[Dixielandjazz] Is Rap a New Jazz Genre?

[Charles Suhor]

Lot o'wisdom in this, Dan:  "Hating something does not make that 
something jazz-like." I agree--I don't like most rap, but it's clearly 
not a genre of jazz. Though there are some overlapping musicological 
qualities, the differences are of course greater, and the space for 
creativity is to my view clearly greater in jazz.  A provocative 
statement: "The musical structures we  all grew up are breaking down 
and merging into new 'entities' we still  can't quite define yet." This 
is true in the development of arts in general, but in the case of rap, 
the music holds still for analysis because the differences aren't very 
complex, as they were with avant garde jazz, John Cage, Picasso, Dali, 
James Joyce, e e cummings, etc.

Good strand, Steve.

Charlie Suhor



______________________________________
Dan Spinks wrote:

The musical forest is much bigger than jazz and rap, I think, Steve.  
And
hating something does not make that something jazz-like. For  example, 
is John
Cage's music like jazz? His music has been hated far  longer than rap. 
I suspect
that the forest is changing in more basic ways--what  you might call a
paradigm shift--to use a fancy term. The musical structures we  all 
grew up are
breaking down and merging into new "entities" we still  can't quite 
define yet.
Maybe the whole idea of music fitting into  categories is itself an 
idea already
out of date.The only  result that is obvious now is the continuing
fragmentation and lack of clear direction (seemingly). Never before 
have  muscians (or
any artists) had more choices and so few rules to hold onto.  
Fortunately,
there are still some rules left to break. For example,  we really don't 
need
rhythm, do we?

Dan (piano fingers) Spink