The Music Topic

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Re: The Music Topic

Post by SwagmaWampyr »

Um... it got censored so... XD
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Re: The Music Topic

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"Female Dogs" Brew, by Miles Davis.
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Re: The Music Topic

Post by Stealthfire »

I like Yuki Kajiura's music. Akiko Shikata is nice too.
I usually have a preference for grand sounding music like if you play it in a orchestra or something like that. This sometimes includes classical music.

Oh, and I have a tendency to like Award Bait Songs.

I can't stand rap most of the time because it feels like it has an annoying and repetitive sound to it.
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Anyway, try counting the words. Lines are too big I find.

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Re: The Music Topic

Post by Phantom »

Stealthfire wrote: I can't stand rap most of the time because it feels like it has an annoying and repetitive sound to it.

...Are you talking about the way rappers bring out lyrics, or are you talking about the actual songs/beat themselves?

If you don't want to read this text, just read the last bolded part of this post.

Rap music tends to follow a rigid structure, as it's not meant to vary like you would hear in a rock/jazz song. Rap beats are meant to complement the rapper/lyricist, not the other way around.
That's why when you hear an instrumental version of a rap song, you get a different feeling that's it's "hollow" without a vocal. After all, rap's origins pretty much stems from using any kind of simple, consistent, easy-to-follow pattern of a song, so you can try to "sing out" a poetic rhyme, to battle against another kid on the street.
Who can out-rhyme the other, while cleverly insulting the other (if need be) you know? At that point, the beat is background music meant to complement the rapper's flow/pace of rhymes.

Think videogame music from the older days, but simplified in real life, and that's how you can describe the general repetitiveness of a rap song. VGM is not meant to be the "main" part of a cutscene/level. They're just inherently noise to complement what's going on the scene, and VGM too gets repetitive in terms of structure, especially when you're playing in an area and just standing there doing nothing to advance the game...You end up hearing/identifying a "loop" eventually.
I'm not trying to compare the quality of rap songs compared to VGM music, but they both share similar identifiable traits when it comes to following a structure.

Actually, IIRC beatboxing is considered the "sparkplug" to the rap genre, since you only need to use your mouth/hands to produce a recognizable patterned beat. It's expected that there is supposed to be repetitiveness to a song because of this.

There are artists out there that try to innovate with the flow/pace of their rapping style, to a more "fluid" kind of song, so it doesn't give the impression that it relies on a specific chord/structure. But the only issue is, the rap/hip-hop genre makes it the most obvious that there is some structure that you can identify easily. You can't just suddenly add a crazy guitar riff in the middle of a rap beat so the structure suddenly becomes unpredictable haha.

But that being said, if you're saying that there's annoying, repetitive sound to rap music, then you're basically saying all music that's not part of the classical/jazz music genre is inherently repetitive. Most genres follow a structure (unless it's some improv), but the rap genre exposes the structure of the sound most easily.

Here's the best example of the repetitiveness Stealthfire is referring to...Don't let it be the basis for judging the entire genre though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFnI-JmQh84
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Re: The Music Topic

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Proton wrote:Here's the best example of the repetitiveness Stealthfire is referring to...Don't let it be the basis for judging the entire genre though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFnI-JmQh84
That's a pretty good example of something I hate. Well, the thing is, the annoying part is more of the way the rappers sing/timbre of the voice (maybe? unfortunately, I'm not too sure of the terms), the repititiveness simply multiplies that many times. In that example, the most annoying part is probably the way the singer ends each line of the song.

For an example of the closest thing to rap that I do like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAQ3Wk59zoM
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Anyway, try counting the words. Lines are too big I find.

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Re: The Music Topic

Post by Lind »

I find most rap to be pretty one-dimensional. At least, in its most common form. I like things like Nu-Jazz though.
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Re: The Music Topic

Post by TKinhonipei »

I guess everyone has their own taste; I personally love rap. :)
(I will admit there are some really bad raps out there, but there are also really good ones!)

