Is R’n'B / Rap the new prog rock?

Posted on July 21, 2007 
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R'n'B Rap the new prog rock

Someone once said rap was the new punk rock.

Early hip hop was an independent truth from the streets and has often been credited with helping to reduce inner-city gang violence by replacing physical violence with hip hop battles of dance, rap and art.

During the early 1990s however, a commercial strain emerged with many rappers boasting about drugs, weapons, misogyny, and violence. Socially and politically conscious hip hop has long been disregarded by mainstream America in favour of a gangsta, bling/ego, indulgent rap and R’n'B.

Unfortunately, what started on the streets in reaction to events of social injustice and individual and communal alienation is now, according to many observers, an orgy of ego and excess.

Rewind back to late seventies UK. Punk bands stood aggressively against the excesses of mainstream 1970s rock. Windswept guitar histrionics, gushing key boards, lyrics full of mystical allusions and song titles bearing no relation to the music.

The icons for the era would be Yes, ELP and King Crimson. But more credible characters weren’t without blame, as one modern critic has said, “without doubt the most singularly pernicious and damaging influence on the shape and future direction of pop is the Who’s ‘Tommy’. After ‘Tommy’ no one wanted to say in 3 minutes what they could drag out over as many hours. It introduced the era of the rock opera and the concept album, the most celebrated vehicles of rock’s demented pretensions.’

But the critics of the day were seemingly fooled; “listening to an early test pressing round Bob Fripp’s flat the other day, it was impossible not to be awed by the sheer scope and size of the music. It has scale and grandeur unparalleled in rock, and its inner complexities rival those of the great classical composers. You get the feeling that if Wagner were alive today he would be working with King Crimson.”

So what has this got to do with now? Well, there are parallels between what we have now and what punk was reacting against. The great and the good of Hip Hop and R’n'B seem to be intent on highlighting their wealth and possessions in their music and videos. They have a tendency to seek out others of a similar standing and talent to perform collaborations and, even worse, supergroups. We even have a mimicking of the dreaded concept album with the insertion of meaningless skit or filler tracks in rap albums.

If you’re not bored with the bling-dulgence of rap and R’n'B there’s the boy bands, the girl bands, the re-issues, the re-unions, the stadium bands, the c*ck rock and c*nt rock.

“Sometimes the most positive thing you can be in a boring society is absolutely negative.”
Johnny Rotten

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Comments

2 Responses to “Is R’n'B / Rap the new prog rock?”

  1. kiko on July 23rd, 2007 2:10 am

    Interesting…

  2. D3pree on July 31st, 2007 5:49 am

    Interesting but I don’t think it would stand up in court

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