why do you like the music you like?
 

I was having this discussion with my brother about the different kinds of music we like...and why we like it.

He really gets into lyrics...whether it's Dylan or Patty Smith or John Mellencamp or even Journey...he says it's usually the lyrics that hook him. The music itself - the sound - is usually secondary.

For me, it's the opposite. I like a great Springsteen lyric as much as the next guy, but I also love his music. The sound he makes. I don't dislike Dylan or Mellencamp, but the songs of theirs I do like it's because they hooked me with the music - not the words.

It's strange...one of my favorite groups is The Cars - and their lyrics are pure nonsense much of the time...but I listen to them because their sound is ear candy to me. I can't get enough of it.

It's why I don't like much rap or hip-hop. The songs I do like - California by Tupac, some Missy Elliot and Outkast - it's simply because it sounds great to me.

that's why I can like some pure pop songs that a lot of people won't because the lyrics are so bad...

On the other hand, sometimes the lyrics are so bad that it makes the song horrible to me, for some reason. Tim McGraw's Don't take the Girl is, IMO, the worst song ever recorded simply because the lyrics are so godawful and treacly. It makes me cringe...the sound of it, while not great, is certainly not horrible though.

Then there's the strange case of Sheryl Crow. I happen to like a lot of her stuff, however, her lyrics are often mystifying and complete gibberish. Sometimes it works, like in the stream of conscious ditty All I Want To Do. I also really like the song If it Makes You Happy, but the lyrics are often maddening:

I've been long, a long way from here
Put on a poncho, played for mosquitos,
And drank til I was thirsty again

Huh?

I've noticed a lot of her lyrics are like this and for some reason it's made me like her a little less.

Anyway...why do you like the music you do? Lyrics? The sound it makes? Both together?

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

I am a lyrics man; for example I love Aimee Mann, and I hear people complain about the production on her albums but for me it's not a big deal.

There are always exceptions, though. I have been getting into Arcade Fire recently, and their lyrics are definitely below average in a few spots, but it's forgivable since everything else about their music is so effective.

So basically I agree with your OP and have nothing to add.

edit: obviously if any one aspect is really terrible then it ruins the whole thing, but that doesn't happen too often

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

[ QUOTE ]
I am a lyrics man; for example I love Aimee Mann, and I hear people complain about the production on her albums but for me it's not a big deal.

There are always exceptions, though. I have been getting into Arcade Fire recently, and their lyrics are definitely below average in a few spots, but it's forgivable since everything else about their music is so effective.

So basically I agree with your OP and have nothing to add.

edit: obviously if any one aspect is really terrible then it ruins the whole thing, but that doesn't happen too often

[/ QUOTE ]

Hmmm...I'm a big Aimee Mann fan, too...and it's mostly 'cause of her lyrics...so I guess I AM like my brother sometimes...and I love the Arcade Fire and Tool...and couldn't tell you one line from one song...they just sound awesome.

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

I agree. I'm mostly a music man. If the music is good, the words can often be immaterial. There are a few exceptions, though. If the lyrics make me laugh, it can make a song that's ho-hum musically into one of my favorites. Take the old blues double entendre classic "My Handyman"

Whoever said a good man is hard to find
Positively absolutely sure was blind
I've found the best man there ever was
Here's just some of the things that my man does...

Why he shakes my ashes, greases my griddle
Chimes my butter and he strokes my fiddle
My man is such a handy man (oh yes he is)

He threads my needle, creams my wheat
Heats my heater and he chops my meat
My man is such a handy man

Now I don't care if you believe it or not
He's so good to have around
And when my furnace gets too hot
He's right there and turns my damper down

Great innuendo. Mostly, though, great lyrics are the gravy, not the meat.

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

I agree with you, Dominic. To me, lyrics are secondary. If I want poetry, I'll read poetry. In fact, when I listen to music I rarely even pay attention to the lyrics. Sure, there are some songs in which the lyrics are prominent either for being terrible - I'm thinking of modern pop country music here - or for being good, but most of the time I consider the vocals just another instrument.

