The Power of Combining Music Genres
- Written by DGD. Rebecca DawgGoneDavis
Wrap it up in a bag; Rap goes everywhere, anytime. By DGD. Rebecca DawgGoneDavis
Just think. Love has no boundaries. Lovey-dovey puppy dogs have no floppy boundaries. Laughter with love has no inhibitions – or putting up barriers. Powerful, moving music has beginnings on walls and ceilings in ancient caves. “The Illustrated History of Music” by Vratislav Beranek notes a Reindeer Wall painting from the Les Trois Freres Cave in France, 15,000 to 10,000 BC (Aventinum, Prague 1994) The man to the left in the photo copy below is “wearing a goat-skin holding something that could be a musical instrument…..to lure a herd of reindeer,” Beranek wrote. We now believe those were some chipper reindeer, B.C. (Before Santa Claus).
From the Stone Age to the Space Age, impregnating Rap with Blues or Rock n Roll is just plain cool and it makes evolutionary and revolutionary sense!
Really nothing bars the stirring or combining of music genres; it is not exactly new at all. Here we are talking about melding hot Rap with Rock, Jazz, Blues, plus R&B The melding feels like an actual weld of smooth steel sounds. Think about Reggae, too, mixed with RAP; it is the drums, percussion, and dancing, baby.
As I write, I see peas in a pod. Bach and Chopin had Minuets in which dignitaries, fans danced to in their tight corsets. For an analogy of a corset in today’s time could be spandex under the clothing to hold in the tummy and buttocks of our aging rockers. lol
“The Well Tempered Clavier,” by J.S. Bach and the Bachman, Turner Overdrive (BTO) band actually do have something “notable” in common. The term "well tempered" meant that the twelve notes per octave of the standard keyboard were tuned in such a way that it was possible to play music in all major or minor keys that were commonly in use, without sounding perceptibly out of tune. I can tell you from direct exposure to BTO, Rock and Rollers did not need to be well-tempered, per se, but they do need to be “on key”. Thus, the forever powerful song, “Takin’ Care of Business” by BTO has given us all a bitchin attitude temperament.
Now, take the word Bop from the 1940’s and birth it into Rap (which was called Hard Bop).
A segment from Mr. Beranek was quite well put. “Jazz Rock and Rock n Roll.” He wrote from the 1960’s a type of Afro-American music moved into the music scene: rock with fully electrified instruments, synthesizer, microphone and loud-speakers (Thank God!, I say). And this sentence from Beranek cracked me up (LOL). He wrote: with engineers whose equipment was capable of turning a simple musical expression into a noise bordering on the limits of perception” (not cool Mr. Beranek!). Rock also influenced Jazz which influenced Rhythmic Rap.
It is all coming full circle in an algebraic equation. Hard Bop = Rap. Rap multiplied by Jazz, Rock, the Blues, plus R&B = the X-factor which is Rap. So, take that Mr. B. But, thank you for the comprehensive history of music.
Diving further when intertwining Rap with Rock, the book, “The Illustrated History of Music,” mentions a wild collection of Musician references. Get this: one can tell Mr. B is from Europe (not that there is anything wrong with that. Thank God again that Europe totally gets and digs My songs. The latest with Dorian Paul is “Boulders Weeping” Cry No More is loved all over the world! Thus, thank you World, so much.
Back to who Vratislav Beranek mentions in his 1994 book: Frank Zappa! It is just fun to read perceptions from a whole bunch of years ago. Mr. B wrote: “ one of the most important representatives of the rock era is undoubtedly the American Frank Zappa singer, musician and composer. Beranek wrote that Zappa’s work goes beyond the limitations of style and genre and incorporates jazz, rock and classical music, including electronics. (Yeah, go Electronics!) Duh!
But, the thing is. Rap or hard Bop was first in it’s earliest forms in the 1930’s and 1940’s – it was natural to morph it. That’s what I like to do; morph my speaking Rap with anything and everything. Hellmut Wolf make that possible. Next we are doing some “Guns & Roses” intro and feel.
I guess this article is a bit of a history lesson from a Euro perspective. Mr B. credits Chick Corea for more Jazz and Rock n Roll. That’s a blast from the past. Beranek wrote about how Rock also influenced jazz, which took from it electrical instruments. (There he goes again with his naïve, doughy eyes and ears about the Electric Guitar.) If Beranek went to a Who concert today, his ears might bleed. I really don’t want that though for him.
In conclusion, only for today, as things change so fast, we know. Rap and Rappers are generous to provide the foundations to latch onto easily. The theatrical Ray Charles was a Jazz head banger with the piano and all other horns and guitars. Mr. Charles and the great B.B. King were rocking and rolling from their supernatural foundations (and the conclusion of that is some phat, hard Boppin’ stuff).
