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

[Rabbi Alana Suskin <alanamscat...>]

Just reading the responses in this thread make me pull
my own hair. Ecch. 
Thanks for writing.
Alana
--- Ron Caswell <ron (at) roncaswell(dot)com> wrote:
> Thanks Rabbi,
> Exactly.  Much more eloquently put then I could ever
> say. 
> Peace,
> Ron
>  
> Rabbi Alana Suskin <alanamscat (at) yahoo(dot)com> wrote:
> I've been amusedly following the opinions of those
> who
> dislike rap, and are busy confusing their personal
> tastes with what art is. I will only note two
> things:
> there are certainly people of "not-so-humble
> opinions"
> who have called classical music names not much less
> unflattering than those called here upon rap - an
> opinion I happen to agree with, only because it all
> sounds like syrup and/or bombast to me, but I don't
> pretend that my personal taste has anything to do
> with
> art; second, the opinions offered sound like a very
> bad case of old-fogey-itis; it's the exact same sort
> of comments that people made about the music these
> folks were listening to and loving when they grew
> up.
> Rap and Hip Hop (in particular Hip hop) are art -
> they're just not art that you like. Not all of it is
> good art - like any other art form, there are people
> who are artists, and people who are hangers-on, and
> people who couldn't produce anything good if their
> lives depended upon it. BUt I suggest that people
> hang
> up their music-was-better-when-I-was-young hats and
> go
> read some articles about rap and hip hop, and then
> go
> and listen the the actual music, rather than accuse
> from a distance music which they've probably never
> spent any great amount of time listening to and
> understanding. Hip hop comes from a very different
> culture than the music you like. It has diffferent
> purposes than the music you play, and it developed
> for
> different reasons. The hand signals aren't rap, and
> the musical instruments used are different than the
> ones you're accustomed to because people who don't
> have access to expensive musical instruments, do
> have
> access to other kinds of things, that can then serve
> as musical instruments- which is, by the way, the
> way
> musical instruments are invented, also - it's just
> that the ones being used happen to also embed
> technology in a way we're unused to -because it's a
> modern phenomenon.
> 
> Alana Suskin
> --- Farfl's House wrote:
> > 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
> > 
> 
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> 
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> 


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