are there any hiphopheads who don't really listen to the words?

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see when i was listening to the comp on this thread, i only listened once, and didn't get round to the words yet (that wd come on like the tenth or 100th listen maybe), but trife is saying this is good bcz, and then he quotes a great chunk of it

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 21 June 2003 20:21 (twenty-two years ago)

and the words *are* good when you read em, but i hadn't heard em yet see

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 21 June 2003 20:22 (twenty-two years ago)

OK I'm not a hiphophead so I shouldn't ans this but i will.

This is a big problem with me and probably the reason why, as much as I like hip-hop I haven't really properly engaged with it. I just feel the words are that much more important.

but i think I'll be able to get over it someday.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Saturday, 21 June 2003 20:27 (twenty-two years ago)

i find lately im accidentally memorizing lyrics less and less than when i was a teenager, i dont know if this says something about modern rap or me, i still listen close to songs and mcs i love but like when its just the radio sometimes i tune out all rhymes except lines that stick out and the chorus and its made me like everything i hear a lot more

― trife (simon_tr), Saturday, 21 June 2003 20:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Once rappers started rapping really fast (post Rakim basically) I stopped listening to the words. Because this kind of coincided with the cd era and 70 minute rap cds and quite frankly I can't be bothered to lend them that much of my attention. But hey if the beats are nice, it's all good.

I'm like Trife, I used to buy rap albums and totally memorize whole songs (I can still rap most of Yo! Bum Rush the Show from memory). I can't remember the last time I even memorized more than a couple lines. Then again I just don't listen to rap as much as I used to. The last rap album I think I really LOVED was Daily Operation, so there you go.

― Mr. Diamond (diamond), Saturday, 21 June 2003 20:38 (twenty-two years ago)

well also i listen to MORE music than when i was sixteen so its hard to memorize all that, my brain still hold all the biggie verses though!! im trying to think of songs i could do off the dome without hearing them play first, in the past few years its mostly stuff by jay and em embarrassingly

― trife (simon_tr), Saturday, 21 June 2003 20:43 (twenty-two years ago)

well that means they must be best so why the embarrassment?

(= stood the test of time)

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 21 June 2003 20:50 (twenty-two years ago)

i don't currently count myself as a hip-hop head, i largely tuned out a few years ago. but i don't pay too much attention to lyrics, at least on a conscious level. and that goes for all styles of music, actually. lots of my most favoritest songs i don't know all the words to.

some lyrics are so good though, or i really like the flow, where i have to go study them for a while. but that's pretty rare for me - one that comes to mind is the hannibal verse on gangstarr "itz a set up" which for some reason really floats my boat. i think i was like this with 'universal magnetic' too (the "real" part anyway), but i could have just been hooked on that beat

― ron (ron), Saturday, 21 June 2003 20:53 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm not nearly a hip-hop head, but I agree with Julio: I find the words that much harder not to pay attention in rap. The very way they are being delivered seems to flag them as important much of the time. (And of course, I find the words often turn me off when I do find out what they're saying.)

― Rockist Scientist, Saturday, 21 June 2003 20:54 (twenty-two years ago)

ugh, standing the test of time!!

― trife (simon_tr), Saturday, 21 June 2003 20:54 (twenty-two years ago)

heh

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 21 June 2003 21:04 (twenty-two years ago)

hiphop stands the test of SPACE!!

― mark s (mark s), Saturday, 21 June 2003 21:05 (twenty-two years ago)

I pay more attention to a emcee's voice than what they're saying, though if the rhymes are completely bogus, I take notice. Though when it comes to even the illest emcees I only tend to remember the best lines from a particular song. I guess I'm only really paying attention when the lyrics are at their best and worst.

― Bobby D Gray (bedhead), Saturday, 21 June 2003 21:31 (twenty-two years ago)

I kind of resent when music people going on about The Neptunes and flashy production and the only songs worth discussing are those produced by the three or four producers that get to be in the videos and when another music person says they don't like any rap music because it's sexist and dumb and the Neptunes-loving music person says something like, 'Oh, you're supposed to tune that all out and just listen to the beat. Because it has funny sounds!'

The contrarian pop music people and the non-contrarian, sincere pop music people do that, especially. And it seems like they're missing the whole point.

Or even only bothering to talk about the lyrics when it's serious, sad, introspective stuff.

