The same chord progression and tonality and lack of development.

 

The name "hip-hop" is more than enough to keep me away from it.

 

A kind of music where there seems to be a very blurry line between being genuinely original or annoyingly formulaic. I might be called biased or ignorant but most variants of dance music seem susceptible to this.

Like with metal all the sub-categorising of dance in general is really annoying and just a little precious especially as there can't be all that much bloody difference between most of them:

Electropop, glitchpop, hip house, nu-disco, synthpop, new rave, trance, house (UK garage in UK), Hi-NRG, electroclash, electro-industrial, drum and bass, dubstep, glitchstep, liquid funk, electro house, glitch house, progressive house, breakbeat, hardstyle, dubstyle, drumstep, hip hop, Baltimore club, trap, moombahton.

And this is only some of them (courtesy of Wiki).

 

A kind of music where there seems to be a very blurry line between being genuinely original or annoyingly formulaic. I might be called biased or ignorant but most variants of dance music seem susceptible to this.

Like with metal all the sub-categorising of dance in general is really annoying and just a little precious especially as there can't be all that much bloody difference between most of them:

Electropop, glitchpop, hip house, nu-disco, synthpop, new rave, trance, house (UK garage in UK), Hi-NRG, electroclash, electro-industrial, drum and bass, dubstep, glitchstep, liquid funk, electro house, glitch house, progressive house, breakbeat, hardstyle, dubstyle, drumstep, hip hop, Baltimore club, trap, moombahton.

And this is only some of them (courtesy of Wiki).

There is a lot of difference between each one of them. There are just more genres now a days. If they all was called "electronic" music, it wouldn't be so formulaic.

And what a incredibly destructive topic.

 

The problem is that you're looking for the qualities of classical music in hip-hop If you want to listen to music with the qualities of classical music... stick to classical. hip hop is not about chord progressions or tonality, it's about something else entirely.

 

Yep that's right, and another reason I don't like hip-hop. Whenever I try to analyse the music itself in that way I get told not to. It isn't about "music theory and analysis of the notes" it's about the non-musical elements.

 

No, I don't mean it's about the non musical elements. Well, maybe lyrics (after all rap is rhythm and poetry). But it's about the groove, the timbres, the whole texture. Besides, music is not meant* to be analyzed only, it's also meant to be just listened or enjoyed, am I right? It's supposed to be *sound* at the end, and not just dots in a page, right?

*for some meaning of "meant".

 

Sounds like the kind of thread made by someone who secretly likes hip-hop.

 

Fiction can be fun. But seriously why would anyone lie about the music they like? Alright I could see someone lying about Disco. See Hyde in That 70's Show. But hip-hop? Uh. Just horrible.

 

Also I can't help but wonder at elgars comment... do you actually like to dance? What's so annoying about people actually wanting to dance (and sometimes *gasp* even to a basic 4/4 beat) that seems to offend some people here?!

 

Not so much that I don't like to dance but can't. And I for one didn't say I was annoyed about people wanting to dance.

I'm not exactly immune to '4/4' as such but the 'thump/sizzle' dance/techno take on it I find really grating after a while. I'm not completely averse to hip-hop/trip hop/rap either - I like Massive Attack, Cypress Hill and Public Enemy (yeah, I know - predictable choices...) but admit that I'm not going to wade through the morass of sub-genres in order to find someone else I might actually like. I'm sure there's a lot of underground stuff which is very good but that was one of the things I was trying to allude to in my first post - unless you are thoroughly steeped in the music how can one tell if it's good or ordinary? Or doesn't it matter? I'm sorry if my original post (or this one) caused offence or was deemed provocative - it wasn't intended to be but I also wasn't willing to sugar-coat it too much either.

 

I don't like rap, but I do like some hip-hop now and then. It's far from my favorite type of music, but I do recognize that a handful of artists out there do have some true talent. And hip-hop is less about the musical features and more about what is being said, basically a form of poetry with music added on top of it. That's part of the reason though why much of it is so bad...so many of the artists, particularly in the mainstream, only want to talk about "busting caps", doing drugs, and picking up countless women, while only a handful of good ones actually make interesting or thought-provoking lyrics.

 

I don't like rap, but I do like some hip-hop now and then. It's far from my favorite type of music, but I do recognize that a handful of artists out there do have some true talent. And hip-hop is less about the musical features and more about what is being said, basically a form of poetry with music added on top of it. .

I don't think that's true. The words matter, of course (though sometimes the content is less important than just the sound of the rhymes and the stresses). But the music is very important. Dr. Dre didn't become famous for his rapping ability. There aren't very many well-regarded hip hop acts who aren't doing something interesting with the beats and sampling.

