zimmerdaon

zimmerdaon t1_j9geyog wrote

Alright this is my last comment cos its clear you just don't know a lot about what defines a genre but are too stubborn to deal with that.

Using it "as an instrument" (which isnt even possible, because its literally an effect. You cant have autotune without something to use it on. Autotune doesnt generate a sound that didnt come from something else) it still doesn't make it a versatile genre. Hip hop traditionally doesnt even use instruments. Every other genre in the world besides electronic branches do. Thats not very versatile. This is a fundamentally ignorant point of view to have. Why do you think there isn't a single comment on this thread that agrees with you? It's all good, but its just incorrect. It has nothing to do with rap being cool or being worth listening to. It has everything to do with basic theory & music history. Go read about it. Or better, actually listen to more music.

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zimmerdaon t1_j9ge5vw wrote

Dude something being lesser known has zero relevance to a binary question. You're not even worth arguing with because you just want* rap to be the most versatile because you think that makes it better somehow. Hip hop is like my #2 genre in life & i'm still smart enough to recognize it isn't because of its versatility.

Its like you're saying a grilled cheese sandwich is more a complex recipe than Pad Thai. It's just not. And then you're like "but pad thai doesnt even taste good". Like bro that shit has nothing to do with what you said.

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zimmerdaon t1_j9gdv2z wrote

Except you'd be wrong. They all use guitars & drums, sure. But prog rock operates in fucking wild time signatures, with sometimes multiple bridges per song, refrains, and really broad styles of guitar playing that oftentimes come from different continents.

Kraut-rock guitar playing has nothing to do with the delta southern blues guitar licks.

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zimmerdaon t1_j9gdb5j wrote

I get the feeling you're associating versatility with evaluative assessment. Those are different things. Just because something is less versatile doesn't mean it's less good, or valid. It's just a different thing.

If you don't wanna accept rock, then take jazz, and then it's game over. Nothing is more versatile than jazz. That was the whole spirit of jazz to begin with. Improvisation.

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zimmerdaon t1_j9gd0v6 wrote

Well now you're just bein goofy. I didn't say the most popular rap songs don't have hooks, did I? I said sometimes rap doesn't even add hooks to diversify its structure. Then I showed you three examples from three of the most popular rap artists of all time, because you wanted to bring in popularity like that's a relevant factor. Plus who tf cares if it's from 15 years ago? In your OP you literally listed Nas as an example. He started over 20 years ago. Rap ain't that versatile, it ain't that complicated.

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zimmerdaon t1_j9g9o6m wrote

Gotta firmly disagree here. I love hip hop, but structurally & instrumentally hip hop is easily one of the LEAST versatile genres in the world. If you wanna talk about "umbrella" genres, rock has had more diversification of its forms in the past 30-40 years by a landslide. i.e. prog rock, fusion, hardcore, thrash, grind, and so on. Jazz is arguably even more diverse. Flamenco too.

Hip hop traditionally follows a pop song structure (always in 4/4 time, always 8-16 bar verses sometimes without even a hook to mix things up. You may think it SOUNDS versatile because it can use samples from virtually anything, but they're all being used in the same way. The rhythms of the songs barely change in the grand scheme of music's potential.

Historically, the lack of versatility has been one of the biggest criticisms of rap from traditionalists & theorists.

Hip-hop is still for the children, don't get me wrong.

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