Also, I'm sort of a music snob in that I believe that I like music purely because it is objectively good; this means that I like certain stuff from virtually all music genres. I tend to look down a bit on some people because I think they listen to music for more superficial reasons: they listen to something because it's "cool," because it's associated with a particular subculture with which they identify, because it's perceived as culturally or socially relevant by critics and the cultural elite, etc. I realize that my snobbery isn't really justified, but that's the way I feel.

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

Nothing kills a song quicker than a good tune with bad lyrics, although it is always the music that catches my ear first. I have learned that I should just try to enjoy the music. But as a musician, I can't bring myself to stop trying to hear the lyrics. That is why I love certain bands, and throw out others that I used to like. It is a "song" not music. Call me pent up, but a good song needs good music and lyrics, it can't exist with one and not the other for me.

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

i am a total sound person...i don't care what the lyrics are at all, as long as they sound good to me...this lets me listen to a lot of foreign language music as well...

i've tried to describe the kind of music i like to friends and can only use what i feel...for songs that i like i feel as though the sound fills the whole room i'm in...can't really describe it any other way...

for the most part i listen to all different types of heavy metal, including some more soft genres like symphonic metal or gothic metal...usually a metal band w/ a female lead singer and a backup male vocalist...bands like nightwish or epica are my favorites...if a song can get me to head bang or it makes me want to move around then i like it, even if th lyrics were just the same word repeated for 4 minutes...

this goes for all types of music i like, from the 4 seasons to opera to metal...

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

The lyrics are far more important than the music.

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

Music is much more important than lyrics. I'm a big fan of songs that are either constantly changing or build up, adding more and more layers of instruments with each verse. "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder, "The Bleeding Heart Show" by The New Pornographers, "Happiness Is A Warm Gun" by The Beatles, and "The Crane Wife Part 3" by The Decemberists are some examples.

Female vocals usually are a big plus for me though.

Stairway and White Room are two others.

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

My favorite music is hip hop/rap/r&b so to me the beat/style of the music is most important to me as I'm a dancer. I LOVE dancing, a dancing fool I am and pretty damn good for a white girl too. (I have proof on YouTube too, mwa ha ha ha)

The lyrics come 2nd, unless it's more Top 40'ish, soulful, and I don't dance to it but sing along.

T

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

Some people might disagree with the fact that I consider Rap a genre of music, and that's cool. To tell you the truth, I actually understand where they're coming from. Let's face it, the vast majority of rappers and some producers don't even know the very basics of music theory. Although Soulja Boy can Superman that ho with the best of 'em, I'm pretty sure he'd get that deer-in-the-headlights look on his face if handed a sheet of music and asked to identify its key. But since Rap is widely accepted as a legitimate form of music, I continue to label it as such.

My love for Rap (yes, I love that [censored]) stems from my respect and admiration for some rappers' lyrical ability. And when I refer to lyrical ability, please don't assume that that is restricted solely to content. I fully concede that the content of most mainstream Rap lyrics can be summed up by the following list: bitches and/or hos, money, jewelry, guns, drugs, and braggadocio (forgive me if I've left anything out). I measure lyrical ability by things like the creative brilliance some rappers exhibit when referencing the aforementioned staples of the genre's content. For example:

I was the n*gga with the mask on
That would yak dudes for jewels.
Ain't gotta say it.
That dude's the truth.
Make me put that tool to use,
And these n*ggas'll be in the game shakin
Like Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf.
-Joe Budden, "6 Minutes of Death"

I also take storytelling prowess, flow (defined by Wikipedia as "rap delivery... defined by prosody, cadence, and speed"), and content (when offered) into account when I try to gauge a rapper's lyrical ability.

Now don't get me wrong, I like a lot of Rap songs that have absolutely terrible lyrics. Cuz a hot beat and a decent hook make it pretty easy to ignore [censored] lyrics imo.

