Will Rap/Hip Hop music survive another 20 years?
On the classic radio stations with the rest of the oldies is where I think rap will be in twenty years. It’s too boring just reciting poetry with a rythmic beat, and more and more artists are incorporating instruments and melodies in their rap. Eventually it will grow into another genre with another generation. I’m betting that ska will be the next big thing, or some other kind of punk fusion to an existing genre. But who knows. It seems that new generations like to reject current forms in favor of something more uniquely their own, so maybe they will go totally the other way and melodic harmonies will be the vogue. Wouldn’t that be sweet?
Point well taken, My Friend. As long as it is a viable, marketable commodity, it’s here to stay. Initially, it was simply some fun music to dance to. The more “anti-social” and “hard core” elements developed further down the road. Evolving technology has also reduced the cost to record music across the board and this genre has perhaps benefited the most from it. Also keep in mind that not all very successful recording artists are “professionally trained” musicians. James Taylor is a very fine example. I don’t know a person alive who does not appreciate his music to some extent. I believe he grew up in a musically inclined family. Barry White is another example. He was a perfectionist regarding the orchestration of his songs; however, he was not professionally trained. He had an excellent ear for music and was a “class act” to boot! James Brown, the God Father of Soul, essentially laid the foundation for rap music and I don’t believe he was professionally trained, either. May you have a
Gail, these people you mention may not have been professionally trained, but they all spent years studying their craft and practicing and working at it. The same for the Beatles. All of these people had/have talent, and worked really hard to develop that talent. Dance music does have different standards than music meant to be listened to, and generally a different audience base. Young people dance, older people listen to music is pretty simplistic, but not entirely inaccurate. Hence dance music is usually pretty shallow and repetitious. Disco was nice in that it ran its course fairly quickly, unless you count that it devolved into rap. Someone once did a study of dance music, and claimed that the rhythm/tempo has accelerated over time, going from 60 to 90 beats a minute to 90 to 120 beats per minute. Each new style of music raised the tempo a notch with disco at around 110 or 120 beats a minute. I don’t know how fast hip hop tempo is for sure, but I’m guessing that it has followed the
Hello, ProfitBob: You’re right. African American churches have always provided a fertile training ground for developing young musical artists. Even, today, you would be hard pressed to find a significant number of young African American entertainers who were not introduced to music through the church. Furthermore, before the disco era, recording companies spent more resources developing fresh talent. As things stand today, unknown artists who want record deals have to place far more emphasis on marketing themselves and developing a fan base than concentrating on developing their musical skill set. Advances in technology along with changes in consumer demographics have significantly altered the dynamics of the music business. Your response has been very interesting. Please don’t be a stranger.
