My college roommate thinks that hip hop and rap are not music because they do not follow the patterns of western music theory, and thus cannot be plotted out on a music chart. Because the music is repetitive and generally lacks melody, it is defined as "boring" which is a music theory term. Instead of being music, he defines it as "urban poetry". Certainly rap can be poetry, but its poetry over music. I don't agree with any of his theories, and I think it is an extremely limiting definition of music that discounts not only hip hop, but many other genres of music. I may not know much about music theory, but as an avid listener I have a hard time accepting these dated rules and notions, and I'd like to hear your thoughts.

 

 

but thats not true, for instance all Frank Ocean songs have melody, chords, everything

and I can play them all on piano or guitar, so it must be music if it can be played on an instrument :)

I would argue that these categorisations can't really apply to hip hop as a whole and thus your roommate's assertion is flawed from the start. Music can and will be repetitive in any genre, and hip hop can be sprawling in dense instrumentation ("To Pimp A Butterfly" is an obvious example) as well. As for melody, the same thing applies (listen to "Deltron 3030" and examine all the melodic progressions in the music, as well as the melodic cadence of Del's rapping). I think a lot of people have a knee-jerk reaction to a lot of hip hop that stops them seeing catchy melodies. But even with this in mind, I don't think it's fair to rule these as necessary components of music. Jazz has thrived for decades never playing by any sort of rules, and while I've heard plenty of people say it's unpleasant, I never see its status as music disputed. That's usually the sort of thing someone says when they want to try and get intellectual high ground. Music is too subjective to get away with 'x is good, x is bad', so instead people need to be lawyered into accepting a truth formed to serve the person who made the dispute.

 

In short, hip hop is music, yes.

What an age-old question. Seriously, I'm not wasting my breath to answer that elaborately.

The sound that my laptop makes as I type is music. Sound is music. Music is everywhere.

 

+ most western music has been borne out of hip-hop/urban/music of black origin anyway hasn't it?

 

Hip-hop is most definitely music and I am aghast that people think it is something else?

https://www.reddit.com/r/LetsTalkMusic/comm..._hip_hop_music/

 

Hmm

I think OP is a spammer as upon a google search this exact question was asked on reddit a year ago.

 

but yes, and I’ve never heard of “boring” being a proper music theory term. :lol:

but yes, and I’ve never heard of “boring” being a proper music theory term. :lol:

You've obviously never listened to Ed Sheeran then :basil:

The sound that my laptop makes as I type is music. Sound is music. Music is everywhere.

The vidcapper energy of this thread is strong.

 

(or it would be if it was a real person who posted it and not just a copy and paste bot)