Sorry for writing an essay, but I felt like I needed a damn good explanation for why I like Rap considering I'm only the second person in this thread to mention it.

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

Some songs, I like the lyrics.
Some songs, I like the tune.
Some songs, I like both, and I play those the most.

I have a fairly diverse taste in music, going from Ennio Morricone to Jeff Buckley to Metallica. However, I've thought about the quality that is the throughline for the songs I love the most. To me, the best songs have a desperate, urgent quality to them, as if the composer/performer will burst if they do not perform the song. Give me any piece of music with emotion and blood in it, and it's a winner.

I am also a songwriter, and I can report that my perspective has changed as I've grown older. The truth is, most people hear the beat first, then the music, and then, only then, the lyrics. I grant that there are plenty of folks who are different, but I've found the most success when I focus on a smooth, clear melody, and worry less about lyrical coherence.

We can argue lyrics all day long, but if the music isn't there, lyrics are like clothes on the line without pins.

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

For me it's almost all in the tune and the melody. I can't tell you how many times I've looked up the lyrics to a song that I love only to realize how stupid they are without the music behind them.

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

Good post, Pharcyde. One of things I like about rap (at least in theory) is that it takes lyrics seriously, more so than rock or pop or country usually do.

One thing that comes with my lyric-centric view is that I have an appreciation for a wide variety of styles and uses of lyrics. It's not as though I have a fixed idea of what "good lyrics" means, and I dismiss any song that doesn't qualify. When I hear a new song, I have an irresistible compulsion to memorize every word, and it forces me to get acquainted with a lot of different... I guess 'personalities' is the word I'm looking for. And when you pay that much attention to something, you can't help but start to feel a connection to the writer. It's a fun thing.

But whatever, I know I'm in the minority, and it's not as though I hate music for its own sake. I have nothing but love for the songs istewart mentioned. (And it's not as though The Decemberists don't know their way around a pen; I think I may have to fight you to have that song on my side of this dichotomy.)

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

I rarely even hear the lyrics in a song I listen to. I'm a very visual person so in most cases, even if I can hear the lyrics clearly, I fail to understand them because they are very rarely meant to be taken literally. So even if I can hear each word of the song, it's not until I see the lyrics in print that I understand the point of the song at all. In many cases, I enjoy the song more once I understand the lyrics... but it's hardly a priority.

On rare occasions, horrid lyrics can be enough to make me dislike a song... but for the most part, they are pretty meaningless to me since I'm rarely even paying attention to them.

I listen almost exclusively to metal. There are a lot of negative connotations associated with metal. Some of them are well-deserved. The lyrics are often violent or in some way anti-social. Some of the musicians are genuinely horrible people (although they are in the minority). But the music is fascinating. Most people are turned off by its speed, abrasiveness, and atonality... it is certainly not easy to get used to. But it is not just random noise. Just as mainstream music has its own rules, each metal subgenre has its own. It has its own complex rhythmic structures. The melodic elements sound wrong to the untrained ear because they rarely adhere to the major or minor scales that are used by most music. But they do abide by the rules of other musical modes. Another confusing element of metal is that the melodic and percussive elements are so deeply intertwined that they cannot really be separated. With few exceptions, metal songwriters tend to be extremely gifted. And playing the music is no small feat either (I seem to recall Metallica saying in an interview that their change in style was at least partially due to the difficulty of performing their songs).

So I guess I've described the music pretty well... I suppose that doesn't really explain why I like it though. That's much harder. Something about the intensity attracts me to it... there's nothing like taking a nice melody, and then getting someone to play a double bass drum over it as fast as humanly possible.

edit to add: since metal lyrics can rarely be understood at all, I find it interesting to look them up sometimes. Some of them are absolutely hilarious. While morbid lyrics are pretty much par for the course, not all bands actually take them seriously.

