It’s been said that a new style
of music appears every thirty-five years or so and replaces the current
favorite the way rock and roll replaced swing music. I’m not bemoaning the
fact. All things have their time and when their time is up it must move out of
the way to make room for the new.
And hopefully better.
This was not the case for rap or
hip-hop if you prefer. When it first came out I thought it was a fad like disco
or punk.
But it wasn’t. And I couldn’t
understand its appeal. From what I could tell some rapper would place new
lyrics on old rock favorites (Super freak, I’ll be watching you, Kashmir) and
call it a new tune. Hell, Weird Al did that. Another problem was for the most
part there was no use of the musical scale. They started with one particular
chord, take E for example and stayed with it the entire song.
How can that be called music?!
Usually there are some acts that
when the new music comes in, transcends the generations. For example my parents
liked the Beatles, (my old man hated the Stones however, and would refer to
their lead singer as that ‘dirty Mickey Jagger.) My mother was a big fan of the
BeeGees.
So you see it does usually work.
But not with rap. And what makes
things worse is that there isn’t any good rock and roll anymore. I’ll watch
these new bands on SNL and frankly, they all SUCK! Nothing new, clever or
inventive. Just a bunch of tattooed guys, who look like they’ve been yanked out
of a dumpster, thrashing around like they’re being electrocuted. No interesting
riffs, no clever chord changes, no complex harmonies, just yelling into a
microphone.
There have been a few exceptions like
Kryptonite by 3 doors down and most of Effernecense’s [sic] stuff, but not much
else.
But like with all rules there is
the rare exception. I discovered a rap tune that was inventive, clever, and was
overall entertaining, and the singer quite likeable.
Give it a listen and see if you
feel the same. Here’s the link:
