See Rap- Cycle Paper 5

Rap Music

Ah, where to start. Well, first of all, I have a hate-hate relation with American Rap. As in, I hate it. And then I hate it some more. Now, I will acknowledge that there are some Rap songs that I like. However, these are rare and precious jewels and I hardly ever hear them on the radio. As a genre, I think it is horrible, though the majority of people at my school appear to love it. Last night, I was at my school’s junior function and after having two and a half hours of Rap music, I started to think about what made it so appealing.

Now, when I think of music, I think of something with singing, a melody and creative use of instruments. Rap on the other hand, has a very simple pattern for success: have way too much bass and some funny synthetic clicking noises in the background. From that pattern, there is very little room for variation. Ok, maybe instead of going “bass, bass, click” like song A, song B consists of “bass, click, bass”, but they are basically the same thing. I’m not saying that this can’t sound good. I’m just saying that I don’t think it can be the cornerstone for what makes a song great. Because of this, I guess the focus is on the lyrics. However, I can’t force myself to believe that it is content or lyrics of the songs that is attractive because the basic themes are: I’m a gangster/pimp, I would like to engage in sexual intercourse with that woman, I love my woman. Some of the more talented Rappers even manage to use all three of the themes in one song. I think that my hatred of Rap stems from the lyrics. They don’t have any meaning or actual thought behind them. They are just a way for the Rapper to say “oh yeah, I’m a big man because I talk about gangsters and women”. 80% of the Rap I like (10 songs in total) is not American Rap. This is because, for the most part, foreign Rap lacks all of the gangster crap that American Rap loves. Orishas is a Cuban Rap band that I actually listen to and enjoy. Now, they still have the bass and the Rap “sound”, but the lyrics aren’t at all like American Rap. For starters, they are in Spanish. From what I understand of it (I am taking Spanish at school) and from a translation of the lyrics, they don’t talk about the standard American Rap BS. Another thing is that their backing tracks actually sound noticeably different and use real musical instruments.

Now, after all I have said, I don’t believe people like American Rap because of the music in it, and I hope people don’t like it because of the lyrics. Then why do people like it? All that I can come up with is that you can dance to it. And yes; I will admit that I have danced to Rap at dances and had some fun doing so. Not a lot of fun, because of the lyrics and the fact that every song sounds the same. However, if this is the case, why not play non Rap music that people can dance to? You might say that no such music exists, but I beg to differ. On the way home from the dance that I recently attended, the song “I don’t want to be in love” by Good Charlotte played on the radio. Now, one of my friends and I decided that people could have danced to that. Click on the link and listen to it if you want to. Personally I don’t like the song all that much, though I would take it over any of the songs that were played at the dance. If anyone doesn’t think that the previously mentioned song is not “danceable”, post a comment and I will compile a list of non Rap songs that are satisfactory. If you really hate that song, listen to “Into the night” by Santana and Chad Kroeger and decide on that one. I was listening to it as I was writing the ending and I thought I would add it to my list.

So, at the past two school events/dances that I have been to, they have played nothing but Rap. OK, maybe there were one or two songs that were slow and quiet, but they were Rap-ish. Both times the best music I heard on those nights was on the car ride home. At the last dance, the DJ tried to play a non Rap song (that my friends and I requested) and nearly everyone in the room started to look annoyed. After 15 seconds of real music the DJ reverted to the apparently more socially acceptable Rap to avoid the combined wrath of 400 teenagers.

My question is simply: why do people love this stuff? I really want to know. If you read this and like Rap, post a comment about why it is good. Even if you don’t like it, comment about why you think other people do if you have an idea. Either way, I would take a metal concert over another Rap infected dance.