What does Leonard Listen to for Entertainment

[Arthur42Dent]

Interesting article. Very true. Too bad the rappers conent is rubbish. But that's cool, the good stuff isn't meant for the masses.

For quality hip hop go here: http://www.non-prophets.com

"Let me rub my back against the notches on your bedpost/
To scratch these afterthoughts off my flesh and shed ghosts/
My head's close to your closet door. I've got the glass to my ear/
My nose is in your business...I smell something fishy here.

I hear bones rattling. Poems battling for space and time/
Phones that'll ring...when I make judgement calls with pick-up lines/
Sexual hang-ups leave me waiting nude and while alone/
It gets aggrivating masturbating to a dial tone." ~ Sage Francis

[lizzytysh]

Hi Paula ~

I found it ironic that you don't like rap per se. I say that because I rather thought that you do, and that you saw Eminem as a "leading force" in that particular genre [that you already liked], and that his being a rapper was more what initially got him into your likes.

I, on the other hand, do like rap per se, and it's Eminem's content that I have issues with. I agree very much about music, rhyme, etc. ~ beginning with those of the nursery variety ~ is most effective in our remembering things, getting the message home, etc. It's also what concerns me [most?] regarding his particular content [and still does, despite the article]. Of course, this poor horse has been beaten to smithereens, long past dead, and I resisted the first time [after reading your post here], but since it's come 'round again [via Arthur], I decided to go ahead. Ah well .

Sage Francis is making his points in an interesting way.

~ Lizzytysh

[Kush]

I don't like rap per se but I can see it is a great way to get poetry to the young. Its like if you put anything to music it increases the mind being able to soak it up. The alphabet song when you were little and the doe ray me song from "Sound of Music". I think peoples brains are more receptive to learning if there is some rythum (sic) to it. And I think poetry is the same. Song lyrics are just poetry put to music (in the main).

Paula...I meant to respond to this a while ago but never got around to it. Sometimes, a response requires more thought so i leave it for later and then lose track.
Anyway, what i wanted to say was that "in the main" I agree with you that song lyrics are poetry set to music. However, I'd like to add that there may be distinct requirements for the two. A poem has to stand up by the strength of only its words and it has to flow (i.e., it must be gripping enough for the reader to keep reading). A song , however, on the other hand gets some help by the strength of the vocal delivery of the singer + accompanying music and so it is not so much dependent only on one facet (i.e. the writing) as a poem.
On the other hand, writing a good meaningful song maybe relatively harder for the writer than a poem coz' there maybe additional restrictions on the word usage that are dependent on the vocal delivery. Plus the songwriter also has to think of the melody and how the words flow with the melody. There was a correspondent here sometime ago who writes both songs and poems and said that writing songs was really hard for her rather than poems. In an earlier era, songwriting was usually done as a collaboration between a composer and a lyricist (e.g., Weill-Brecht, [composer]-Prevert) and maybe that was the better way.
So, perhaps song and poetry are two faces of the same coin.
I read an article one time about how to best appreciate a Shakespeare play one has to see it in theatre rather than reading it from a book coz' that's how he planned it out when he wrote the plays. Similarly, sometimes a song has to be really heard for the poetry in it to come through.

[jurica]

Anyway, what i wanted to say was that "in the main" I agree with you that song lyrics are poetry set to music.

Not quite. Actualy, poetry is music set to words [I've edited this later, when I noticed I've written a total nonsense here. Nobody complained, though.] Music is considered to be the first art form, althought it didn't leave any solid evidence (like art on the walls of caves). First poetry were songs sang to Gods for good luck or in magic rituals. They were very repetitive and it was more important to keep a good rhythm than to preserve any meanings. Then came poetry. And long after poetry - prose. It's funny. Althought prose is simpler form, almost in all cultures (all that I'd know) poetry came before prose.

I think you are right, and that rap music might give birth to new poetry, but until that happens, I'm not very interested. For now, all I can see is genre that has potential, but has not yet developed any great art.

[George.Wright]

Aye, from mantras to rap and the secret chord lost in the process...........
Georges

[Byron]

This forum defends the right to free speech and on this un-musical note, I am exercising my right to speak freely. My own very personal opinion, which is unfettered and uncluttered by any other person's views, choices and preferences, is that the only thing missing from rap is C.
I shall now go and have my Horlicks, while Matron makes her rounds, and I shall endeavour to ignore the ensuing tirade of vitriolic abuse, that my aforementioned remark, will engender.
You may have to speak up, because as a youngster, I chose to ignore the warnings about making myself deaf and/or blind. But as I said to my clinical psychologist, "I'll risk one eye".

[George.Wright]

Good to see you back, Byron...................
Georges

[Paula]

Hi Lizzie - I really am not that impressed with rap as such. My daughter has it on all the time and it is mind numbing. I like Eminem for his showmanship and he candid way of rapping. He seems to use rap as a form of therapy and I think there is a lot more to him than other rappers who just seem to spout the same rubbish all the time. Only time will tell if he reaches the potential that I think he has.

With regard to poetry/song lyrics. It is to do with commerical value. There is little money to be made from Poetry very few people actually buy books of poems of contemporary poems. They will buy classics and dip into contemporary poems but the money is in music. A mediocre lyric can amass a fortune for the writer if it presented for the masses. While an outstanding poem would fall by the wayside. Basically you could take any text put a good tune to it and have a hit. "Turn Turn Turn" is taken straight out of the bible. On "Sergant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band" the song "Being for the benefit of Mr Kite" was taken directly off a poster advertising a circus. And of course one of my favourite "Desiderata" was an old verse found in a Church somewhere. If you put a decent melody to almost anything and present it well (and you had the backing of a record company) it will sell.

But then you have people like Cohen who has managed to merge poetry and music while still managing to keep his credability as contemporary poet. But if he had relied on poetry as a means of finance he would be living in a garret somewhere on a meagre allowance.

[witty_owl]

Byron, Hear Hear! Thus I also risk the vitriol as I replace the C in RAP.
I get really irritated by all the affectations and hand gesticulations that they all mimic from one and other. Give me John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy, B.B. King and all the other New Orleans and Chicago bluesmen. This is the real soul of American music!
Cheers, Witty Owl