Rap Music
I've recently started listening to rap music. I know, that's a strange comment for me to make, but if you knew how much I avoided listening to them, you'd probably be surprised. Then again, if you know the topic for my dissertation, you probably won't be surprised.
How my dissertation supervisor steered me towards analysing rap lyrics without my realising he was doing it, I don't think I'll ever know. But there you go. I'm supposed to be reading the lyrics, only that didn't seem to give me the "whole picture", so to speak. I borrowed a couple of CDs, mostly Eminem and 50 Cent, so I could hear some of what I was analysing.
What I didn't expect was to actually like a lot of what I was listening to! I mean, most of the time my MP3 player has Def Leppard, Nickelback, Evanescence, Anastacia and other similar songs. When I was on the tram Wednesday, I was listening to Eminem. One song in particular, "FACK", had me close to hysterical laughter, it was just that stupid. But stupid in a funny, "Dumb and Dumber" kind of way.
So last night when a commercial for "Curtain Call" came on the telly, I told Simon which of the songs I really liked (my favourite is "Lose Yourself"), how many of them are about his daughter, and about this song "FACK". The next thing I knew, Simon was sitting with his headphones on listening to Eminem on his MP3 player! That's even funnier than the idea of me listening to rap because his tastes usually run to MeatLoaf and Savage Garden.
I think I corrupted him.
How my dissertation supervisor steered me towards analysing rap lyrics without my realising he was doing it, I don't think I'll ever know. But there you go. I'm supposed to be reading the lyrics, only that didn't seem to give me the "whole picture", so to speak. I borrowed a couple of CDs, mostly Eminem and 50 Cent, so I could hear some of what I was analysing.
What I didn't expect was to actually like a lot of what I was listening to! I mean, most of the time my MP3 player has Def Leppard, Nickelback, Evanescence, Anastacia and other similar songs. When I was on the tram Wednesday, I was listening to Eminem. One song in particular, "FACK", had me close to hysterical laughter, it was just that stupid. But stupid in a funny, "Dumb and Dumber" kind of way.
So last night when a commercial for "Curtain Call" came on the telly, I told Simon which of the songs I really liked (my favourite is "Lose Yourself"), how many of them are about his daughter, and about this song "FACK". The next thing I knew, Simon was sitting with his headphones on listening to Eminem on his MP3 player! That's even funnier than the idea of me listening to rap because his tastes usually run to MeatLoaf and Savage Garden.
I think I corrupted him.
posted by Melinda at 12/16/2005 02:17:00 pm
4 Comments:
This got me thinking:
"One song in particular, "FACK", had me close to hysterical laughter, it was just that stupid. But stupid in a funny, "Dumb and Dumber" kind of way. "
I don't listen to this sort of thing either - in fact I normally go out of my way to avoid it. So this may be a stupid question... Do you think that many of the lyrics are actually written a little in jest, and are essentially misinterpreted by people takinh them really seriously when they listen?
I think some of it is most definitely tongue in cheek and meant to poke fun at rappers. A lot of it seems very serious though. Just the titles of some of the songs are scary! But they certainly help me answer my central research question! ;-)
Oh, don't worry about that. The point of my post wasn't to talk about my research as such, but since my focus is commercial rap and consumption by university students, I've taken a cross-section of music charts for air play and downloads, I have approximately 120 different albums with lyrics to analyse. The artists range from Eminem and 50 Cent to 2 Pac, Three 6 Mafia, Mike Jones, Kanye West, Young Buck, The Game, South Park Mexican, Missy Elliott ... etc. I didn't just pick artists based on the fact I could borrow their CDs from my son to have a listen. That was the purpose of my post, however, to mention that I actually enjoyed listening to those particular tracks more than I expected to.
Sorry if that last comment didn't make a lot of sense. I wrote it at 4 am when I couldn't get back to sleep! I don't want to give the exact problem I'm looking at in my dissertation since I still have to do all my primary research, plus there are so many issues around plagairism, but while I recognise that there are so many brilliant rappers out there who aren't the commercial type, first of all I wouldn't have known where to start looking, and second it is my focus to look at those who have their CDs bought or music downloaded commercially by students. :-)
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