Re: Hiphop

[Katha Pollitt <kpollitt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Stan, yes, most rap is bought by whites -- as you say,partly because
whites outnumber nonwhites by so much. Even if every single black person
bought rap, which of course they don't, that is only 12 percent of the
pop. But you know even really well off white kids go for rap and the
whole hiphop thing.  My cousin's son, who is twelve, showed up at my
dad's 80th birthday outfitted entirely in tommy Hilfiger -- huge falling
off pants, the whole bit. anmd don't foget eminem -- the white guy who
likes to rap about killing his girlfriend.
  As for rap not being worse than rock and roll -- well, much of rock
and roll was pretty macho, and I'm no rock scholar,but i can think of
only a few songs that were openly contemptuous of women ("Yakkety yak,
Don't Talk Back'which was just a novelty song), or that glorified male
violence ("Johnny get Angry," "He Hit me and it Felt Like a Kiss"). The
rolling Stones were about as far as it got in the crude sexual
objectification line -- remember how shocking that album cover with Mich
Jagger's zipper was considered at the time? But -- correct me if I'm
wrong -- rock and roll--not to mention Motown, my personal favorite pop
genre, although I also like country music -- also had lots of really
romantic songs, full of vulnerable male swooning for girls and vice
versa. the dominant mood wasn't hostility at all! Rap doesn't seem to
have many songs in which men express affection or admiration for women,
or vulnerability, or longing for more than a blow job from a woman.
  What do your kids and their friends like about it? and how do you feel
about it? I'm way past the age when kid's pop music speaks to me. so
maybe I'm missing the point. I miss melody, though, and people who can
actually play an instrument other than the tape recorder.

Katha