― d k (d k), Saturday, 21 June 2003 23:26 (twenty-two years ago)

for a long time it was purely about the beats for me, and all i really wanted from the vocals was to not get in the way too much. i'm still that way to an extent, in that i initially like or dislike a track based on the beats, and it's only after a few listens that the words sink in, but now much quicker than before.

― Al (sitcom), Saturday, 21 June 2003 23:33 (twenty-two years ago)

"things are complicated like avril lavigne said it be" and "when they come up in the club saying fifdy u hot they love me i wan' em to love me like they loved pac" are the only lines that have stuck in my head in like the last few years or so. don't know why

― ssean, Sunday, 22 June 2003 01:01 (twenty-two years ago)

'oh you're just supposed to tune out and listen to the beat' = injunction to immanence!

maybe the words are sidestepped in this sort of thing because it's hard to explain how they too can be part of the enjoyment of the immanence of the music without being called out for not properly following the rules of the boring non-immanent domain of 'lyrics'

(see also 'swing', dance music, 'rock' as in 'this really rocks')

― Josh (Josh), Sunday, 22 June 2003 01:12 (twenty-two years ago)

(big question unanswered by this story, besides obv. 'wtf: immanence', is why was THE BEAT the thing that ended up shouldered with this task?)

― Josh (Josh), Sunday, 22 June 2003 01:24 (twenty-two years ago)

mark i see from the other thread that you got 36 chambers along with that comp
i'm far from an expert on hiphop,but i think 36 chambers is one of the best albums to pay attention to the lyrics on,its certainly my favourite
i don't memorise them or anything,but i love the way on that album each time one of the rappers comes in it sounds like he's been waiting for fucking ages to start his verse,each rhyme seems to weave in and out of the others,etc
the whole concept of flow,rhythm,and loads of other things comes into play here,as in its not so much the words themselves,as they would be written down,but the way they are said as well
this is all very obvious,i suppose,i just thought i'd draw attention to it cause that's the one album that i find really shows off the excitement when there's loads of good mcs and the music itself is exceptional
there's other tracks i love by the wu tang,probably my top five aren't even on this album,but overall the wordplay on this is probably untouchable
i kind of see it as being to hip hop what dizzee rascal's album might be to garage,or whatever this new genre will become-really weird sounding,dark,intense music,lyrics that are furiously spat out
i'd be curious to hear what you think of it

― robin (robin), Sunday, 22 June 2003 01:31 (twenty-two years ago)

robin yes i did but i haven't really played it yet: i'll revive a wu tang thread or such when i do

― mark s (mark s), Sunday, 22 June 2003 09:33 (twenty-two years ago)

It's odd because I'm so into lyrics in a lot of ways but with hip-hop the rhymes often kind of glide past me - a phrase here, a word here - and then I can't remember them after except the chorus. I think it's one thing where it's really made a difference for me not listening much to hip-hop until I was 19 or 20 - I just don't have that instinct for following rhymes the way I can be led through a rock lyric easily. (Or it might just be me - Tim H seems to remember specific rhymes really well and he didn't exactly grow up with hip-hop either).

So the aspects of flow I like best are the rhythms and intonations more so than the meanings. Or I'm left with an overall impression of a track without being able to remember details - like you might remember an anecdote somebody told you but not their exact words (eg of this - that song on the first B.I.G. record where some people try to rob his house - really entertaining, can't remember a single specific even the title!).

Sometimes though I'll hear something which is so forceful that I can't help not pay close attention.

I think one of the reasons Eminem crossed over so massively is that he structured his hit single raps like a stand-up routine, a constant procession of jokes rather than anything more complex (though the way they were being delivered was really impressive too) which is easier for people to get a handle on and quote than more metaphysical or apparently 'generic' stuff.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Sunday, 22 June 2003 09:45 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm not really a hip hop head, but the other day I was listening to Stankonia and payed almost no attention whatsoever to the lyrics, which is generally the case with hip hop, from El-P to Trbe Called Quest to whoever, which I guess is why I like instrumental hip hop like DJ Shadow and Prefuse 73 (I didn't feel like the lyrics/vox in Fantastic Damage 'got in the way' enough to make me want to get FanDamPlus though; I guess I just don't pay enough attention to them to be bothered by them). Emma's brother, otoh, is a HUGE hip hop head. It's all he listens to and he's SO into the lyrics that he can't even tell the difference between stereo and mono when he records stuff LongPlay on his netMD, whereas I'm so finnickity with sound that MP3s give me a headache and make me feel all weird.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Sunday, 22 June 2003 10:39 (twenty-two years ago)

i'm much like Nick...rarely interested in the message OR the delivery of the lyrics (as its often something that doesnt appeal to me or concern me) so more into the hooks, samples, beats, general vibe and energy of the track.

