Candy Shop

So, I was watching SNL last night, and I heard 50 Cent's new song, "candy shop." And I thought "Who listens to this garbage? He's not even singing! He's just talking about sex with a strange repeating electronic beat thingie in the backround!" Who in their right mind would listen to this? Well, OK, a lot of people. it makes no sense to me. Well, OK, maybe a little, as i think of the general public. But come on...it's #1 on iTunes. Where's the justice? Thornhill isn't even on iTunes. grr.

see, this is something I've oft wondered about.....

What is it that people see in "music" like that... and, why don't they appreciate the music that I do...

I guess I've always kinda figured that, well, people aren't willing to invest the amount of emotion and thought into music that people like, well, everyone here (for instance) are willing to invest.... that they just want something that's a longer version of a commercial jingle.

But is that really the case? Or do they actually hear something that I don't hear? Some hook that really does make the majority of people's brains melt the way mine melts when I listen to a peter mulvey, or a philip price, or an elliott smith....

Perhaps it's really ME who is the one missing something?

it's all about innocence. people who really know and understand what makes music can't quite respect simple backbeats, repetition, and the lack of melodic structure.
when you dont really understand whats behind it, simple music, rap music, etc..,�music that most of us can't enjoy, can sound different.
most of us here dig into music and pick out everything about it, which leads to different preferences, while others are able to just take in the overall sound that all the little things make together, and the beat and how it makes them move, and therefore they hear it in a different way then us.

See, I don't think the distinction is really that clear. I know a fair amount about how music works - I am not a performer or musicologist or anything, but I have studied some music theory and history and I understand a bit more about it than the average rap fan as you describe them. So, yes, the music that endures with me is, well, musical, and it has well-written lyrics (I'm a lit geek, as well). But there's an awful lot of that simple, repetition-and-backbeat music that appeals to me in certain moods because it's just fun.

Saying people who know about music can't like rap is like saying the same person can't appreciate Shakespeare and also enjoy, I don't know, John Grisham, or whoever.

I think all you guys hit the nail right on the head there. me, i'm not very critical. I like a ton of different kinds of music, and i like pretty much every movie i see. however, some things just get on my nerves. which is either because i just dont like it, or i'm missing something. sometimes i hate something the first time i hear/see it, but it grows on me. im a little more critical in books, however, but more in writing style than genre. (i can read bradbury one day and about john adams the next) If I don't like how the book is written, i can appreciate it, but still not care for it. If there are people who like certain kinds of music because of something about it, that's fine. However, when people only listen to it because it's popular, that sort of gets on my nerves.

Exactly my feelings on it.

Of course there's good rap and bad rap. Just like there's good singer/songwriter and bad singer/songwriter. What's on the radio is only the tip of the iceberg, but some of the good does get popular sometimes.

The lyrics are usually the draw for me. There are things that you can somehow pull off in rap that seem out of place in most other forms of music. I'm no so much looking at the gangsta stuff as the more geeky side of rap. It exists. I can't remember which group it was but I've heard a "serious" (as opposed to novelty) rap album where one song was based around Back to the Future, another Transformers, and the third on Laser-Tag Academy of all things. It's not my genre of choice, but there is plenty of good stuff out there.

To be honest, as I was driving last night, I listened to nearly 2 hours of spoken word on Vin Scelsa's "Sunday Night Idiot's Delight" It was... interesting.

Dammit paul, stop being honest!

Woo Hoo! Vin Scelsa, world's greatest DJ.

the best rap ever is by Calcu-Lator and the Oral Presentation. you haven't lived until you've heard Bird People.

i didn't mean to say they Can't,�i meant to imply that it Usually follows such a trend.