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Some people might disagree with the fact that I consider Rap a genre of music, and that's cool. To tell you the truth, I actually understand where they're coming from. Let's face it, the vast majority of rappers and some producers don't even know the very basics of music theory. Although Soulja Boy can Superman that ho with the best of 'em, I'm pretty sure he'd get that deer-in-the-headlights look on his face if handed a sheet of music and asked to identify its key. But since Rap is widely accepted as a legitimate form of music, I continue to label it as such.

My love for Rap (yes, I love that [censored]) stems from my respect and admiration for some rappers' lyrical ability. And when I refer to lyrical ability, please don't assume that that is restricted solely to content. I fully concede that the content of most mainstream Rap lyrics can be summed up by the following list: bitches and/or hos, money, jewelry, guns, drugs, and braggadocio (forgive me if I've left anything out). I measure lyrical ability by things like the creative brilliance some rappers exhibit when referencing the aforementioned staples of the genre's content. For example:

I was the n*gga with the mask on
That would yak dudes for jewels.
Ain't gotta say it.
That dude's the truth.
Make me put that tool to use,
And these n*ggas'll be in the game shakin
Like Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf.
-Joe Budden, "6 Minutes of Death"

I also take storytelling prowess, flow (defined by Wikipedia as "rap delivery... defined by prosody, cadence, and speed"), and content (when offered) into account when I try to gauge a rapper's lyrical ability.

Now don't get me wrong, I like a lot of Rap songs that have absolutely terrible lyrics. Cuz a hot beat and a decent hook make it pretty easy to ignore [censored] lyrics imo.

Sorry for writing an essay, but I felt like I needed a damn good explanation for why I like Rap considering I'm only the second person in this thread to mention it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well written. I'm a huge rap fan and it's almost entirely for the lyrics. Beats do have an influence but it's as important how the rapper's delivery matches up with the beat as the beat itself is. I love finding new tracks with lots of creativity in the writing.

Very nice choice using a Budden lyric. These are from the same verse in that song.

Hat low, there's not a weak link in my squad
I'm LL, in too deep, I'm thinking I'm God
Far as rappers, I'm thinking their frauds
Call them all rubix cubes cuz I really used to think they were hard.

So if you want to get fresh like a mentos mint
then it'll tempt those men
with clips longer than Leno's chin.

They ain't super or luigi or mario ain't found that power
Plus they couldn't spit fire if they found that flower.

Edit: This is also the reason I enjoy listening to rap battles. They are completely lyrically focused and the winner is determined by who can write better punches.

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Music is much more important than lyrics. I'm a big fan of songs that are either constantly changing or build up, adding more and more layers of instruments with each verse. "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder, "The Bleeding Heart Show" by The New Pornographers, "Happiness Is A Warm Gun" by The Beatles, and "The Crane Wife Part 3" by The Decemberists are some examples.

Female vocals usually are a big plus for me though.



[/ QUOTE ]

same here...although sometimes a gorgeous song like The New Pornographers Go Places perplexes me with its lyrics:

Yes a heart will always go one step too far
Come the morning and the four corners I see
What the moral of the back story could be
Come with me, go places

And a heart will always stay one day too long
Always hoping for the hot flashes to come
For the glue to dry on our new creation
Come with me, go places

Come head on, full circle
Our arms fill with miracles
Play hearts, kid, they work well
Like classics play aces
Stay with me, go places
Once more for the ages

Yes a heart should always go one step too far
Come the morning and the day winding like dreams
Come the morning every blue shade of green
Come with me, go places

Come head-on, full circle
Our arms fill with miracles
Play hearts, kid, they work well
Like magic, play aces
Stay with me, go places
Once more for the ages

Come one now, come all ye
This story breaks free here
Tales from the back pages
From somewhere, Encida
Deus ex machina
Good morning, Christina

Come head on, full circle
Our path blocked but sure we'll
Make records, then set them
Make copies, win races
Stay with me, go places
Once more for the ages

I love this song but... say what???

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

I like both pretty equally. I like the decembrists, my two favorite songs being o valenica and perfect crime (with crane wife coming in 3rd) from that album.

