Comparison of Folk and Rap Essay

Submitted By abbyprooo
Words: 1093
Pages: 5

John Denver, an American songwriter, once said, "Music does bring people together. It allows us to experience the same emotions. People everywhere are the same in heart and spirit. No matter what language we speak, what color we are, the form of our politics or the expression of our love and our faith, music proves: We are the same.” Folk and rap music are both very popular genres and each has a considerable amount of fans. Folk and rap music have been very popular for years and are both loved and respected all types of people. Music lovers everywhere find similarities and differences between their favorite genres, which help listeners everywhere realize that all types of music have the same motive: to express opinions about certain topics, proclaim their emotion, and entertain their listeners. Both rap and folk genres create a catchy rhythm to draw their listeners in and to keep them interested. Folk and raps are spoken word pieces and poetry set to a certain rhythm that makes a song exciting, likeable, and memorable. Catchy beats in a song help for the lyrics to flow smoothly, the fans to fall in love with and remember, and newcomers to become interested and involved. Raps and folk songs without rhythm or a beat wouldn’t be a piece of art at all, but a mess of words thrown together with no groove. Although the beats within rap and folk songs are very different, being that raps include beats made by a computer program, and folk beats are typically made with drums or guitars, each genre require a beat to set the mood for their songs. Folk and rap genres are similar in the fact that although their styles of music considered very different, they both need background music to complete a song. Music from the rap genre, as previously mentioned, use different computer programs and drum machines to create electronic beats for the basis of their songs; when rap artists record their songs, they are usually in the recording booth alone and sing and rhyme to pre-recorded beats. Folk music, on the other hand, includes music from real instruments like fiddles, acoustic guitars, bass guitars, drums, washboards, and many others. The folk recording process is different from rap’s because the artists have to play their own music to set their songs to. Artists of the folk genre can either be in the studio with their band mates or alone while playing their instruments. The two genres require background music to consider a song whole. The writing process of both rap and folk are similar, as they both start with lyrics derived from an artist’s poetry, intimate thoughts, opinions, or from ideas formed with the help of skilled writers. The two genre’s lyrics are essentially thoughts put to music or to a beat and make it easy for the writers to speak their minds. Both music genre’s lyrics are the artists’ gateways to voicing their certain opinions regarding social, political, or environmental issues. Rap and folk genres alike are considered protest music. Protest music brings a focus on to any type of issue that the artist deems necessary to dispute, and both genres have been known to have lyrics that freely express themselves and they have the potential to raise issues within the music, political, or environmental world. Phil Ochs once stated, “A protest song is a song that's so specific that you cannot mistake it for sh*t.” Pete Seeger and Phil Ochs are two folk artists that use protest music to express their issues with any political or environmental issues. In the early 1960s, Pete Seeger was a member of a popular group called The Weavers. Seeger freely expressed his political opinion and was immediately placed on the unofficial “black list” of radio, film, and TV, but Pete Seeger kept moving despite what others thought of him and his beliefs. Motivated by Seeger, young fans around the world began to pick up banjos and acoustic guitars, and many of them migrated to New York City, spreading his word and making