This artist who's also a gamer made a good track that I love.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBvY9C5fMho

Also I love the way you described rap Proton. That's deep! Hah.
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Re: The Music Topic

Post by Phantom »

Stealthfire wrote:
Proton wrote:Here's the best example of the repetitiveness Stealthfire is referring to...Don't let it be the basis for judging the entire genre though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFnI-JmQh84
That's a pretty good example of something I hate. Well, the thing is, the annoying part is more of the way the rappers sing/timbre of the voice (maybe? unfortunately, I'm not too sure of the terms), the repititiveness simply multiplies that many times. In that example, the most annoying part is probably the way the singer ends each line of the song.

For an example of the closest thing to rap that I do like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAQ3Wk59zoM
You do understand why they make emphasis on the end of a line/verse right? It's from an older tradition: Back when you could only get on a mixtape, which was sent to clubs/record labels, you had to be able to make yourself sound unique compared to the rest of your competition, since you couldn't personally meet the executives. So two main ways rappers tried to stand out to grab these guys' attention was making a "call sign" to identify who they are in a track (Rick Ross has the "Playback music" call sign nowadays, or that weird grunt he does, DJ Khaled says "DJ KHALED! WE DA BEST", Ludacris says "LUDA!", Pitbull's like "Dale!"), and then varying the "timberness" as you describe it of their voice during certain parts of the song, in case someone wasn't able to hear the beginning of the track and hear the call sign. That way, if you heard of any tracks in the future by the same artist, you can at least start to pickup/recognize the voice of the artist. Some of the biggest artists in the genre, like Eminem, Jay-Z, Tupac Shakur, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, etc. they got noticed from mixtapes being sent to record labels by these two major methods of rapper identity.

In that case, the tradition is kept for a bunch of the rappers today. It's not necessarily planned like it used to be before, thanks to the power of the internet and exposing yourself easier without the need for a middleman (the label), and it's now associated more as a style of delivery, rather than a strategic decision.

If someone were to make me listen to that youtube track from a middle part of the song to guess who the artist is, I would immediately say "That's J-Kwon, I recognize his inflection he's doing at the end of the loop". Easily identifiable rap beat aside ofc :P

Think about a guy like OutKast, who doesn't rely on a call sign. His voice/style of rapping is unique on its own he doesn't need to say "OUTKAST!" in the beginning of a track, since his voice is so recognizable compared to other artists.

Now, the interesting thing about the link you sent, is that when you take the vocals out, there's not really much of a difference b/e the song you posted versus the one I posted, since its structure is simply longer than the Tipsy video, before it hits a loop. I can identify a structure in at least 10-15 seconds going into the video.
Regarding the vocals, it's intentionally monotonous, and that actually becomes distracting since the background beat no longer feels like it complements the vocals. That, and the video you posted looks like it's a skit/rap battle of sorts, so the vocals seem to be "in-character", hence why it gives the impression that it feels really different from the Tipsy video.
If I were your average college student, I would definitely not want to bump to this song in my car on loud volume, not because of the beat, but because of the robotic voice that doesn't complement the beat. Take it out though, and I'd change my mind :P

Not saying the song you're into is bad or anything, but the only real difference is the way the voice is inflected, and the structure taking longer to identify than the Tipsy video. I'm not sure what the hate is regarding the repetitive point, since the song you posted makes the repetitiveness even worse than the Tipsy video due to the monotony.
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Lind wrote:I find most rap to be pretty one-dimensional. At least, in its most common form. I like things like Nu-Jazz though.
Seeing where its origins came from (beatboxing), that's not a surprising sentiment, and is very agreeable. Hell, the rap songs that were from the radio heavily relied on sampling from other music too.
But thanks to the "club/pop synth" element movement that Lil Jon and Usher's "Yeah!" popularized, there's a lot more creativity with the production of rap tracks, and I'm glad to see it's been in full swing with creating much more original beats.
Sadly, the lyrics haven't advanced from the showboating phase...It's annoying hearing the same "I GOT MONEY, I GOT H**S, I'M TAKIN' OFF THEIR UNDIES AND GETTIN' FREAKY WHILE MY HATERS GETTIN' JEALOUS" lyrics being expressed in so many different ways. That's pretty much why the genre gets so much flak...the mainstream music's lyrics has been about the same thing for the past decade or so :lol:. Kanye West at least tried to change that when he debutted though.

In that regard, yeah, the lyrics tend to be one-dimensional. Sometimes it's not that bad if the actual beat's really pleasing to the ears.
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Re: The Music Topic

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Proton wrote:Not saying the song you're into is bad or anything, but the only real difference is the way the voice is inflected, and the structure taking longer to identify than the Tipsy video. I'm not sure what the hate is regarding the repetitive point, since the song you posted makes the repetitiveness even worse than the Tipsy video due to the monotony.
Well, the point isn't so much the repetitiveness as it is the way the singer sings the song or rather the way they inflect the words. There's like some abrupt sounding vibrato/tremolo in the way they sing. The problem with repetitiveness is that the whole song becomes 100% that.

Actually, for the song I posted, I agree that the background music is absolutely repetitive. However, I find that the vocals, ironically by not complementing the music, is the thing that makes the song feel less repetitive. I can tell you don't like the vocals though, because it sounds monotonous and robotic. That's probably because we have a different taste in music, along with the fact that I'm probably much more used to robotic sounding voices because I actually like vocaloid a bit.

On a side note, you mentioned OutKast... They're not rap, but rather hip hop aren't they?

EDIT: Oh, I think I find that other languages (or maybe specifically Chinese and Japanese) seem to cope the abruptness in song lyics better than English. Which might be why I prefer somewhat different genres for these different languages. In terms of instrumental music though, you can refer to my first post here.
Eshvelut Lochelle, king.
Roxciel Artefille, the world's librarian.
Salfira Artefille, madhatter. lulz.
My characters of Endless Time.
I failed! Dood!
Anyway, try counting the words. Lines are too big I find.

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Re: The Music Topic

Post by gotMLK7 »

I find myself actually liking rap quite a bit, but only if it has a strong instrumental. Most mainstream rap music isn't my cup of tea, but I've heard plenty of rap songs I like elsewhere (like the soundtracks to MadWorld and Anarchy Reigns). Though as far as rap on the radio and such goes, I'm quite a fan of Macklemore's work, since both Thrift Shop and Can't Hold Us have REALLY cool-sounding instrumentals.
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Re: The Music Topic

Post by SwagmaWampyr »

Speaking of rap, I've been on a huge Eminem thing lately. His newer stuff lacks that special something his older material has that defined him, but some of his more recent tracks are still really good (No Love, The Monster)
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Re: The Music Topic

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Does anyone else here have a Rateyourmusic account?

https://rateyourmusic.com/~Lind
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Re: The Music Topic

Post by SwagmaWampyr »

That's a neat idea there, but I already have a animeplanet account I never maintain.
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Re: The Music Topic

Post by Koda »

My top 10 albums of 2013:

1. Virgins – Tim Hecker
2. Sunbather – Deafheaven
3. Melophobia – Cage the Elephant
4. Modern Vampires of the City – Vampire Weekend
5. Reflektor – Arcade Fire
6. mbv – My Bloody Valentine
7. Migrant – The Dear Hunter
8. Government Plates – Death Grips
9. The Raven that Refused to Sing – Steven Wilson
10. We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic – Foxygen

What about you guys? :P
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Re: The Music Topic

Post by Lind »

I'm a total oldfag and have hardly listened to any new albums this year. This is sort of the moment where I go back and listen to a bunch of the year's most acclaimed albums to catch up.

So far, "The World Is A Beautiful Place and I Am No Longer Afraid to Die - Whenever, If Ever" is my favourite, though. Beating out a surprisingly underwhelming Death Grips release (seriously surprised at how much I really didn't care for Government Plates).
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