I like rap as well, but I dont really like Joe Budden. When i hear him, i cant help but remember "pump it up". I like things like "Hip-Hop is Dead" by NAS a lot more.

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

This thread got good fast.

The best song from The Crane Wife, imo, is "The Island." It sounds great, I could listen to that [censored] all day on repeat, etc. BUT if you don't take some time to absorb the lyrics you are missing out on 60% of the song. That right there is an epic story about a place and the vicious crime that happens there. Now I can't listen to it without feeling the emotion and horror of those characters, which is of course intensified by the music. It all fits together beautifully, and I feel sorry for the people (who I know exist) who own this album and listen to the songs and never get this layer because they don't place enough importance on the lyrics.

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

i listen to a lot of rap and pride myself on listening to the good rap that doesn't get much mainstream credit. even so, i still listen to a lot of crappy rap/hip hop (which is basically pop). often they are songs i've heard at parties that have good rhythms and are fun to dance to.

my taste in music outside of rap values technical proficiency and good vocals. i'm an ex-drummer, so i will listen to pretty much anything w/exceptional drumming and/or good rhythm. i think that's why i'm able to listen to some pretty awful rap-- the lyrics are admittedly terrible, but the beats can be fantastic. a lot of times i just play it as background music and dissect the beats. regarding vocals: it doesn't necessarily matter what they are saying, sometimes i just like hearing a beautiful voice.

it's not that lyrics mean nothing to me, but i won't write off a song b/c the lyrics are terrible.

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

I enjoy songs that tell a story.

Music from Paul Kelly is probably the best in this regard.

Nick Cave can also tell a great story in a song - each song on Murder Ballads illustrates this well, as does the Lyre of Orpheus. Cave can also set a mood like no-one else.


Then again, when it just has to rock - ACDC.

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

It seems like you view "Pump It Up" as a flop or simply a bad song, and that the song is Budden's standard fare. I think you gotta take that song for what it was: a club banger (one that got him a Grammy nod in '03). I urge you to check out any of his "Mood Muzik" mixtapes to get a real sense of how talented of an artist he is.

Having said that, great choice in "Hip Hop is Dead". I didn't really feel it the first time I listened to it, but it really grew on me after a couple more times through. "Blunt Ashes" is my favorite track. It's like a somber, somewhat haunting, funk song; the perfect cut for sparking a dutch in the booth and airing out whatever's on your mind at the time.

John F. Kennedy's
Enemies
Dealt with treachery.
It interests me.
Judy Campbell
In Gucci sandals,
She's what a temptress be.
The death of Ennis Cosby,
What a mystery.
Or the Chicagoan
Harold Washington,
Someone is sabotagin' him.

If only I now had in my possession some of what he was smoking when he laid this down...

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

Forgot to add Stan Ridgeway as another songwriter who can tell a great story

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

Some great rap songs: Tha Art of Story Tellin' by Outkast.
Really, anything by Outkast, they have always been among my favorites.

Love is Blind and Heaven only Knows by Eve.

Georgia Peach by Rasheeda, ([censored] hilarious).

Stan (most of his later stuff too), by Eminem.

It's true, that most rap stands and falls on it's lyrics, but without a good beat, those lyrics stand on shaky ground. Take for example The Roots. Their lyrics are amazing and they are good musicians since they play instruments, so they have a grounding in music theory, but sometimes that music is god awful.

I think what is amazing about Rap is that they really put forth the image of being uneducated better than anyone else. It is nothing to say that Andre 3000 plays a guitar and piano, and that Dr. Dre went to music school. But if they were educated, then their image would be shot, I guess. All about street credo. Sean Combs and Nas can't be too stupid either, if they are running so many businesses.

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Stan (most of his later stuff too), by Eminem.

It's true, that most rap stands and falls on it's lyrics, but without a good beat, those lyrics stand on shaky ground. Take for example The Roots. Their lyrics are amazing and they are good musicians since they play instruments, so they have a grounding in music theory, but sometimes that music is god awful.


