“Today the dominant voice [in popular music] is thug poetry or [so-called] rap “music,” which is lower than even the genuine, original jungle impulse. Growing from the helpless ghetto child’s fear and insecurity, it expresses an enormous defensive facade hiding his feelings of weakness, vulnerability and inadequacy, overcompensating with an exaggerated mask and pageantry of impervious toughness, threatening might; it is an aggressive parade of the thug’s willingness and readiness to commit crimes against you here and now. It is the essence of a thug’s character and persona: a life of physical, criminal force negating the mind.”
~ M. Zachary Johnson, from his book Emotion in Life & Music: A New Science
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2 comments:
I'm somewhat torn. I've heard the same accusations leveled against metal, a genera I enjoy. Such accusations are, when applied to metal, almost universally based on ignorance of the music. I've heard people say that metal is nothing but people growling into microphones and guitars so loud it's just noise. And this is true of SOME metal--but it ignores bands like Nightwish, who use orchestras and beautiful singers. I've heard it said that metal is all about death, destruction, and violence--ignoring songs like "Eulogy" by Leaves Eyes, one of the few explorations of the feminine perspective of war I've seen. It also ignores Sabaton, who sings about the Third Reich to make sure it never happens again. I agree that much of rap is as this quote describes; however, based on my experience with similar accusations, I'm not willing to admit, absent more research, that this describes the entire genera of music.
I'm a fan of lots of hip hop, as well as plenty of metal (as brutal as it gets - Cryptopsy - through the orchestral excellence of Dimmu Borgir, and the prog-metal of Devin Townsend), as well as all sorts of other types of music. About the only thing I don't much enjoy is plastic made-for-radio pop. That said, if others do, let them. I prefer to keep my music and my philosophy separate. Though Grateful Dead are a love of mine and definitely proto-libertarian. ;)
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