how about listening to the words when its live? i find this a huge problem, enough to convince me that hip hop just doesn't work live for me generally

― stevem (blueski), Sunday, 22 June 2003 11:05 (twenty-two years ago)

which incidentally may be another plus about Eminem (along with Tom's observation that Mathers delivers more like a stand=up comic than a conventional MC) - the very nature of his voice probably comes across much better in large arenas than the deeper, throatier bellow of 50 Cent or even Dre on the Anger Management tour - tho i've not seen that so can't say for sure. and i do think hip hop CAN work live as well as any other genre really (PE at ATP? De La Soul at Jazz Cafe? Jay-Z unplugged?!) but it definitely seems to come out better when there's only one at the front not flanked by a pointlessly large entourage of henchmen shouting in uniso at the end of every line...altho i did also enjoy that one Beastie Boys gig i went to.

― stevem (blueski), Sunday, 22 June 2003 11:27 (twenty-two years ago)

after getting mugged a couple months ago i wondered if i'd hear violent lyrics in some changed way (i'm not sure what the 'usual' way was), so in a lame 'test my emotional self' gesture i decided to listen to (a recently purchased) mobb deep's "hell on earth" once a day. what happened was that i started hearing it like i was hearing the other albums in my cd changer - eno's "on land" and aphex's "saw ii": all the cartoon violence melted back into just sounds. when i came back to it a little later, i realized that i'd pretty much memorized the words anyway, and when i started thinking about WHY i'd remembered some lyrics and not others, it taught me a lot about how i heard flow. when trying to figure out why i like "this black motherfucker with this big ass gat and two other motherfuckers with black masks" so much, i realized that it's hooky in the same way my high school maths teacher tried to make the equations in the textbook hooky: (bmf + g) + [2(mf) + bk].

so i'll often be, uh, 'vocalising' along with songs in the car or whatever and not notice that every 16th word of mine is just a garbled approximation of a word. until i make an effort for favourite songs or sit in the university parking lot with the album on repeat, i'll know the words as sounds only, save for the chorus or any other particularly pointed lyric. so yeah, words are important for me, first as a musical component then as containers of 'meaning'.

― mitch lastnamewithheld (mitchlnw), Sunday, 22 June 2003 11:31 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

forget all that stuff i posted at the end of the thread, josh's question here is really crucial, and i've never seen it answered satisfactorily.

― m. (mitchlnw), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 19:28 (twenty years ago)

I've posted two hip hop items to FT in the last few days, and as it happens in one I talk a lot about the lyrics, and in the other I kind of love it despite some silly lyrics. I mention in that second one that I don't tend to pay them too much attention unless something makes me think I should - maybe a review I'd read, more often a few lines I do catch that grab my attention and make me think there is something to be had.

But this is true for most music, for me. Some things are an exception, and there are plenty of acts where I know there are great rewards to be had from lyrics, but mostly it's the sound I like best. This may be partly because I don't spend that much time doing nothing but listening to music - I'm almost always reading or at the computer or something as well, and when reading in particular I am actively avoiding getting into the lyrics.

It may be worse in hip hop than most genres, because without wanting to get all PC, I do find a lot of the genre's lyrics distasteful, even when brilliantly composed.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 28 December 2004 21:57 (twenty years ago)

two years pass...

what lyrics is everybody memorizing lately??

