so here come my [u]oppinions[/u]
Rap, to me is the only real alternative to melody... it's fundamentals are rythem and MEANINGS... it's a breath of fresh air from alot of the stuff i hate (eg def lepard).
I also love punk, and i've always thoughtthat rap was the black punk. It's very raw (: meaningit's hindered by proffesional production), it's to the point (perticularly stuff like public enemy), it's accesable to all, and you dont need to be very [u]technically[/u] gifted to do it. But in both song writting is what makes them so strong.
BOTH are very open to fads, fakes, and talentless wanna be, because all he's gotta do is have some vague intrest and a few months experince to make a start (that's not say that there aren't very skillful punks/ rappers).
Rap, is wonderful in it's accecibilaty, and it's very open nature. There are lots of different aproaches, it leave you and you imagination to do what you want. But it's very EASY to fake/ to copy, and you end up with producers who are good at producing/ making/ sampling the music rapping very badly (see "puff daddy").
Bustta ryhmes is the only excelent recent rapper i can name, "gimme some more" was excellent (it sampled the music from superman, and i was the only person in my area to notice it... mind you i did watch the film hundreds of times), and the vidoe is very very cool.
I've found that music, for me, needs to be a balance of melody, rythem, and SONG WRITTING... and there are lots of balances, not just the one. And the balances are also dependant on the listeners ears. Like with my tastes:
Lets take G'n'R for one, one of my most hated of all bands. People love them, yet i cant stand thier sound. I find it over produced, seriously lacking in decent lyrics, lacking in any decent artistic concepts, and sounding disengenous. But this is mostly because, my tastes lean heavily towards songwritting. But I've never said they weren't talented, (even though i strongly belive technical abillity never constitutes talent).
I LOVE nirvana, i like thier deeper songwritting, their more intresting approach to the whole song writting thing within the old "verse chorus verse" frame of reference, I like the clear honest melody, and the "human" guitar sound (rahter than sounding very sterile and over produced).
Also, rapping isn't as easy as it seems, I've been doing something similar, though it's not quite the same. Basically, you improvise a riff, and then once you have something decent, talk/ sing anything from the top of your head, a minute or 2, you'll find you'r self throwing together some very weak meanings and phrases etc etc, it's very dificult, but after a while you'll start to find some cool lyrics, and you start to stray away from clichied lyrics, and wont ryhme eyes/ skies etc etc.... it's a very cool excersise... as long as you never stop despite being short of ryhmes...
