[Dixielandjazz] Rap and other forms

[Ed Danielson]

I got a kick out of Dave Richoux's post regarding new music categories: 
"Throat-core, NoN-music, Sludge-rock,  No-wave, Shoe-gazing."  A few 
Christmases ago, my son (now 26) wanted a CD by the band KMFDM (the name is 
an acronym for "No Mercy for the Masses" in German, I'm told, though I have 
my doubts).  So I went to one of Denver's best independent record stores, 
Twist and Shout (which has an excellent jazz selection in addition to 
everything else) and was surprised at how many kinds of music I had never 
heard of.  I found KMFDM in a bin marked "Industrial Music."  "Industrial 
Music?"  That sounds like it might be soundtrack music for a documentary on 
American manufacturing or something, but no -- it's essentially 
steroid-enhanced heavy metal music for disaffected would-be intellectuals.  
KMFDM is very effective at creating their original aesthetic statement, but 
I can't say I like their music.  Of course, the last "rock" record I bought 
was "Sailing Shoes," by a band called Little Feat, and that was about 1973.

If I remember right, according to an audio documentary I heard a number of 
years ago, rap music got its start in Jamaica (mon), where amateur DJs would 
walk around with boom boxes and microphones, shouting rhymes over recordings 
to call attention to themselves.  There must have been some money in it for 
them -- maybe they were like barkers enticing people into bars or something.

I'm told that the biggest thing in pop music right now is called 
"reggaeton," which combines elements of reggae, rap and salsa with even more 
highly vulgar and misogynist lyrics.  Kids eat that stuff right up.  Here's 
a couple of websites:

http://www.musicofpuertorico.com/en/genre_reggaeton.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggaeton

I don't know, but it seems unlikely that the audience for reggaeton could 
also be moved by what the DJML calls OKOM.  Check out the photos of some of 
the reggaeton fans, and you might want to ask "what's the world coming to."  
People asked that about ragtime, jazz, swing, bebop, r&b, rock, soul, and 
just about everything else to the left of Sousa or Welk, of course, but this 
stuff is a quantum leap farther out.

Ed Danielson