― and what, Friday, 9 March 2007 15:31 (eighteen years ago)

Bun's verse on MJG's "Take No Shit"

― deej, Friday, 9 March 2007 15:39 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.ohhla.com/anonymous/mjg/no_more/take_no.mjg.txt

― deej, Friday, 9 March 2007 15:42 (eighteen years ago)

i do a little record scratch noise for 'the n word'
it also inspires a spontaneous attack of rapper hands

― deej, Friday, 9 March 2007 15:47 (eighteen years ago)

stat quo freestyles
peedi crack freestyles
every scarface verse on we cant be stopped
slick pulla punchlines (oh behave / flava flav)
t-rock mixtapes
everybody on hot boys - guerilla warfare (especially b.g.)
that inspectah deck joint from a couple years back
r.a. the rugged man - super

― and what, Friday, 9 March 2007 16:07 (eighteen years ago)

i use 'nigga' in songs as an opportunity to do my pull-back/mean-muggin face during a rap

― and what, Friday, 9 March 2007 16:07 (eighteen years ago)

alot of old 3-6 mafia shit too

― and what, Friday, 9 March 2007 16:11 (eighteen years ago)

Also "Get Buck" is great for this

BLOCK FOR ME

― deej, Friday, 9 March 2007 16:13 (eighteen years ago)

Killer Mike was my favorite album of the year last year mostly because I memorized/partially memorized a bunch of the verses on it.
that song about how he bought a gun and will shoot you with it on disc 2 is ridic.

― deej, Friday, 9 March 2007 16:17 (eighteen years ago)

I also like M.O.P. but more when i've been drinking
I CUSTOM MAKE CASKETS

― deej, Friday, 9 March 2007 16:21 (eighteen years ago)

/serg

― deej, Friday, 9 March 2007 16:28 (eighteen years ago)

oh yeah belated entry but that termanology remix w/ lil fame & the original termanology joint & half the other songs on that mixtape

― and what, Friday, 9 March 2007 16:29 (eighteen years ago)

I've been practicing rolling the r in "brrrap".

― Dom Passantino, Friday, 9 March 2007 16:30 (eighteen years ago)

Not a "head", but a casual fan. Hip-hop/rap is about the only genre of music that I listen to for the lyrics. Not just for the lyrics, but I pay attention and care about what gets said. With most other music (rock, pop and especially metal) the lyrics just seem like decoration to me.

"It may be worse in hip hop than most genres, because without wanting to get all PC, I do find a lot of the genre's lyrics distasteful, even when brilliantly composed."

This is key. It's why I pay attention. I want the lyrics to be actively distasteful (plus brilliant). Queasy discomfort makes me high.

***

As far as Josh's question goes, yeah, paying attention to the lyrics does tend to pull you out of the music as total experience, into a codified, abstract, language/commentary-based, perspective-on-stuff headspace. But "immanence" (do we have to use that word?) obtains everywhere, perhaps even in the joy we take from the play of words. After all, beats are components of a syntactically-proscribed language in much the same sense that words are. Just as prone to obviousness, referentiality, incoherence, etc.

Still, the distinction you're drawing is fair and clear. FWIW, I imagine beats carry the conceptual weight of "immancence" because we imagine that they are "primitive", that they speak to our primitive selves, and that immanence is an essentially primitive state of being.

― Pye Poudre, Friday, 9 March 2007 16:38 (eighteen years ago)

"Immancence" = smelling like Bowie's wife.

― Pye Poudre, Friday, 9 March 2007 16:47 (eighteen years ago)

i stopped paying attention to hip hop lyrics quite a while ago, except for the occasional song.

― titchyschneiderMk2, Friday, 9 March 2007 16:51 (eighteen years ago)

do people actually memorize lyrics with, like, conscious intent and shit?

― strongohulkington, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:01 (eighteen years ago)

i've been realizing lately that a good 50% of songs are straight up "purple maze all in my drain" territory for me

― strongohulkington, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:02 (eighteen years ago)

do people actually memorize lyrics with, like, conscious intent and shit?
of course! this is a corny comparison i suppose but fuck it - its a lot like jazz in that respect, where memorizing the solos by ear (lyrics in rap's case) 'with intent' gives you a much stronger understanding of the tools soloists/rappers use for constructing their solos/verses

― deej, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:07 (eighteen years ago)

i memorised all of press play.

― titchyschneiderMk2, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:13 (eighteen years ago)

i've been realizing lately that a good 50% of songs are straight up "purple maze all in my drain" territory for me

strongohulkington on Friday, March 9, 2007

camron?

― and what, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:14 (eighteen years ago)

i mean its not like memorizing french words with flashcards or something, its fun and seems to happen automatically when i listen to a song over and over

― deej, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:15 (eighteen years ago)

the only things I seem to pick up lately are Ghostface and T.I. lyrics.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:17 (eighteen years ago)

i only tend to pick up clipse lyrics these days.

