Getting a Bad Rap: Which Music Genres Tend to Get a Bad Reputation
It’s no secret that not everyone loves country music. At the same time, it’s hard to pinpoint precisely why many people don’t love country music. A lot of people feel that it is just downright bad, or at least that there’s a lot of bad country music out there. Do you know which genres of music get a bad rap?
What is a bad rap?
Rap music, hip-hop in general, has become one of the more polarizing genres in the US. Many are drawn in by the raw passion of the lyrics and the musical energy. In contrast, others think it’s nothing more than crude and violent music that glorifies drug use, oversexualized women and crime, and encourages violence and mayhem. The late, great Eazy-E once said, “Rap is like a B-movie.” He was a smart dude. A lot of rappers have expressed a similar sentiment. But, beyond the shallow and meaningless comparisons to the medium of film, there is a deeper point to be made here. Anyone who has seen a horror movie knows that a film doesn’t have to be scary to be effective. The truth is that rap music is no different.
Which Music Genres Tend to Get a Bad Reputation?
What do you think of when someone says ‘hip-hop’? Do you think of the 1980s, or maybe the ’90s? From NWA to Eminem, the genre’s heavy hitters are still recognized and held in high regard today. But there are plenty of other artists that have earned their place in hip-hop history, and a lot of those musicians don’t get the credit they deserve.
While “rap” has become much more than just a genre of music in the modern era, it still has a bit of a bad rep. But there is more to it than the stereotypical violent, sexual, and excessive lyrics that many people associate with the genre. Of course, this also means plenty of people are open to rap as a form of art and enjoy it as such, and a few of those people are given the attention they deserve.
Rap has been in the public eye for nearly three decades and has experienced major ups and downs since the early 1990s. The genre was largely unheard of in the mainstream until the early 1990s, when a bevy of rappers began rapping about issues of social justice, poverty, racism, and drugs for the first time. As a whole, rap music has been heavily criticized in the mainstream media and has also been associated with some of the nation’s social ills. This genre of music was long maligned as a form of music that represents violence, sexual exploitation, and excess. In recent years, there’s been a media backlash on the genre by those who see it as generally a bad influence.
Let’s face it; the term “nu-metal” is a bit of a misnomer. To be fair, the genre’s early days contained groups like Korn, Linkin Park, and Marilyn Manson, which were all commercially successful, but the genre is most recognizable for bands like Limp Bizkit and Korn, who were the “face” of the genre. While the genre may have been around for a few years, it was during the 2000s when the genre became a household name. And while some of the bands that belong to the genre have been around since the 1980s, several of the bands (such as Korn and Limp Bizkit) gained widespread success in the 2000s.
If you’re a musician, you’ll probably have come across the following simple idiom: “No genre is a “bad” genre; it’s all about what you do with it.” On the other hand, it’s not hard to see why the word “genre” has a bad reputation. All music is simply the expression of a musician’s talent. So, what’s the problem? Well, it’s just that certain genres “get” a bad rep. Music is a form of speech that can be transmitted differently. It is also a form of communication that can express anything from the mundane to the sublime. The way you communicate with your friends, the noise that distracts you while you’re working, or the soundtrack that you listen to when you’re not working can all significantly impact your life.