[/ QUOTE ]

By later stuff did you mean older? Because his most recent is absolute trash and his earliest is far superior. I do not completely agree about needing good beats. Big L's Lifestyles of the Poor and Dangerous is one of my favourite albums and the production is quite bad. Of course that is just my taste.

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

Lots of random thoughts on this subject.

I don't listen to much mainstream pop stuff and I own precisely 1 non-Beastie Boys rap/hip hop/whatever album: Ice Cube's Predator. I can't read music but have taught myself piano, bass, and guitar just by playing along with songs I like. I compose my own stuff but need to record my experiments since I can't write it down.

Anyway, I appreciate the mathematical aspect of music - the juxtaposition of instruments, melodies, rhythm, syncopation - moreso than lyrics. I like jazz, R&B, soul, ska, and some rock and pop stuff. I can appreciate bands like Phish or Keller Williams or MMW from a technical perspective - they're all virtuosos - but some of their stuff is too nerdy even for me. It's like "wow, I can play this ridiculously hard riff so look at me!"

This will seem elitist but that's not how I intend it. There are high forms of music and low forms. Likewise, high music can be sublime or it can suck. Low music can be good, groovy, fun or it too can suck. High music is intellectually challenging - think of Brubeck's syncopation or Davis's uncomfortable silences, Beethoven's jousting melodies or Mozart's flurries of notes - while low music is simpler, accessible, real.

My aesthetic sense owes much to Gadamer's notion of play. The aesthetic experience involves the work and its perceiver extending to each other. The work has an implicit set of rules that the perceiver accepts. The perceiver suspends aspects of reality to engage the work. Like playing a game, the game and its players are bound by this relationship. Music has to be experienced. That experience can and does occur on many levels.

So I understand that when I listen to Beethoven's 6th that there are many levels on which I can approach it. I may concentrate on woodwinds or try to isolate the bassoons, or I may focus on the mimetic aspects of melody, or I can try to take in contrasts, etc. And when I listen to Suicidal Tendencies I'm focusing on Mike's funny lyrics or the guitar riff or something.

If high music is fine art, I equate low music with cartoons. Each is enjoyable, but high music can be appreciated in itself whereas low music conveys a message that transcends the form. The Requiem is beautiful musically in the purest sense. One doesn't need to understand Mozart's lyrics to appreciate it. I don't think we can say the same about, say, a Dylan tune. The music serves the message in the latter.

TLDR
Probably not making much sense. Basically, I think there's music and then there's popular music. Both have merit, but for different reasons.

Examples of "high music" from popular artists:
Miles Davis's Kind of Blue album
Molly Hatchet's Dreams I'll Never See
Simon and Garfunkle's I am a Rock
Charles Mingus's Haitian Fight Song

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Stan (most of his later stuff too), by Eminem.

It's true, that most rap stands and falls on it's lyrics, but without a good beat, those lyrics stand on shaky ground. Take for example The Roots. Their lyrics are amazing and they are good musicians since they play instruments, so they have a grounding in music theory, but sometimes that music is god awful.


[/ QUOTE ]

By later stuff did you mean older? Because his most recent is absolute trash and his earliest is far superior. I do not completely agree about needing good beats. Big L's Lifestyles of the Poor and Dangerous is one of my favourite albums and the production is quite bad. Of course that is just my taste.

[/ QUOTE ]

Eminem Show had good lyrics, I forgot about Encore and whatever else he made. It would have been easier if you simply FYP'd me.

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

Even Eminem Show doesn't compare to Marshall Mathers LP or Slim Shady LP imo.

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

I'm a lyrics fan and that would explain why I like rap. But mainstream rap is just so bad that I can't listen to it. It annoys me to no end. I look at rap as an artform, a combination of poetry and music and these mainstream rappers have destroyed the artistic nature of the genre and turned it into cookie cutter, record label manufactured garbage IMO. Oh well.

Beats are important I would say but to me a great beat just can't save poor lyrics.

