Rap my arse
I had the misfortune to see part of a television programme last night.
It was one of those “around the country” programmes where they do items at various locations. For some reason the only thing people seem to do in Irish villages is arts or crafts, but that’s beside the point.
Last night they focused on a wee village in West Cork where a primary school has apparently produced a “rap” thing about “climate change” which has gone “viral”.
Now there were a few things that pissed me off about this. There is that “viral” thing which apparently means more that their immediate families have watched it. Then there is the whole insidious thing about brainwashing infants [they seemed to range in ages from around five to nine] about the climate and terrifying them into having nightmares.
The worst part about it though was the “rap”.
I know it’s traditional for us olders to moan about the younger generation’s choice of music. I’m sure my parents silently cursed the Beatles, the Stones, the Who and all the rest of them but I stand by my position that there was some damned good music there.
But rap?
That is not fucking music! It’s a bunch of kids reciting lyrics [full of slang] while jiggling around on a fixed spot and poking their fingers in random directions. This recitation is produced on a monotonous drone preferably with a Bronx accent and with an accompanying raucous beat that never changes. It is reminiscent of some of my worst hangovers.
I have heard that the lyrics are supposed to be some sort of modern poetry but I don’t go for that. Proper poetry can be music to the ears [if you go for that sort of thing] but rap is just rapid-fire words where the occasional word rhymes.
Music in my book consists of melodies, preferably with harmonies. Those are completely non-existent in rap. It’s just an electronically produced beat that throbs around the head like a bad toothache.
So maybe I’m an old fart who can’t keep up with modern trends. Maybe there are people who will disagree with me. Maybe I am missing something.
I don’t care.
Rap is utter shite.
Or maybe you are spot on. With Rap the C is silent.
If you like rap, you're a unt?
Absolutely right.
I went to a saxophone festival concert recently that featured contemporary classical (you know what I mean) music. Beeps, squeaks and farts for the most part, on solo sax. Dreadful. So it's not just rap. …..
Ah, the saxophone! Not my favourite instrument. I am fairly eclectic in my musical tastes. Anything from heavy metal to Mozart. However, jazz is not in there, and in particular that type of jazz where they head off on solo cacophonies of discordant screeching. I'm not that fond of crooners either.
Never a truer word (or 4) was spoken…
I am glad I'm not alone!
When I first hear rap music in the mid 80s I quite liked it, original melody, the lyrics were (sometimes !) good. then as the 90s wore on it just became shouty rubbish, and as I no longer listen to any radio stations that might play that music, I suppose its just got poorer in every way.
But then GD, like all things its subjective. Personally I don't like pure rap either, but it does have its place, for example the way that Linkin Park merged rap with rock.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG9g8gaCoI4
I listen to all music, and if I like it to be it. If not I simply don't listen again. No one knows what the future holds, so I dare say that among the artists of any era there must be those who will be remembered as a Beethoven or Mozart, even if we, right now, consider it to be crap. Speaking of which, a very underrated guitar player who I once had the pleasure of seeing in concert. I think he's from your neck of the woods too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGlAkiCN4-M
Just reading this post made me go out and trawl through YouTube looking for all the rock classics of my earlier years just to get the idea of rap out of my head, Found a few, listened intently. I fell better now.
What amazes me is that anybody buys more than one record, disc, download or whatever. If you have heard one that is it. The next, and all the rest sound the same.
And do the lyrics and "tune" get written down. And can it be copyrighted?
The irony being that contemporary rap/hip hop music celebrates materialism, which is supposedly bad for the environment and hence the climate, apparently 🙂
The modern genre originated from under-privileged parts of American society and is so alien in culture to those West Cork kids that their message sort of gets lost. It's more about the oddity of rap in an Irish rural setting than what they're actually trying to say.
The teacher(s) should have applied a bit of intelligence and maybe researched griots and African story tellers first, and produced something with a bit more depth to it. Anyway rant over, we here think it's crap too.
PS: haven't visited for a while, life etc – hope you're holding up ok there GD.
Heh! A bit of a contrast between West Cork and darkest New York! I suppose the teachers just basked in the glory of their school and how they are "doing their bit for the environment",
Welcome back by the way. Hope you are keeping well Down There?
Not too bad GD thanks, was in London for 30 months – registered carer for my elderly father and back in West Cork just under a year now. Glad to be back, mad as the weather is. See you had a ticker 'hiccup', parallel lines here and two more stents crammed in!
Anyway, great to see your quill is as sharp as ever and made me smile looking at those mud trenches in the drive, you are not alone! 🙂
Agreed! It is absolute shite.