blip
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2002
- Posts
- 1,992
- Likes
- 13
Amen BFD... Amen.
Okay... sleepy rant time:
Rap is like anything else, it is a feedback from those that consume it. A feedback that is ripped apart and processed by teams of marketers and advertising people with more skill in psychology than 99% of therapists out there. So it isn't just natural feedback but it is feedback tuned for a particular group a particular time... a particular deep need.
My suspicion is that the popularity of rap music has to do with the overall crisis of masculinity (combined with the under-appreciated crisis of feminity). These bad-boy archetypes speak to a set of old social archetypes of independence and violence. They are the Billy the Kids, the Blackbeards of our generation. Marketers know this so they tune and accentuate those aspects.
Yet, and here is the tricky part, these social archetypes must not be allowed to pursue their natural targets. In today's society the rebel's target would surely be the very infrastructure that is creating the image of the rebel itself. This cannot be allowed... So who are the people that are put up as paragons of this long lost masculinity? Rappers involved in meaningless squabbles that (esp. through their material-fetishism) become totally harmless to the existing system. Sublimation of desire is the key to modern society, IMHO.
Similarly, the degredation of women seems like a logically safe way of creating the oppositional duality which can be used to temporarily solve the crisis of masculinity. If women were not degraded, merely subjected as they have been for most of history, then they would become objects to be protected. Again this could threaten the dominate system. (modern infra-structure is based upon women as consumers and as workers.) So instead the duality is created by degredation.
The actual musicality of rap has little to do with anything. It is just a useful tool.
/rant
On a more direct note. There is a lot of good rap out there. In its purest form rap is simply poetry set to a set of beats. This gives some individuals a lot of lyrical flexibility. Similarly, musically rap can be governed by fewer rules than more conventional forms of music. This can lead to a lot of diversity and innovation in terms of production. (Note I say can, it rarely does).
Go out and pick-up a copy of Deltron 3030. It will change anyones mind who believes that all rap sounds the same or has the same themes.
Edit: Zoo: Was the title a reference to Sir-Mix-A-Lot? If so, clever... I just noticed it.
Okay... sleepy rant time:
Rap is like anything else, it is a feedback from those that consume it. A feedback that is ripped apart and processed by teams of marketers and advertising people with more skill in psychology than 99% of therapists out there. So it isn't just natural feedback but it is feedback tuned for a particular group a particular time... a particular deep need.
My suspicion is that the popularity of rap music has to do with the overall crisis of masculinity (combined with the under-appreciated crisis of feminity). These bad-boy archetypes speak to a set of old social archetypes of independence and violence. They are the Billy the Kids, the Blackbeards of our generation. Marketers know this so they tune and accentuate those aspects.
Yet, and here is the tricky part, these social archetypes must not be allowed to pursue their natural targets. In today's society the rebel's target would surely be the very infrastructure that is creating the image of the rebel itself. This cannot be allowed... So who are the people that are put up as paragons of this long lost masculinity? Rappers involved in meaningless squabbles that (esp. through their material-fetishism) become totally harmless to the existing system. Sublimation of desire is the key to modern society, IMHO.
Similarly, the degredation of women seems like a logically safe way of creating the oppositional duality which can be used to temporarily solve the crisis of masculinity. If women were not degraded, merely subjected as they have been for most of history, then they would become objects to be protected. Again this could threaten the dominate system. (modern infra-structure is based upon women as consumers and as workers.) So instead the duality is created by degredation.
The actual musicality of rap has little to do with anything. It is just a useful tool.
/rant
On a more direct note. There is a lot of good rap out there. In its purest form rap is simply poetry set to a set of beats. This gives some individuals a lot of lyrical flexibility. Similarly, musically rap can be governed by fewer rules than more conventional forms of music. This can lead to a lot of diversity and innovation in terms of production. (Note I say can, it rarely does).
Go out and pick-up a copy of Deltron 3030. It will change anyones mind who believes that all rap sounds the same or has the same themes.
Edit: Zoo: Was the title a reference to Sir-Mix-A-Lot? If so, clever... I just noticed it.