Musical Choose
I like to think that I have very good taste in music. Some of my closest peers would beg to differ, but in my opinion, they just can’t appreciate the nuances that I discover in every genre. It’s easy for a person to have a preference towards one particular type of music, for instance soft rock, alternative, or country, but it’s much more difficult to be able to like all categories of music. If you were to take a scroll down my iTunes, you would find a vast gamut of musical selections with anything from Paramore to George Strait. At this very moment, I am on a rap fix, which is somewhat uncharacteristic of me, but I have discovered that some rap artists are extremely talented.
I will say that I used to be cynical of the rapping industry. Like most other rap critics, I was appalled by how vulgar rap songs were. Every other word was an expletive or every other line degraded women in a manner that sounded more terrible than the previous reference. If that wasn’t bad enough, my mom would convince me that all the drug insinuations were suggestions about candy.
Fast forward about six years and my impression of rap is immensely disparate to what it was in my pre-adolescent years. When I listen to rap now, I find that many artists are masterful lyricists. If you ever wanted an English lesson in similes, metaphors, or analogies, you wouldn’t have to look any further than rap music. While the content may or may not be appropriate for some courses, I will assure that the concept is extremely apparent.
Perhaps the largest contrast between the rap industry now and the rap industry of yesteryear is that the artists are from a much different generation. In the past, rappers would rap about gang business, altercations with cops, sex, drugs, or all of the above. The most successful rappers were idolized for their ability to expose the struggles of life on the streets. While some of today’s rap material pertains to those earlier themes, the focus is more about overcoming life on the streets, for instance, the ascent to fame and stardom. What I find most intriguing, however, is that multiple rap artists nowadays are well educated as well as gifted intellectually. The best current example is Wayne Carter, best known as Lil Wayne in the rap business. While many people view him as a thug, they fail to realize that he has a psychology degree from the University of Texas-Austin. Another big name that has garnered much adversity in the media recently is Kanye West. But despite how people view them, both Wayne and West use their music to represent their beliefs or thoughts. Many of their songs are socially, historically, or politically loaded.
It can be said that the 90’s was the best generation for music. Considering my favorite genre is alternative, I would most likely concur. Nevertheless, all types of music appeal to me and I respect anyone who has the ability to write meaningful, harmonious words and lyrics. Whether it’s metal, jazz, or rap, at some point everybody should try and listen to music for what it means rather than for how it sounds.
