Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post

Tophat665 · 11-28-2004, 07:30 PM

<B>I would like to know when facility with a tape deck became a musical skill.</b> With all due respect to those of you who do enjoy techno, from where I sit, it's the equivalent of fapping to the Titty Board. Someboday takes something beautiful they found, and puts it out there, and then you look at it and perform a repetitive, if pleasing, motion.

At the risk of falling into the same trap myself, techo (particularly the varieties called Trance and House) consists entirely of none to long or complex snippets of other people's work repeated ad naseum, and then ad infinitum. If, say, Stairway to Heaven is a Van Gogh, or even a Hooper, then techo is a Fark Photoshop thread of nothing but Ackbar cliches.

There is the valid criticism that rap is guilty of the same thing (and, indeed, this pernicious practice has made its way into many genres which used to involve musical, rather than technical skill). I used to discard rap for just this reason. Then I ran across a cover of Gin and Juice by Snoop Dog, done by sa bluegrass band called the Gourds. Some of the lyrics are very clever, and the interlocking rhyme is quite adept. Then there was the Dynamite Hack cover of Boyz in the Hood, which is not as clever, and even less pertainent to my life, but turned out to make a pretty decent song with even half assed music behind it. So I gave some rap some more ear time, and Digital Underground surprised me, Eminem really surprised me (Lose Yourself is one of the very best songs of the last 10 years), and Outkast brought the lyrical style full circle with music behind it that, if it turns out it is sampled, it would be the equivalent of the very best Something Awful or Worth1000 photoshops, and if actually played, something like a Whelan or a Barlowe (to continue with the art metaphor - think sci-fi covers.)

There's also a lot of crap country out there, but there's a lot of crap in any genre, and there really is some excellent country too. Folks talking about Old School country - Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Hank Williams - remember, you don't hear the garbage that was out when they were starting and in there prime. It has deservedly faded from public memory. In 20 years, there will be bits of today's country that will get lumped in there too. I couldn't tell you what, though, because it is by no means my first choice of listening fare.

All of which is to say that, while rap shares some flaws with Techno/Trance/House/Dance, I really hate techno, and rap gets, if you will forgive me, a bad rap.

OK,
Don't sell rockabilly short until you've listened to Reverend Horton Heat.

11-28-2004, 07:30 PM	#29 (permalink)
Tophat665 Minion of the scaléd ones Location: Northeast Jesusland	<B>I would like to know when facility with a tape deck became a musical skill.</b> With all due respect to those of you who do enjoy techno, from where I sit, it's the equivalent of fapping to the Titty Board. Someboday takes something beautiful they found, and puts it out there, and then you look at it and perform a repetitive, if pleasing, motion. At the risk of falling into the same trap myself, techo (particularly the varieties called Trance and House) consists entirely of none to long or complex snippets of other people's work repeated ad naseum, and then ad infinitum. If, say, Stairway to Heaven is a Van Gogh, or even a Hooper, then techo is a Fark Photoshop thread of nothing but Ackbar cliches. There is the valid criticism that rap is guilty of the same thing (and, indeed, this pernicious practice has made its way into many genres which used to involve musical, rather than technical skill). I used to discard rap for just this reason. Then I ran across a cover of Gin and Juice by Snoop Dog, done by sa bluegrass band called the Gourds. Some of the lyrics are very clever, and the interlocking rhyme is quite adept. Then there was the Dynamite Hack cover of Boyz in the Hood, which is not as clever, and even less pertainent to my life, but turned out to make a pretty decent song with even half assed music behind it. So I gave some rap some more ear time, and Digital Underground surprised me, Eminem really surprised me (Lose Yourself is one of the very best songs of the last 10 years), and Outkast brought the lyrical style full circle with music behind it that, if it turns out it is sampled, it would be the equivalent of the very best Something Awful or Worth1000 photoshops, and if actually played, something like a Whelan or a Barlowe (to continue with the art metaphor - think sci-fi covers.) There's also a lot of crap country out there, but there's a lot of crap in any genre, and there really is some excellent country too. Folks talking about Old School country - Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Hank Williams - remember, you don't hear the garbage that was out when they were starting and in there prime. It has deservedly faded from public memory. In 20 years, there will be bits of today's country that will get lumped in there too. I couldn't tell you what, though, because it is by no means my first choice of listening fare. All of which is to say that, while rap shares some flaws with Techno/Trance/House/Dance, I really hate techno, and rap gets, if you will forgive me, a bad rap. OK, Don't sell rockabilly short until you've listened to Reverend Horton Heat. __________________ Light a man a fire, and he will be warm while it burns. Set a man on fire, and he will be warm for the rest of his life.