BANANACUE
REPUBLIC
Vol II, No. 01
Jan 05, 2005

 
  
 by Leoncio Olobia

ARCHIVE #004

TABLE OF CONTENTS  

Archive:
2004
2005

Website:
Leoncio

Rap Music:  
An Infectious Disease


Today's concept of music is derisive, quizzical or simply mocking the listener's ear. If you visit a music store these days, you can spend a day browsing over garbage music because they are abundant in the shelves. With an exception of some genuine artists who still believe in harmonic structures, so to speak, the rest are just showcasing nonsense and more nonsense.

While one is lead to believe that there is no product when there is no market to sell, in this case there is widespread insanity and hopefully will trigger a threat of 'music annihilation'. Gone are the days of melodic songs unless if you tune in at a radio station that plays old songs. Those were the days when composers knew real music. They were affected by its appealing sound because that is the true definition of music, its pleasing quality otherwise it is just another sound you hear in the environment

One cannot help but compare pop music in the 70's or 80's with the recent ones. Any resemblance? Perhaps with the instruments but the songs themselves are on both ends of the equator. While the former has a flavor of acceptance because they are simple and direct, the latter represents a deranged mentality because either the lines are repeated endlessly or that there is simply no melody as in rap.

Which brings us to discuss rap music. Hardly called music, it is infectious. It affects our growing teenagers not because there is a hidden message because there could be hardly anything but because of the bombarding noise. What is it that this form of entertainment caters even to the intelligent listener? I understand those radical ideas can well be articulated in this polyrhythmic struggles so the listener is confused even more, why can't they be spoken slowly if they want to pin a message with a background music instead? Where is art in this case? Is it the trend that drives them nuts? If they are responsible artists, then they should do something with this trend because it is misleading and uneducated. Surely they could be better than that.

Black culture professes undyingly this obnoxious craft. They are the ones to blame. I hate to be racist but they continue to infect our mind. They have R&B and Gospel and Jazz forms which revolutionized a genre of true music, yet there is continued agony of rap music that they want us to digest. If one can only witness a church gathering at a Baptist Church, there is lavish musical air and the energy is bombasting and endless. Pure magic, indeed, is what you feel because the harmonies are intricate and pleasing. R&B, on the other hand, has been around for ages and its power is so strong. Because there is a message delivered, musically speaking. And of course Jazz stands out everything else without question. These are their true musical heritage.

Rap music embellishes on rhythmic patterns so irregularly defined that the singer sings in rapid fire while experiencing convulsion to accommodate what they might call a musical phrase but truthfully to fit in those long sentences. Heavy bass and drums are all that matters. The experience is like in a crowd of confused listeners not knowing what to do. Why waste time on something rubbish? Indeed we are affected because the white population has already imbibed this culture which only means it could be incurable. Perhaps when we just stop playing them one day it might signal a shift. We just deny them the stimulus, they can be conditioned mentally. Such artists as Eminem deserves a life sentence for polluting a growing mind with his sick music. It's empty talking that he is good at. He could probably compose in a minute because there is nothing in his head musically. There is full of air in his brain and for that he wins awards.

That is why today's music is no longer music. In many instances do we allow ourselves to be dragged but why do we have to let this happen? We are a culture that embraces diversity but when it is trying to be domineering, affecting our way of thinking, our way of life, surely everyone faces a responsibility. The younger generation is at the mercy and must be educated with true forms of music. They will be leaders in their own right and one cannot be submerged by a deformed concept, music in this case.

Posted 01/05/05.  Send your comment to bananacue_republic@yahoo.com

"Why waste time on something rubbish? Indeed we are affected because the white population has already imbibed this culture which only means it could be incurable."