― titchyschneiderMk2, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:27 (eighteen years ago)

well listening to something over and over is one thing, but i rarely listen to music closely with the express intent to "catch" the lyrics on the first few go rounds.

i didn't ask to start shit, i asked because it's interesting! i think it's a big difference maybe between hip-hop fans (was gonna scare quote that but fuck it) and casual listeners of the genre, maybe even vis a vis yr jazz comparison.

― strongohulkington, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:48 (eighteen years ago)

but i rarely listen to music closely with the express intent to "catch" the lyrics on the first few go rounds.

Yeah, neither do I. The only rap songs where I *can* quote lengthy passages are ones where I *did* consciously try to memorize them -- as in sat down with a cassette and rewound and shit. Problem is, I haven't done this for at least 15 years, so we're mostly talking about "Ice Ice Baby," "Baby Got Back," "Knockin' Boots," and Father MC's "I Will Do 4 U."

― jaymc, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:58 (eighteen years ago)

I'm about ten times more likely to memorize rap lyrics if it's a radio hit than if it's just a track on an album I own (part of that is that I don't listen to albums over and over or even multiple times in one week), and even when I do it's like a couplet here, a couplet there, with big blind spots in between where I can't remember shit.

― Alex in Baltimore, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:00 (eighteen years ago)

the first rap i ever memorized (i think) = "I missed the bus" by kris kross and its on a videotape somewhere hidden in a family friend's attic.

God wills it, it will be on youtube sometime in the next ten years.

― deej, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:02 (eighteen years ago)

I was 8 years old.

― deej, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:03 (eighteen years ago)

or 9?

― deej, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:03 (eighteen years ago)

not really what the thread is about but just now at lunch i was talkin to dude i work with & asking what he had in the headphones, so he hands em over & i play it for about 20 seconds & im like, man! this is good what is this shit?? and says its trae and im like, what?? for real?? what, its like some old shit?? 'nah, its 'restless'' oh shit

― and what, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:05 (eighteen years ago)

and thats a cd i not only own but have mostly memorized the lyrics of one track ('no help')

― and what, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:05 (eighteen years ago)

my sister seemingly knows the words to every song ever written by man. it kinda freaks me out.

― strongohulkington, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:10 (eighteen years ago)

it's like some kinda "i have tuned into the eternal vibration of popular music" thing.

― strongohulkington, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:11 (eighteen years ago)

i bet she reads a lot of passantino posts

― and what, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:14 (eighteen years ago)

Your sister = hot guy who writes for Stylus?

― nabisco, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:17 (eighteen years ago)

the fact that you mentioned my sister and the word "stylus" in the same post makes me want to beat the shit out of you nitsuh

― strongohulkington, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:18 (eighteen years ago)

i'm just blocking out the words "passantino" and "your sister" altogether

― strongohulkington, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:20 (eighteen years ago)

Ahem.
So I understand (or do I rather, mis-?) that Mark S still doesnnae listen to them rap verse?

― t**t, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:26 (eighteen years ago)

whole track has been in my head 4 months:

I got my Hennessy find ya foes
in a room full of niggas tryin' to hide ya hoes
I'm getting high off buddha
'Cause the times be slow
I keep my mind on dough
you never find me broke
and who meee a nigga livin' life like a G
in that artillery keepin' niggas off of me
I can't sleep living in these wicked times
peep, niggas after me 'cause they see I'm stacking G's and heat
You can holler if you want to pleeease
I ain't runnin' with no punk crew bleeeed

― am0n, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:30 (eighteen years ago)

i get two or three lines stuck in my head over and over again until i want to never hear the song again

― strongohulkington, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:32 (eighteen years ago)

its the screw version so its easier to catch more of the words

― am0n, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:59 (eighteen years ago)

do people actually memorize lyrics with, like, conscious intent and shit?
of course! this is a corny comparison i suppose but fuck it - its a lot like jazz in that respect, where memorizing the solos by ear (lyrics in rap's case) 'with intent' gives you a much stronger understanding of the tools soloists/rappers use for constructing their solos/verses

