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Comment by flycaliguy | Hacker News Reader

Don't pretend that other genres of popular music would reveal anything more "intelligent".

I interpreted that comment as lamenting the evolution of rap (i.e., how the rise of gangsta rap made it a very different genre from what it started as in the late 1970s and the 1980s), not comparing it unfavorably to other popular music genres.

Oh I don't know. I think It ain't what you do but the way that you do it (by The Fun Boy Three & Bananarama) is a perfect signature tune for Hacker News. ;)

Rock and metal aren't that shallow.

I think for this argument to be sound we have to define what artists would be included. Is it a survey of popular music? All music? There is a lot of intelligent hip hop out there. There is a lot of shallow rock out there.

Generalizing about any genre is pointless.

Edit: And I put intelligent in quotes because who is to say that using the word money or (less so) bitch even means there is not an intelligent point being made.

I admit I was trolling, but the amount of rap out there that plays into the macho-gangster-materialist-misogynist stereotype is obscene. Decent rap does exist, but gangstacrap still dominates the genre. Other genres of music have their own dominant stereotypes that are equally vapid, but seldom as scummy.

I'd agree but there are shades of grey where gangsta rap can actually be quite enlightening to listen to. Big L was very very _hard_ yet still had a real story to tell, and real perspective.

Ie. Street Struck: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwff61MTOUo

You're conflating stupidity with poor taste, but they're clearly independent. Consider the Wu-Tang Clan's lyrics which are more intelligent and have a level of wordplay that is non-existent in rock music, but at the same time can be the most offensive thing you've ever heard.

Most popular metal is basically adolescent lord of the rings fanfiction, I think rap music might manage to stand up to that on a metric of depth, let alone social relevance or whatever else you might want to apply.

Although there is a whole sub-genre where that is the case, it is neither one of the current most popular sub-genres, or a sub-genre that the majority of the current most popular bands play. Folk metal and friends have had their day for now. Various spin-offs of metalcore and deathcore, along with the dying djent, seem to rule at the moment, I reckon.

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