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The argument that “your parents probably didn’t like the music...

Posted by Fretless on October 7, 2003 at 15:48:45:
...that you listened to as a kid” gets trotted out in rap’s defense every time this comes up, but it has one or two major flaws.
Before the exploitation of sequencers, drum machines, and samplers by non-musicians, if you wanted to create music, you actually had to learn how to play an instrument and develop a musical vocabulary with which to express yourself. Music is a language, and literacy allows one to articulate their ideas with greater clarity and subtlety. Rap is the “musical” equivalent of having a conversation with a five-year-old; the musical content may be cute and even sincere, but it lacks any trace of deeper insight and emotional depth.
I’m not suggesting that rap has no value. Hell, in our culture, the commentators who best depict the pathetic state of our societal affairs are often comedians (intentionally or otherwise). Rap is illiterate social commentary, and as such, it’s obviously appealing to rebellious, unsophisticated kids who have never been exposed to real music.
And there’s the rub: The “music industry” (as though music can be assembled in a factory like a machine!) bean-counters have robbed an entire generation of music and replaced it with videos (themselves nothing more than commercials), “singing” strippers, toneless machines programmed by the musically ignorant, and LP’s of other people’s music being scratched (plagiarized) by half-assed DJ’s.
Juvenile nursery rhymes set to mind-numbing mechanical repetition may be a form of communication, but it shouldn’t be pawned-off in place of real musicians playing real instruments.