Music Poll (Rap killing other genres?)

I think it is, alongside pop. Don't get me wrong. I was born and raised in Atlanta, and I grew up on stuff like OutKast and Gnarl's Barkley, so I do like rap. I also have guilty pleasures in 80's/90's/00's pop, J-pop and K-pop. I just think rap and pop have gotten way too mainstream and generic in the past few years. There are exemptions, of course, but I won't listen to most modern pop or rap.

There is only ONE remaining rock station in Atlanta, while there are countless pop and rap stations. That should be enough proof.

There are people who haven't even heard of Ozzy? Are you shitting me?! BLASPHEMY!! (flips table)

I also had to explain to my 14 year old friend what Nirvana was. She had heard a few of their songs before, though (thank goodness; it's not to late to save her).

 

RAP, as it was, in the past... was something not quite that bad... Now, it's blatantly obvious (laziness much?), all the cutting of the audio, the speech, post processing...hugely oversampled lows... It's like, pointless. That's why, i simply don't listen to mainstream stuff *adjusts glasses*.

 

Can we please stop bashing over Rap/Hiphop and by doing so, praising the other genre? Look, I know you're a metal fan, that's good and all but to blame a specific genre because your favourite is "dying" seems really ridiculous because Hiphop has been around for DECADES. The thing is with what you listen to, you are kinda claiming that these are the ONLY ones that you think that are GOOD and you should know well because it's the only genres you listen to.

Yes, those artists you suggested are well and good but have you heard of Digable Planets? A Tribe Called Quest? Lauryn Hill? Outkast? Beastie Boys? Even mainstream Hiphop like Kendrick Lamar, The Roots, Death Grips (who are Rap/Metal),Shabazz Places, etc.

If you hear someone rapping or jut plainly talking about hip hop, it's not going to be their problem but only yours if you let it get to you.

The fact that people who reject anything to do with mainstream irks me a lot, I mean you don't have to like EVERYTHING but it also doesn't hurt when you at least try to be more open minded about it.

 

That's just the way a lot of the music industry works. If it wasn't Rap music, they'd have a monopoly with another type of music instead. You can't kill the METAL! I think Rap music can coexist peacefully with Heavy Metal. Those Pop songs get boring after a few listens, but I never tire of records like Dismember's Like an Ever Flowing Stream.

All you can do is encourage people to listen to what you consider real music. As much as I love Death Metal, it just doesn't appeal to everyone and... yeah, I used to be angry about it. You gotta ease people into it with tamer stuff like Children of Bodom or In Flames. Yes, I listen to other genres, but I give a lot of support to Extreme Metal. So much talent and so little reward.

 

Rap that doesn't involve sex, drugs, and crime is actually good. But some "rappers" just ruined the genre.

 

Music in the 90s was a lot better and less monolithic in terms of overall sound. I'm not sure why they don't play anything else today other than the same 3 pop and rap songs over and over again. I feel like there used to be more publicized variety and choice in terms of music and sound. I wonder why this is.

 

No genre of music ever truely dies. Rap is probably my least favourite genre, but it's kinda ridiculous to say that it's killing other genres. I mean, did rock 'n' roll kill swing? No. Did pop kill grunge? No.

People you talk to don't know the bands you like? Me neither. I like Billie Holiday, Dir en Grey, or Enigma; how many people have heard of them?

More accurate I suppose would be to say, art doesn't die, the audience just changes.

 

A ludicrous assertion any way you look at it.

 

Did that many people listen to them through the same ways that rap is listened to now, before being replaced by rap? Did rap artists actively reduce the production of other genres? Does rap target exactly the same audiences as rock, metal, or country?

The answer to both is mostly no. There's no point on getting hung up over your music not being as popular as rap.

---------- Post added 24th Nov 2014 at 02:48 PM ----------

Sex, drugs, and crime are pretty important themes in a lot of rappers' songs. If someone's singing about the conditions they live(d) in and their perspective gets through, then that's good.

If anyone enjoys it, if others relate to it, then the music is doing something. There's really no need to be a moral puritan about the music.

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That said, rap really isn't my thing. It just so happens that I can access other music if I don't want to listen to rap, because there's a hell of a lot of thriving music of many genres.

 

I wouldn't blame rap but the over-commercialization of music in general. I do think music has gotten worse over the years and that some good genres are disappearing.

 

Eh, sure rap is popular where I live but so is country, dubstep and trap as well as a variety of ethnic music. I love most music so it doesn't bother me any, some of the lyrics are a bit volatile but to be honest so is my neighborhood at times.

 

Nah, rap's not to blame as rap can't really help how popular it has become. Other genres are still going quite strong but they're not in the mainstream like, say rock, used to be so in order to get your fix you'll have to look deeper than before.

 

I don't hate rap as a genre, but I hate hate what it has become. I'd go so far as to say it is crippling racial equality because of the ideals so many "thug" guys put out there. People remember Tupac for his insight, but I can only look at so many illiterate wannabe high-rollers who rap about bitches and money.

Maybe I have it backwards and these rappers are products of a destructive 'hood upbringing that shows up in their songs. But from what I see they perpetuate stereotypes and do black people great harm.

Ultimately though I don't think any one genre is responsible for killing the others. Genre is only a tool for categorizing music that is more for record labels than artists. A song should use whatever style is best for expressing its message.

 

I rarely ever listen to rap (Only Eminem and a few others), so I don't think my tastes or opinions on music are in the mainstream.

But, no I don't think rap is killing other genres of music. There will always be a big divide in music tastes.

 

Classic metalhead opinion. There was a long period when bands like evanescence, nightwish, him and the like were the shit and they were all over mainstream music. Alas the pendulum swings and it is now passé in popular music. Just wait till it swings back.

I personally am a huge fan of neither the generic metal/hard rock nor gangsta rap, choosing instead to settle on a little bit of everything but mostly alt-pop/rock jazz indie electronic stuff

 

Rap isn't killing other genres, it's just the sort of thing that's been in the charts of recent years. I mean, glam rock was really popular at one point, we'll move onto another popular kind of music in the next few years.

 

The mainstream isn't actually doing anything to other genres, as metal is always going to be around the world for people to listen to. It just means younger people are just a bit ignorant when it comes to music, I know of so much of the 80's stuff by having to listen to it when I was younger. I stopped listening to it because it wasn't cool to listen to. So I started listening to rap/crunk. Now I've left that stage where it is and I'm now just listening to whatever I want and it doesn't matter if it's not popular. So OP, you should consider perhaps just doing what I do and when you spread the love for your music, just do it as a suggestion to people, maybe even do the old put headphones up to other persons ear and tell them you have a song you want them to listen to and play some of your harder stuff to them. But certainly no genre is dying even the obscure ones aren't dying.

 

No, I don't think rap is. The mainstream changes, that's just going to happen, doesn't mean all other genres are going to die. I mean, look at classical music, where performances of 300 or 400 year old pieces attract huge audiences, that music hasn't been killed and I doubt it ever will be.

On a side not, rap has, in my opinion, helped the rock genres in some areas, with new lyrical styles, as well as rap-rock - a fairly good genre, if you ask me.

 

Tupac is hardly a role model though he's guilty of everything you just blamed current rappers for. Same for all the biggest hip hop artists of the late 80s early nineties NWA Snoop Biggie Nas Mobb Deep even Jay Z..

But no, rap isn't killing other genres.

Basically this