OTM

I barely ever memorize whole songs anymore(most recent ones might be big mainstream T.I./Clipse type stuff I bumped last year, with some exceptions -- Trae's I'm a Asshole" kicked my ass well into 2006) much less whole albums like I did as a kid with half a drawerful of worn out tapes, but when I did I did it like a motherfucker, and I was into jazz at the same time and my listening wouldn't be complete unless I was banging out whole Monk piano solos on the top of my living room couch (banging out the rhythm obv., as I had no idea how to get around a keyboard)

Not to be all "head-ish" about it but from my experience growing up with hip-hop, passive listening has never been nor will ever be an option for me, I can't even listen on a computer unless I restrict myself to playing minesweeper or something. I love beats but if I'm not processing the words too the whole song becomes invisible in a way, if that makes sense.

― tremendoid, Friday, 9 March 2007 20:22 (eighteen years ago)

it's also why I can't run through hip-hop albums at a "p2p pace" like I can most every other genre. Growing up, I didn't feel like I heard a (good)hip-hop album until I listened 10+ times and that feeling's never left me. I wouldn't even feel right talking in depth about any album I've heard in the last 5+ years, though I may "know" it about as well as many others do, in truth.

― tremendoid, Friday, 9 March 2007 20:27 (eighteen years ago)

I dunno about that. When I was in high school, I basically didn't listen to anything other than rap. I'd memorize verses all the time. I wanted people whose music was really "poetic" and whatever. I definitely considered myself a "head", but I've definitely slipped into "passive listenership". Like now, the first time I hear a piece of music, whether its rap or any other genre, I don't even really hear the lyrics. I just kind of get a feel for the music. Even afterwards, I don't actively pay attention to the lyrics, I just pick up any that jump out at me. I haven't intentionally memorized a verse in a couple years now; it just kind of seems like a silly thing to do. And nowadays, I'm much more interested in how rappers work as musicians than how they work as lyricists. The way I listen to rap has completely changed from how I did a few years ago.

― The Reverend, Friday, 9 March 2007 21:06 (eighteen years ago)

i'm just blocking out the words "passantino" and "your sister" altogether

THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID

― Dom Passantino, Friday, 9 March 2007 21:06 (eighteen years ago)

The way I listen to rap has completely changed from how I did a few years ago.

the way I listen to everything but rap has completely changed from a few years ago so I can dig what you're saying, in theory, I just don't feel it. I don't really need a rap to mean shit(i've actually become less judgemental, contentwise, though I feel the pendulum swinging back again recently) but I do feel the need to absorb whatever meaning it does have.

― tremendoid, Friday, 9 March 2007 21:47 (eighteen years ago)

Do you have any idea specifically why that relationship has changed for other genres, but not for rap?

― The Reverend, Friday, 9 March 2007 21:57 (eighteen years ago)

Do you have any idea specifically why that relationship has changed for other genres, but not for rap?

Dunno, might just be the clear, explicit demands rappers make on your attention you don't see in other genres(or that are more cartoonish/ironic/corny in other genres) that I have always just bought into and haven't really reexamined I guess, probably due to holdover hero-worship due to being a child of the music if I were to go pop-psych about it. I guess since I purport to take genres on their own terms this stuff doesn't present a philosophical problem for me but on the other hand I am a grown ass man which is where the aforementioned moral conflict is bubbling re: content, but I don't have the footing to go into that just yet.

― tremendoid, Friday, 9 March 2007 22:13 (eighteen years ago)

I guess I kind of take the third approach of, instead of judging all types of music by the standards of one or judging each type of music by their own standard (taking pains not to invoke certain contentious words here), just generally ignoring the standards genres set for themselves and only worrying whether they meet my standards. In short, I think genres standards are a bunch of bunk.

(Sidenote: for some reason the phrase "grown ass man" cracks me up everytime I hear/see it.)

― The Reverend, Friday, 9 March 2007 22:36 (eighteen years ago)

"just generally ignoring the standards genres set for themselves and only worrying whether they meet my standards."

it's hard for me to understand how you can listen to and engage w/ different genres without taking into account their own "standards" (contexts) and not listen to something in a totally different frame of mind when the genre context changes. tremendoid OTM.

― strgn, Saturday, 10 March 2007 03:05 (eighteen years ago)

get the new dalek album dude it's great

― sleepingbag, Saturday, 10 March 2007 05:58 (eighteen years ago)

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