different musical components designed to hold a groove. Whether it be a melodic ’love’ rap or a rap dance song, not just a (computer?) driven drum beat.

Although rap is not a favorite of mine I have been fortunate enough to has enjoyed some of the ’club bangers’ as the kids have called them over the years of rappers music with music samples of some of the best music ever. I just had to respond to some of the absolutism or is it elitism here.

The disintegration of speech and language depth in lyrics is not a fact about "taste" but about mind conditioning in an uneducated controlled social fabric..

And about vibration(s)? I’ve already made lengthy responses to that subject, here on Audiogon. And Rick Beato, I wholeheartedly agree with you on him, I've responded to him once that I was not in agreement with some of his comments

Do you know how many concepts are necessary to define rythm in music ?

My point was not against the popular concept of beat or the musical one but against the mechanization of rythm and his simplification by an industry mechanizing our mind...

@mahgister , you’re my guy and you have taught me so much, but I disagree with you on the ’Beat’ thing. The one instrument that someone tried to teach me in a very formal ways were the Drums.

In the same way do you know how many concepts are necessary to define musical time ?

The degradation of musical time in simplistic "beat" is a fact...

 

Now i attack no genre being "rap" or "heavy metal" or "pop" because there is great music in all these genre...

My point is about an impoverishment across most genres...

By the way rythm is the essence of music and the ground zero of music for reason linked to the gestural body, members and mouth....

my favorite music is African Yoruba speaking drum.....

( my favorite book about theoretical acoustics is written by a master of this instrument )

 

 

If we want to understand someone we must understand what he spoke about...

 I never intended to speak  against rap or beat... ( there is plenty of great poetical texts in rap by the way )

But against their degradation by a process of manufacturation of the product and of the public which exist in almost all genres......

 

I dont attack musical taste, i claim that music has nothing to do with taste but with education of our taste...

 

I am not born with taste for some opo artist or for bach or for yoruba drum...

I learned about myself discovering some ...

 

 

 

«My crocodile too had "good" taste»-- Groucho Marx

 

 

 

 

 

I wish to all a happy new year

with health, abundance, friends, new music ,

and some miracle for  you at some corner

this year...

my deepest regards to all ...