 

I think a lot of people who say they hate hip hop just haven't heard the right artist.

 

The right artist as in everything?

 

I'm sure there's a rare instance where I like a song from a hip-hop artist. But just like country the majority of the songs I don't like. And some I really dislike.

 

Oh, why? You didn't elaborate much in the OP.

 

I find hip-hop boring. As a genre, it's sort of a one-trick pony. It's all about rhythms, vocal and otherwise, and even then there isn't much variety.

Another thing I dislike is that often rappers value their rhythmic cadences to such a degree that they neglect the actual content of what they're saying. It's full of, "I'm this, and I'm that, and I'm gonna do this", etc., ad nauseam. When the song is over, you're left wondering what it was even about.

And before anyone accuses me of just not hearing the right artists, I grew up in the 80's and 90's fairly inundated by it.

 

There's music that I can enjoy without needing a reason to enjoy it. I find hip-hop very enjoyable when I am in certain moods. In fact, I downloaded two hip-hop songs from the iTunes store last night. They already have three listens each, so I guess that I've been in the right mood.

That said, I agree with those who have asserted that hip-hop as a genre is not very expansive. But then, no genre is as expansive as classical. It's unfair to compare any genre to classical because the latter spans hundreds, even thousands, of years. If all was right, classical music should not be lumped together into one genre in the first place. It's far too diverse.

That's why I'm happy with owning only a half-dozen hip-hop songs. Hey, that's more hip-hop in my library than medieval classical music combined. So as a genre you can't really say it's underrepresented.

 

I think there's something very exciting, very post-modern about hip hop artists like MF Doom, where the sound of the words is more important than the meaning. I know a few of the snobs itt will complain about rap lacking meaning, but maybe its a product of several generations of people who lack meaning in their lives. Not all music is supposed to express elegant, elevated ideals, and that doesn't make it inferior.

and my favourite

 

I don't go out of my way to listen to hip hop but I don't hate it. I hate the lyrical content of a lot of the mainstream artists, but the same goes for rock. I tend to prefer funk or jazz based stuff which isn't very popular these days.

Some of the instrumental stuff is quite interesting, some of these producers and turntablists are very talented.

 

Zappa once said, each musical style comes with it's own clothing trend...and I can't stand baggy pants or sideways hats.

 

Well i do not like it because certain rap/hip-hop is negative & violent.Also they say stuff i have no idea they are talking about.The sounds are weird & not natural to me.

 

You know that there are pieces of classical music that are about violence liek Tchaicovskys 1812 overture.

 

Most pop dance music has an annoying beat, i.e. a 4/4 always within a very small variance of BPM range, of which we are constantly reminded by a drum set relentlessly whapping out that 4/4 throughout each number.
Yawn.

 

Even though I don't like any of the hip-hop songs I've heard, I really can't say that I dislike the whole hip-hop genre, because saying that would be like a non-classical music listener saying they don't like classical music based on Canon in D or Fur Elise. I'm sure that the few mainstream hip-hop songs I've heard aren't everything. However, like mentioned above, I noticed that people who do like hip-hop always tell me that I'm listening for the wrong thing every time I comment on the purely musical aspects of the music. If I have to like hip-hop for its non-musical aspects, then I think it'll be difficult for me to learn to like it.

 

The musical aspects that I like in rap are the textures and background layering and the rhythms. Maybe try thinking of the rappers voice like a drum? Sometimes the songs have pretty great musical pacing as well. Hope that helps

 

I haven't listened to much hip hop, but this is the only album I've heard that I like

 

Would be so much better without the rapping.

 

I agree, really. But the music is at least good enough to justify the existence of the rapping.

 

I never liked hip-hop too much, I couldn't relate to it. I never saw what made the artists so 'special', personally.

 

I do not know what 'hip hop' is, or whether I've heard any.

Good or bad, I don't see the relevance of young people's music to me.

Do protest songs still get written (other than by Neil Young)?

 

I do not know what 'hip hop' is, or whether I've heard any.

Good or bad, I don't see the relevance of young people's music to me.

Do protest songs still get written (other than by Neil Young)?

Yep, and there are hip hop protest songs.

 

I don't believe I am in the target market for those artists.

 

i don't like lyrics but the beat and music is good.

 

i think the best thing about it is the catchy melodies and they're easy to sing along to BUT most of the "artists" that release these songs couldnt make a tune out of an instrument if their life depended on it so really they aren't musicians yet get treated like royalty and win awards they dont deserve