Re: Rap and honest observations.

[Alex J. Lubet <lubet001...>]

Sampling was the fundamental compositional technique of Renaissance 
polyphony, only they called it cantus firmus in those days. WThere was 
another sampling technique called theme and variations. hen I was taking 
electronic music in the bad old days, we called it musique concrete.   
Everybody uses somebody else's stuff and it's what you do with it that 
counts. 

Jill Friemark wrote:

> Some interesting points were made, though not related to Jewish music 
> as such:
>
>> Generally, sampling means ' I've got no talent to write a song, so I 
>> steal
>> the hook from a hit record so people will think I'm cool"
>
> This is something that's always annoyed me in the case of most rap 
> music I've heard.  Why can't there be some original music in the 
> background?  Sampling was fun in the good old days of early 90's 
> techno, but even electronic dance music has evolved to a place where 
> it's moved away from dependence on sampling to make some fantastic and 
> beautiful original sounds, but in the case of rap, where the message 
> of the words is so important anyway, I don't understand why the 
> musical backdrop has to rely on the strength of someone else's  
> pre-existing musical effort so much of the time.  I'm not saying *all* 
> rap does *nothing but* rip off samples, I haven't the authority to 
> make such a statement,  but most of it that I've ever heard has.  I'm 
> making an honest observation from my own limited perspective, please 
> understand it as such.
>
>> It's not a case of "Old-Fogey-Itis", as some other poster suggested, 
>> either.
>
> I agree.  I'm far from being an old fogey and remember as a kid in 
> Chicago getting regular exposure to a hip-hop station in the mid 
> 1980's.  I liked it then, but don't care for the way it has evolved.  
> I don't think age has much to do with whether one wants to appreciate 
> or understand musical trends.
>
>> and that I don't keep up with trends.
>
> I don't think that stating that something is trendy is necessarily a 
> very strong argument in defense of the value of *anything* anyway, 
> especially when considering some industry driven "trends" in popular 
> music presently.
>
> Just another opinion.
> Jill
>
>
>
> .
>

-- 
Alex Lubet, Ph. D.
Morse Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Music and Jewish Studies
Adjunct Professor of American Studies
University of Minnesota
2106 4th St. S
Minneapolis, MN 55455
612 624-7840 612 624-8001 (fax)


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