Music We Only Think We Know

Hip-hop might just beat out classical music as the most misunderstood and unfairly maligned musical genre in existence today. When I tell other classical musicians that I'm a hip-hop fan, the reaction tends to range from blank stares to outright revulsion. Only once or twice have I ever gotten a positive reaction of any kind. And that's a real shame, because the creativity that's out there in the rap world at the moment is truly staggering, and compared with genres like pop, rock, and country, the level of musical complexity and lyrical elegance that hip-hop employs is extremely high.

So why do so many people think rap is nothing more than violent, misogynistic garbage aimed at getting suburban white kids to dress and act like gang members from South Central LA? Well, let me turn that question around for a moment. Why do so many people think that classical music is nothing more than repetitive waltzes and elevator music played for snoozing rich people? The answer in both cases is, "Because that's the only part of the genre that gets on TV on a regular basis."

If you're not already a fan of classical music and don't know where to find the good stuff, Andre Rieu and whatever other garbage PBS airs during their endless begging sessions might be the only classical music you hear in a given month. Similarly, if you go to BET looking for hip-hop music, yes, you will find a parade of offensively talentless rappers who buy their backing beats from other people, treat women like their pets, and embrace the whole Thug Life thing. And here's the important part: real hip-hop musicians feel the same way about the rappers on BET that you and I feel about Andre Rieu. These are musical hacks who have found a comfortable niche that makes them a lot of money. Which is fine - not everyone has to be edgy and daring - but they are not to be confused with shining examples of the genre they purport to represent.

Now, I'm not one of those sorts that believes that the election of Barack Obama was some sort of magical healing balm that is going to eventually allow Americans to put all our racial baggage behind us, but I do take a certain amount of hope from the fact that he has made a point of bringing quality art and music back to the White House, and that he seems to understand that hip-hop owes as much of its legacy to slam poetry and civil rights as it does to the Sugarhill Gang. I mean, honestly: Alexander Hamilton?


(Hat tip to Bob Collins at MPR's NewsCut blog...)

But it works, doesn't it? And it comes off as passionate and real, not preachy and uptight, the way a song in any other musical genre would if it were about the same subject. By the way, that's Lin-Manuel Miranda, the Tony Award-winning actor/writer responsible for the hit Broadway show In The Heights, which makes liberal use of hip-hop, as well as a range of other genres.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that we tend to brand unfamiliar music genres in our mind as somehow being reflective not of the artistry of the people making the music, but of the stereotypes we associate with the audience for that genre. Classical music goes in the "stuffy and elitist" bin not because it is, but because we have an image seared into our brain of stuffy elitist people listening to classical music. Hip-hop goes in the "violent and angry" bin not because it is, but because we have an image of gangbangers and wannabes listening to hip-hop.

Maybe hip-hop just isn't your thing, and that's perfectly fine. Bruckner leaves a lot of people cold, too. I'll personally never be a big fan of Motown, though I can recognize that it's quality stuff. But I'm always amazed at the number of musically sophisticated people who've never really even given rap a chance to impress them. If you're one of them, and want to rectify that, Minnesota's actually an excellent place to start...