“Oh, you listen to them? But they don’t even make real music.”
That sentence has come up so many times in my conversations with people to the point that it honestly intrigues me. I love music - and considering that I made it my major, it’s definitely something that I’m very passionate about.
Everyday as I walk around campus, I normally have my phone in my hand with my earbuds locked in my head creating a mental soundscape where I can digest new genres and explore different artists that friends recommend to me or one of my professors mentioned in class that day. I love how music moves people, and I love the ability it has to tell a story in ways that normal human expression just sometimes cannot. I love how we don’t really have a scientific formula on what music is precisely, but we know that it just...is. Music stretches to the parts of us that sometimes we can’t even explain. It’s that powerful!
As you may have guessed already, I love talking about it with anyone who will indulge. However, I often sense some “snobbery” among some fellow music lovers. Now maybe this sticks out to me because I consider the pool of music that I like to dive into pretty large. But even then, I can almost count on someone uttering the previous words above, looking down on particular artists that they don't see as legitimate.
Don’t get me wrong. I’ve also been guilty of this too. Many times. So, why do we do this? Well, I think it’s because we don’t have a good understanding about what we’re saying.
I often go back to a conversation I had with a friend from back home a while ago. We were just casually chatting, and ended up talking about rap music. I love hip hop culture and it’s music. My friend doesn’t care for it. And in the midst of our conversation, she started trying to explain to me why country music was better. That’s when I mentally checked out - and here’s why:
You can prefer one type of genre over the other, yes.
But you can’t take two completely different genres of music, born from two completely different cultures and try to decide if it classifies as “real” or not. Music is a form of expression. We have different styles of music, because inherently we all come from different places, and music as an art form that we use to express ourselves showcases that.
“Country music tells a story. Rap music is just noise.”
No, actually, it’s not. Good rap music is a story too. It was born from the streets of New York, and influenced by the sound and rhythms of disco from the 1970’s. Black youth from the decade created a new sound as the US entered into the 80’s. Hip hop culture became a safe space for black Americans to celebrate who they were and eventually make it to mainstream pop culture where they could also be represented.
As it evolved, rap became the sound of revolution. A way for the youth to use an artistic outlet to draw attention to the injustices happening on the streets. It was another way for black musicians to tell their stories in a world that was not willing to listen.
Yes, as the genre grows you’re gonna get people who pollute it with clout chasing or use it as some cheap cash in because it’s “trendy” but that can be said about any type of music. Hip hop culture and rap music is just as ingrained into black culture as much as it is music. My view of how I see rap and how it has impacted me is drastically different from my friend back home who stems from different roots. She grew up on a farm, and used to play guitar with her grandfather. Listening and singing country ballads is how she feels connected to him.
This concept doesn’t only apply to our “backgrounds,” but also what we enjoy in general. You don’t have to come from the South to love country music, and you don’t have to be Black to like hip hop. This can be said about any type of genre. Fill in the blank with whatever you wish.
So what is real music?
Well, let’s change our language a bit, shall we? It’s not that you don’t care for certain artists because “they don’t make real music”; rather, you don’t like them because they don’t make music that is your taste.
There’s a big difference there. We are drawn to music that we can relate to, because whether you are aware of it or not, we see music as an extension of ourselves. So music we can’t relate to is music we won’t appreciate the same way as someone else can. And you know what? That’s okay. That’s what makes music so amazing.
Now, yes, there are many factors that we must consider such as crude language and imagery depicted by certain artists or music that we could classify as demonic and devil worshipping. We can debate about music in the church and what’s acceptable and what’s not. Honestly, there are a million articles I could write talking about all those things...and they are all important things to talk about. But before that conversation can even happen, we have to start with this one first.
If anything, music proves the creativity that God has put into all of us when He made us. Our different ways of life that have brought forth all the genres that we can explore today mirrors our beautiful diversity in Him.