Friday, November 19, 2010

Are rappers musicians?

So I just answered the question "Are rappers musicians?" on Facebook Questions, and I'd like to share my answer on here!


Music is defined as (paraphrasing http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/music), combining tones and sounds for artistic value.


That being said, rappers are very much musicians, as their contribution to a song is integral to not only a song's effect but also its meaning. Rappers rely less on tones and more on rhythms, and as many people have already pointed out, so do drummers - musicians. Rappers use their voices to produce their music, just as every other singer or vocalist does. Although the don't focus on pitch (but they do use it), their tones, timbres, and inflections are used and even celebrated. This is why B.o.B sounds different from Eminem sounds different from Lil' Wayne.



An interesting point on drummers - tabla players in Indian Classical music have onomatopoeic syllables to describe different kinds of strikes or hits. They are expected to be able to pronounce them as fast as they can play them, and sometimes even perform this way.

http://chandrakantha.com/articles/indian_music/bol_percussion.html


One point of argument may be in the repetitive nature of most rap songs. Cyclic music, although definitely found in Western music, is even more common in other musical traditions. In these styles, the musical piece is appreciated as more of a repeating melody with subtle or not-so-subtle variations thrown in; much like rap. I'm thinking particularly of Shona, Hindustani, and Gamelan music.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/147944/cyclic-form


Although rap lyrics can definitely be considered a subset of poetry, it's hard to imagine most rapper's style applied to other poetic forms such as haikus or limericks. While a rapper can and sometimes do rap without music, their lyrics are specifically intended to be performed withinstrumental accompaniment. This separates rap from Spoken Word, which is a definite form of poetry.

https://www.msu.edu/~miazgama/spokenword.htm


They may not be musicians like Rossini or Mozart as one answerer said, but I would argue that they may be. Mozart and and the like gained their popularity by how their arrangements of tones and sounds appealed to the common listener, which is exactly what guys like Jay Z or Snoop Dogg are doing. Time will only tell how long their music will last - don't forget that Mozart was the "sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll" of his time and genre, and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring essentially caused a mosh-pit at it's debut.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086879/

http://www.npr.org/programs/specials/milestones/991110.motm.riteofspring.html


With all of that being said, I firmly believe that rappers are musicians.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Newspaper

Hi everyone,

I haven't blogged in an unforgivably long time. I've been very busy with school and haven't found the time to sit down and blog.

But a couple highlights!

Over the past couple weeks, I have spoken in two of Dr. Jeannie Loeb's psychology classes. One was an abnormal psychology class, and the other was an introductory course. Both times I talked for the full fifty minutes, and had time to answer questions from the students. In fact, the 101 class seemed to have more intelligent questions than the more advanced one. I had a great time and the professor was very appreciative - it looks like I'll be doing this more in the future!

The second highlight is that the school newspaper the Daily Tar Heel ran not just one but two features on me and my Tourette's. One was a print article that went on last Friday's front page, and the other was a multimedia presentation intended for the internet. Here's a link to both!

Written Article

Multimedia Feature

Sorry for making you wait so long! I'll try to be better about staying updated!

-Michael