Me and DaveT probably have opposite views in it that I think a crappy beat can be surpassed by some creative lyrics. And the Roots are the [censored]. Go ?uestlove and Black Thought (one of the most underrated rappers out there)

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

Not to break anyone's crayons, but there's a line in a Morrissey or Smiths tune (not a fan, but had a roommate in college that liked them) that goes:

"any fool can think of words that rhyme"

Pretty much sums up my appreciation for rap. Rap is the budweiser of the music industry. Labels write the tracks and develop the acts that record them. It's Millie Vanillie but more overt. And you guys are buying it. Meh. If it makes you happy, enjoy.

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Not to break anyone's crayons, but there's a line in a Morrissey or Smiths tune (not a fan, but had a roommate in college that liked them) that goes:

"any fool can think of words that rhyme"

Pretty much sums up my appreciation for rap. Rap is the budweiser of the music industry. Labels write the tracks and develop the acts that record them. It's Millie Vanillie but more overt. And you guys are buying it. Meh. If it makes you happy, enjoy.

[/ QUOTE ]
wow

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Not to break anyone's crayons, but there's a line in a Morrissey or Smiths tune (not a fan, but had a roommate in college that liked them) that goes:

"any fool can think of words that rhyme"

Pretty much sums up my appreciation for rap. Rap is the budweiser of the music industry. Labels write the tracks and develop the acts that record them. It's Millie Vanillie but more overt. And you guys are buying it. Meh. If it makes you happy, enjoy.

[/ QUOTE ]
wow

[/ QUOTE ]

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

Not that I have crayons to break, but I think it is unhealthy to have tunnel vision or tunnel ear. We were just talking about lyrics in rap. And yes, I believe that The Roots are among the most under-rated bands of all time. I introduced that band to several people I know that only listened to rock and they were able to appreciate it.

Love all stuff from all genres. Ironically, some of my favorite artists are the ones you can't make out everything they are saying: Tricky, Tool, and Radiohead are a great examples of this.

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

wow, awesome post...and I never would've admitted I thought of "Dreams I'll Never See" as high art, but dammit, it is! [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Not to break anyone's crayons

[/ QUOTE ]

If you're going to insult people, have the balls to be overt instead of thinly veiling it. Douchebag.

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

Didn't mean to insult anyone. I simply view rap more like a commodity than an art form. If that makes me a douchebag so be it.

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

I think you knew exactly what you wanted to say when you made the crayons comment. You wanted to imply that those of us who enjoy Rap are childish, or intellectually inferior, because of our affinity for "low music," as you call it. That little barb could have easily been omitted and this exchange never would have happened. You're too smart to be playing dumb. I wouldn't insult you for merely expressing your opinion.

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Didn't mean to insult anyone. I simply view rap more like a commodity than an art form. If that makes me a douchebag so be it.

[/ QUOTE ]
And every person who posted before you about rap in this thread has made sure to clarify that they are not talking about the commodity, not talking about the mainstream rap. And since they made it so clear, your post means that either you didn't read those posts or that you think every single rapper is inferior and cannot possibly rise above his poppy roots to achieve something greater.

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

Total music person. To me, the voice is just another instrument. And I'll admire the vocals just for the melody or rhythm of the lyrics, as opposed to the actual lyrics themselves.

That said, sometimes lyrics are meant to shock and I do notice them sometimes.

E.g., Husker Du's Diane:

Hey little girl, wanna go for a ride?
Ther's room in my wagon its park right outside
We could cruise down robert street all night long
But i think i'll just rape you, and kill you instead

Diane, diane, diane

I heard there's a party down at lake cove
It would be so much easier if i drove
We could check it out, we could go and see
Oh won't you come and take a ride with me

We could lay in the weeds for a little while
I'll put your clothes in a nice, neat little pile
You're the cutest girl i've ever seen in my life
It's all over now, and with my knife

Re: why do you like the music you like?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Didn't mean to insult anyone. I simply view rap more like a commodity than an art form.

[/ QUOTE ]

you can make this argument about most musical genres