I have to say first of all yes, I am a teenager in America. I do fall victim to falling in love with the next best song playing on the radio just because of its catchy tune. I sing along blasting the music and not caring much about the lyrics, and then a week later it is replaced by the new 'kid' on the block song.
But I have to say I have a struggle that is constantly being fought. I live in a small country town in Alabama. You can imagine the majority of people here are redneck and die-hard typical southerners. Not to say that all are, and that even being that way is bad. I date an African American guy, and have for the past three and half years. We listen to the rap and hip hop genre, but I personally did even before I began dating him.
I get so frustrated with people discounting rap and hip hop music based on stereotypes. They assume that every song is gonna bope about degrading women, violence, or illegal activities. I wil be first to say that yes, many songs within this genre to focus on the topics mentioned, but also many don't. And the main thing that really bothers me is that these people saying these things are listening to honky tonk country music about breakin up and going to the local bar. Not appealing to me, but if that is what they choose, then go for it.
I hate that people will never take the time to truly understand the meaning of a song, listen to the message within it, and try and take a look at the life experiences of those who wrote them. Many times discussing this point goes with no avail, many are to ignorant and choose to continue their lives in this pattern. I just hate that people dont have more of an open mind.
I realize that this happens with other genres of music, with people, and many other things, and it is the instant judgement of these things that also frustrates me. I wish there was a way to make people think and understand the beauty that personal differences brings to us all.
Funny that you talk about stereotypes against hip-hop and rap, and then give a blatant stereotype about country music, which many artists are now making albums in.
~C
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I was giving another example of how the stereotypes were. My point was to me, this is what country music seems to mostly be about, and even though I don't choose to listen to that, I dont say that all of it is bad, in fact there are plenty of country songs that I like. I just wish that people could have the same open mind not only about hip hop but anything in life in general.
Sounded to me like you were buying into the stereotype, not just giving an example of it. My ex liked a number of country songs as well, but he still characterized much of country music the way you did, and thus never gave it much of a chance unless the song happened to cross over into his rock stations.
~C
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She turned around and gave that big booty a slap."
I think people judge hip hop because the songs that become popular are always, sometimes? No, ALWAYS the shallow ones about getting one's drink on and pimping one's hoes. I happen to love hip hop, but I wish that some more intelligent hip hop songs would get air time, like The Roots, Blackalicious, and Atmosphere. Kanye's not so bad either. The Fittys of the world, I can live without...but in the club, when I have gotten my drink on, I do enjoy Fitty and Akon and the like. It's just sad that there isn't room in the top 40 for more variety in hip hop.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
I love anything that rocks, especially when it is smart, revolutionary, and/or political. I suppose it isn't the responsibility of an artist to go above the stereotype, and apparently it just doesn't sell as well.
My personal preference is far from new country, but it's just as far from 'gangsta' rap. I want to hear music with a good story that makes me feel something, or inspiration that makes me hate the system more. I really don't care about your bling, hos, or drug habits.
-Sonja :)
"Democracy works only when you vote. When you don't take the time to vote for the candidate you find the least offensive, you run the risk of electing the candidate you find the most offensive."
You're right, we shouldn't judge a song by its genre. But typically, music is put into a category because it has those distinguishing features. And the hip hop/rap genre does usually include a lot of songs that have topics like drugs, violence, and as ediblewoman put it "Pimping one's hoes." This certainly doesn't mean that there aren't good artists or songs in that genre. Just as every country song isn't about breaking up and going to the bar, its just what a majority of the music is like. That's how we make the genre classifications in the first place.
It frustrates me to listen to the radio because radio stations are (typically) set up so that they play a specific genre all day. We hear the same songs repeated over and over if we listen to the same station every day. I was psyched when I found out my new car had an mp3 jack. Now I plug in my mp3 player and listen to good quality music from a much wider variety of genres than I normally would if I were listening to the radio (plus its commercial free!)
I think songs are put into certain genres based on how they sound, not what they're about. As one song in country music put it, 'if you wanna play in Texas, you gotta have a fiddle in the band'. There are very very few country songs that I know that don't have a fiddle in them, though I think we're starting to move away from that trend. Pop is a lighter fare, tends to focus on the vocals a lot while downplaying the band. Rock has to have a bass guitar. Blues has to be slow. Classical has a full orchestra. Big Band music has a lot of brass.
I'm not an expert on music genres by any means, but I'm willing to bet they're placed in a genre because of the sound, not the lyrics. The lyrics just help determine what's popular and what's not.
~C
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"The lyrics just help determine what's popular and what's not."
I don't know. That strikes me as being a rather ambiguous statement.
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I said they help, which you can't deny. I didn't say they were the be-all-end-all of what determined popularity.
~C
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Yes. Genres are created because of the musical features (not including lyrics).
I was just pointing out that a lot of the time the genres that are based on the actual music also have stereotypical lyrics/subject matter involved. And the original poster appears to be making most of her genres based on the words/topics included also.
I'm not crazy about the way that you define the genres that you set up, but being a music major I could rant about that for a while, so I won't do that here :-)
I don't think that the lyrics determine what's popular and what's not at all though. There are plenty of really popular songs out there that a) have horrible lyrics but good music, b) deal with unpopular subjects, and c) you can barely understand the words to in the first place.