re: Rap is musical cancer

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FYI, not a fan of rap and hip hop. I just recognize that it has a place in pop culture for a reason.

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Likewise. Overly subjective to say it doesn’t have its place; I mean, obviously, it appeals to more than a couple hundred people.

Literally every other genre is so digitally tampered with by the time it hits your ears, projected logic could pose debate over what you’re listening to is even music at that point.

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I’m not saying the barbarians are at the gate but they are.

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FTFY

Although normally it's 3strikes and your simply out.

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Sure, but the rock idols had skill, talent and worked hard to perfect numerous levels of musical ability.

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90% of classic rock is so simple and easy that I can play it. That shite, by and large, was a massive simplification compared to the jazz and rockabilly that preceded it. Rap was a massive simplification, but let’s not pretend it takes THAT much skill to play most classic rock.

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Hip-hop has it’s skilled players, but most have shifted into production and have tremendously dumbed down their output since the genre broke.

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Production doesn't get the credit it deserves, as the entire studio is now an instrument unto itself. It's immensely taxing work, and that some of the better producers of this era can make hit after hit should be a testament to their understanding of what modern studios are. I've seen producers sit there and click through thousands of snare samples to find the exact right one. It's a taxing process.

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You can love it if you want, but it not only killed rock, it sucked the life out of pop, country, reggae, jazz, electronic and just about every other popular genre of music. 

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This is far more to do with the response big labels had to mp3's. Now to get noticed, you need to note only have the music down, but also do video editing, sound design, and their own marketing. Labels are just not likely to invest in artists any more, because the money isn't there. It isn't there in terms of streaming, nor is it there in terms of live stuff.

The barrier to entry for music equipment and software is high as well. It sucks for every genre.

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Production doesn't get the credit it deserves, as the entire studio is now an instrument unto itself.

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This has been the case since the mid 60s and really exploded in the 70s with the growth of track counts (often via syncing multiple 24 track machines) and advancements in outboard processing. See: Bohemian Rhapsody (the song).

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The barrier to entry for music equipment and software is high as well. It sucks for every genre.

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The barrier to record music has never been lower, EVER! If you know where to look, you can legally get FREE DAW software, FREE plug-ins, FREE samples etc. Compare this to the days when an SSL or Neve board cost the same as an average HOUSE... OR MORE. Now add a tape machine and mics and a physical space to put all this in... Even if you went the route of an MCI board and 24 track, you'd still spend TENS of THOUSANDS. Now for the price of a week at a cheap studio you can get the software, interface and a few mics (It used to be you had to spend near $1000 to get a good quality vocal mic, with manufacturing happening in China, decent mics can be gotten at a fraction of that.) In 1970, the monophonic Minimoog cost $1500. That is roughly $10k in 2021 money. Conversely, the Voyager that was released in 2002 and meant to be the successor to the Mini cost $2995, about $4400 in 2021 dollars... but you can get a dang good plug in for $74. And there are free ones as well.

In the late 90s/early 2000s, samplers could cost from $1500 (Roland S-760) to around $3k (Emulator IV). Those devices could support 32MB to 128MB of RAM. MEGA-bytes. For the same money as a bank of those boxes, you can get a blazing computer with 64-128GB GIGA-bytes, great sample libraries, Kontakt, a DAW, a controller, speakers etc. AND it will SOUND far better than those 20 year old boxes.

In 1979, the first Linn drum machine, the LM-1, cost $5000. That would be $17000 in today's money. It could play up to 12 sounds at a sample frequency of 28kHz and bit depth of 8-bit. For $5k in 2021 dollars, I can buy dozens of drum libraries all at at least 24bit/48kHz.

Good guitars are cheaper in raw dollars that 30-40 years ago. Great amp modellers can be had for the price of a good amp but give you hundreds of different models. Some decent amp modellers can be purchased for the fraction of a good amp. They may not be as good as that amp, but you can make some great stuff if you have any talent. FAR more records are being produced in bedrooms than ever before. If you have $10k, you can buy a pretty decent setup. As late as 20 years ago, $10k wouldn't get you anywhere close to the setup you can get today.

The price to get into music production has plummeted.

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I've seen producers sit there and click through thousands of snare samples to find the exact right one. It's a taxing process.

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Now, imagine that but with real mics, in a real room, with a real snare. You could spend DAYS just getting the snare sound. If you wanted to change the snare sound, you had to move mics, change snares, change mics, move the kit etc. It used to be that an engineer had to know how best to record a snare. Now there is a lot of drum replacement. Record the triggers via an electronic kit or triggers then replace all the sounds. No need to know how to actually record a kit.

That's not even getting into editing in the DAW, gridding the drums to the point that the drummer actually didn't have to be any good, or having virtually unlimited tracks. All at a fraction of what it used to cost.

As I said in another thread, it's now a digital recipe. Much of that is BECAUSE the tools are SO easy to get. It is also far easier to make something that sounds kind of decent. Sure, there are truly talented people who know how to squeeze the best out of the gear and make great stuff, but the expense and expertise needed to make something that sounds OK is FAR lower than ever.

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The barrier to record music has never been lower, EVER! If you know where to look, you can legally get FREE DAW software, FREE plug-ins, FREE samples etc. 

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Just because it is free doesn't mean it is good. Even programs like Audacity have significantly decreased in quality. Of course you can steal DAWs, but I've preferred to buy. It might be cheaper now than ever before, but to use these programs effectively, the learning curve is fairly high, and you can easily sound like arse.

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FAR more records are being produced in bedrooms than ever before. If you have $10k, you can buy a pretty decent setup. As late as 20 years ago, $10k wouldn't get you anywhere close to the setup you can get today.

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I have experience with both. Maybe I'm driven by how little I enjoyed the production aspect of things, but I would have rather had someone else do it and for me to just play. Once I did learn the intricacies of all the programs I had, it became more enjoyable, and made easier by YouTube, but still it was intensely tedious work. I'd wager most kids don't have access to 10k right off the bat, but you do a good job of describing how cheap things have gotten.

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It's the comic book franchise of music...

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Well said. I’m going to permanently add that to my list of descriptions for rap.

Had to correct spelling… damn autocorrect!

Its not rap that is the issue, its just pop. Corporatizing music kills the art. Everything is about focus groups and letting kids choose our dominant music because they drive sales.

Now these risk averse record companies are creating music that simulates art as defined by their marketing team. They'll drop 400 million on Paul Simon's discography (no offense to Simon, who is a GOAT) but won't put their money behind new artists that are breaking boundaries. Imagine if the Beatles, Led Zeppelin ect didn't have blank checks to record? Would they have reached the greatness that they did? I think its far less likely.

We're never going to see bands or artists like that again. Instead we're going to get focus group bops that follow a single formula, and arent written or produced by the artists. In turn, the budding and middle class musicians emulate what's on the radio and we get Soundcloud rap that is worse than a needle in a haystack in terms of finding quality new music. Pop rap is what is hot because its the cheapest to make, appeals to children and doesn't necessitate an artist that has spent the time and labor to develop excellence.

Just look at rap prior to its mainstream takeover v now. I mean, how many groundbreaking or masterpiece hip hop records have come out in the past 10 years? I'd say To Pimp a Butterfly and that's the only one I can think of. That came out like 5 years ago and is literally just one record despite it being the dominant genre.

Capitalism is not the perfect answer for everything, and nothing we do can stop this degradation of art. We just hope that the musical pioneers of the future can do it all DIY but that's frankly impossible. It usually cost millions to put out the kinds of records that we saw in the past.

Rap should have went the way of disco.