Today's Music

An essay on my view of today's music.

    Ah, music.  This is one that many people disagree with me on.  I love music.  I really do.  A big part of my time in high school was spent in band.  (I played the euphonium, if you must know.)  My love of music in part leads me to detest with utmost sincerity pop, hip-hop and rap.  Pop and hip-hop barely qualify as music and rap absolutely is not musical.  Not in the least.  It consists almost entirely on a syncopated beat and a poem.  To be truely musical, it must have three things:
    Melody.  According to dictionary.reference.com, melody is defined as "musical sounds in agreeable succession or arrangement".  While pop generally does, hip-hop often does, rap rarely includes a medody.  For this reason alone, rap can be nixed from the list of music genres.
    Rythim.  This is the one aspect of music all three actually pass.  In fact, they tend to overdo and overrely on it. 
    Dynamics.  This is where they all pretty much fail.  Epically.  Homer epically.  Dynamics is defined as "of or pertaining to the range of volume of musical sound".  Dynamics adds emotion  and meaning  to the melody, and when used in concert with rythim can create intense emotions and sensations.  Neither pop, hip-hop, or rap has much, if any use of dynamics.
    Of course, there are exceptions.  You're probably thinking, "Well what about this song or that song?"  They're enigmas.  The majority of songs have one volume, one rhythim, and one sound throughout the entire song.  Many times the sound extends over many songs, to the point you can barely tell the difference between one song and the next even though they're done by different "artists".  Which leads me to substance.
    While the three attributes above may qualify a piece as music, there are others that determine further classification.  Good music goes well beyond those three.
    My top one is substance.    A life spent in pursuit of vanity is a life spent in vain.   A good song needs to be about something, preferably real.  It can tell a story, capture an emotion in time, whatever.  Another song about going to the club and picking up f**k does not qualify as substance.  Nor do songs about having bling, being gangsta (yeesh, i cring everytime I hear that word), or pimping.  Also included in substance is the source of it.  Paying some schmuck who can't sing himself to write songs for you to sing is not real.  Music is an art.  True art can only spring from creation.  Reading musical notes and reproducing them is not art.  Nothing is created.  Only in singing or playing music of yout own creation can be really considered art.
   Another attribute is harmony.  It's not necessarily manditory, but it really does add to a piece.  Harmony, along with dynamics, makes emotion flow.  Most mainstream music has no real harmony and when it does, it's rudamentary long notes; nothing can be too complicated.  I've watched mainstream devolve down to the lowest common denominator.  People pump out absolute crap and market it brilliantly so the masses blindly go about their day humming the current offering of audio excrement, actually getting excited about it without ever thinking to question it or even momentarily ponder the meaning of what they listen to.  Remeber, folks, rap is crap.

Reviews

[Jester]

I love the last sentance. RAP IS CRAP. Funny!

[theopenbook]

i love music too:) but some of the pop songs are really good. i think it depends more on the way the artist presents them:) i hate rap too:) i like country music at the best because well it's not too loud and it sure has melody and rhythm. colbie caillat is on of the pop artist that adore because i think she presents her music beautifully.:)

theopenbook.

[Rocknroll821]

This is great! i had to look and see how good you are at writing after i saw your review! This really makes my think of how music really is, i play guitar and learning violin and im pretty sure that is music! :D