(no subject)
Jan. 4th, 2003 06:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anotheranonD. and I watched Scratch, a documentary of hip hop djs and the current "turntablism" trends.
It was a real eye-opener. For the longest time my only exposure to rap/hip hop music were imitations of the Fat Boys and Run DMC, annoyingly performed by my high school classmates. I learned to appreciate it a little more given the substantial crossover between hip hop and (insert electronic music genre here), but still found "pure" hip hop incredibly silly.
Now that I have some idea of the "noises" that my classmates were trying (and failing) to imitate, I have a whole new respect for the genre (even if I still have little use for MCing - I'll just take the scratching, please!). This is NOT like beatmatching - scratching well is using the turntable as a new musical instrument, and anyone who has the patience and endurance to learn to do this well is to be commended. It's not just using current records - many of these artists use old jazz, concept rock, children's records, even classical, combined with wit or just to make a good beat.
How people can say that this isn't music, or isn't original, is beyond me. I'm not a huge fan either, but just because I don't like something doesn't make it a less valid form of artistic expression.
It was a real eye-opener. For the longest time my only exposure to rap/hip hop music were imitations of the Fat Boys and Run DMC, annoyingly performed by my high school classmates. I learned to appreciate it a little more given the substantial crossover between hip hop and (insert electronic music genre here), but still found "pure" hip hop incredibly silly.
Now that I have some idea of the "noises" that my classmates were trying (and failing) to imitate, I have a whole new respect for the genre (even if I still have little use for MCing - I'll just take the scratching, please!). This is NOT like beatmatching - scratching well is using the turntable as a new musical instrument, and anyone who has the patience and endurance to learn to do this well is to be commended. It's not just using current records - many of these artists use old jazz, concept rock, children's records, even classical, combined with wit or just to make a good beat.
How people can say that this isn't music, or isn't original, is beyond me. I'm not a huge fan either, but just because I don't like something doesn't make it a less valid form of artistic expression.
