Re: cRAP, Jewish or Otherwise - My Many Opinions!

[Ron Caswell <ron...>]

Ma , ma , ma my Shirona!  
Well not all rap is art.  Not even all art is art.  Many rappers aren't even 
thinking of it as art.  They're just trying to make it in the business and get 
a hit single.  Some artist do rap and make it into a craft.  Believe it or not 
Eminem is one helluva a talented guy and the production is outstanding.  You 
might not like 50 cent but he's got some things to say about his existence.  
Why is Klezmer considered art then?  Because we use out dated acoustic 
instruments?  That makes it art?  How many Klezmer tunes are in D minor with 
the flat 2nd?  How many of them use the same drum beat?  You call that 
original?  That's why some tunes become "standard" because they stand out from 
the rest.  Same thing with rap.  You need to start listening to more rap.  
Start with Grand Master Flash.  He even used some acoustic instruments!
Peace,
Ron


Shirona <shirona (at) bellatlantic(dot)net> wrote:
Some questions can never be answered..."Yes, but is it ART"?

As a frustrated art student in the 70's, where it seemed like all rules,
standards of visual criteria or any sense of a movement were
abandoned...where in the wake of that abandonment was the vacuum into which
all forms of BS were sucked in...unchallenged - I got tired of asking that
question. Art was reduced to "claim". If you put it in a museum and
declared "this is ART" - then it was! (Of course you needed lots of confused
suckers to back your claim).

Perhaps every art-form needs to go through a phase like that...like a
natural disaster that causes death... and re-birth (hopefully), and only
time will tell. If the so-called ART can survive successive generations who
will "buy into" whatever it is and find value in it - aesthetic, musical,
visual, intellectual...write books about it, lecture about it, have shows
and concerts (and people will come and love it) - then you probably have
ART.

It's hard for me to imagine that rap would earn such status in the
future...but then I still can't believe it got so big and popular in the
present, so what do I know? Are we plunging into a massive cultural
dark-age period? Maybe. We know what composers accomplished 50, 100, 200,
300 etc years ago...what do we have to show in the present? If rap
generates more "business" than any other form of music ( revenue, CD sales,
concert attendance) - does this mean that "this is it" for our generation,
and this is how we will be judged in the future? (Imagine a little bust
portrait on a piano with Puff Daddy alongside Mozart and Beethoven...or a
gallery in a museum dedicated to the "style" of rap artists...their
clothing, cultural milieu...their contribution to world culture and
enlightenment... I dunno - it's too depressing to think about it. I'm
going to listen to my classical music, or Klezmer or good old fashioned Rock
'n roll and make believe everything is cool...;-)

Shirona
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Singer, Songwriter and Teacher of Jewish Music
www.shirona.com
www.cdbaby.com/shirona
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

----- Original Message -----
From: "Farfl's House" 
To: "World music from a Jewish slant" 
Sent: Monday, March 22, 2004 8:23 AM
Subject: Re: cRAP, Jewish or Otherwise - My Many Opinions!


> In my sometimes-not-so-humble opinion, "rap Artist" and "rap Music" are
> oxymorons. I prefer to side with the late bassist John Entwhistle who
> was of the opinion that rap was for those that couldn't sing. I'm also
> of the opinion
> that drum machines are for demo tapes and should be used as a practicing
> tool only. They have no place in recorded music being released to the
> public.
> Anyone can learn to program a drum machine and a sequencer with a
> minimum of instruction. Anyone can buy Adidas gear and learn all of the
> correct and approved hand gestures from their local 24-hour video
> channel. This stagnant cliche "form of expression" devolved out of a
> rather interesting past time that took place in basements in
> economically-depressed areas. Kids were using turntables to play short
> *snippets* of records to form sound loops.
> Malcolm MacLaren had a hand in exposing it to the public, hoping to
> make a profit from it. Unfortunately, he paved the way for such things
> as "Puffed Wheat Daddy" or whatever his name is speaking about Godzilla
> over Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir".
> -Steven
>
>
>







 ___             ___                    _ _ | _ \___ _ _    / __|__ _ ____ __ 
_____| | ||   / _ \ ' \  | (__/ _` (_-< V  V / -_) | ||_|_\___/_||_|  
\___\__,_/__/\_/\_/\___|_|_|

http://roncaswell.com

ron (at) roncaswell(dot)com

212.865.9622 (H)

646.321.5888 (C)