Are hip hop producers really musicians?

Of course, If you make music....why could you NOT classify yourself as a musician?
There are classical musicians that know just as much as the basic beginner bedroom producer, but one uses a viola, the other uses a midi keyboard and computer. No matter what your tool is, YOU'RE STILL CREATING MUSIC.
 
I think Kil's mom should come in and give her feedback.
I write and read music myself, but still use samplers as well. There have even been times where I would record strange sounds around my environment, like iron steam, tunnels, ATM bleeps, and turned 'em into music just because I can.
 
Good feedback peoples. Kil and I chatted back and forth thru twitter lol.

Of course I feel that hip hop producers are musicians. I see his point somewhat, but as far as using an instrument and having to put in work, time, and deductive reasoning to create musical melodies, notes, compositions, etc if that doesnt classify you as a musician, then wtf does? My deciding point is whether or not you do those things as a hobby/playing around or something you seriously/regularly do. And Ev spoke to that point towards the end.
 
seriously this is about as stupid a question as you can have.

i didn't even bother listening to the video but this question is so ****ing subjective. i've listened to some amazing stuff that's just feedback.

if you're making music you're a musician, even if what you are making isn't something that the majority of people would consider music.

what about merbow?

Merzbow - Minus Zero - YouTube

how about a self generative patch on a buchla music easel?

Easel Krell Patch i - YouTube

neither of those are to everyone's taste but both are music.
 
Finally got the chance to watch the video (just got off work)

I think Ev hit the answer with his initial comment. Any instrument in existence wasn't always just there and at some point those were also not considered real instruments, over time they became accepted as instruments because they do take talent to make a sound that is pleasing and have to be played as an instrument.

A lot of grey area to this argument but I still contend that an MPC is as much an instrument as any other, you tune it by cutting your sample and honing it to a usable sound that adds to the overall effect.
 
Nightshade said:
Finally got the chance to watch the video (just got off work)

I think Ev hit the answer with his initial comment. Any instrument in existence wasn't always just there and at some point those were also not considered real instruments, over time they became accepted as instruments because they do take talent to make a sound that is pleasing and have to be played as an instrument.

A lot of grey area to this argument but I still contend that an MPC is as much an instrument as any other, you tune it by cutting your sample and honing it to a usable sound that adds to the overall effect.
Click to expand...

there is no grey area whatsoever. an instrument can be pretty much anything, look at music concrete and found sound.

Found object (music) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Musique concrète - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

take the original dr who theme as performed by delia derbyshire. her instrument was tape.

you can also see her performing on 3 reel to reel here
LiveLeak.com - Reel-to-Reel Beat Matching Virtuosa



The original 1963 recording of the Doctor Who theme music is widely regarded as a significant and innovative piece of electronic music, recorded well before the availability of commercial synthesisers. Delia Derbyshire (assisted by Dick Mills) of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop used musique concrète techniques to realise a score written by composer Ron Grainer. Each note was individually created by cutting, splicing, speeding up and slowing down segments of analogue tape containing recordings of a single plucked string, white noise, and the simple harmonic waveforms of test-tone oscillators which were used for calibrating equipment and rooms, not creating music. The main, pulsing bassline rhythm was created from a recording of a single plucked string, played over and over again in different patterns created by splicing copies of the sound, with different pitches and notes achieved by playing the sample in different speeds. The swooping melody and lower bassline layer were created by manually adjusting the pitch of oscillator banks to a carefully timed pattern. The non-swooping parts of the melody were created by playing a keyboard attached to the oscillator banks. The rhythmic hissing sounds, "bubbles" and "clouds", were created by cutting tape recordings of filtered white noise.[1]
Once each sound had been created, it was modified. Some sounds were created at all the required pitches direct from the oscillators, others had to be repitched later by adjusting the tape playback speed and re-recording the sound onto another tape player. This process continued until every sound was available at all the required pitches. To create dynamics, the notes were re-recorded at slightly different levels.
Each individual note was then trimmed to length by cutting the tape, and stuck together in the right order. This was done for each "line" in the music – the main plucked bass, the bass slides (an organ-like tone emphasising the grace notes), the hisses, the swoops, the melody, a second melody line (a high organ-like tone used for emphasis), and the bubbles and clouds. Most of these individual bits of tape making up lines of music, complete with edits every inch, still survive.
This done, the music had to be "mixed". There were no multitrack tape machines, so rudimentary multitrack techniques were invented: each length of tape was placed on a separate tape machine and all the machines were started simultaneously and the outputs mixed together. If the machines didn't stay in sync, they started again, maybe cutting tapes slightly here and there to help. In fact, a number of "submixes" were made to ease the process – a combined bass track, combined melody track, bubble track, and hisses.
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Doctor Who theme music - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
infradead said:
seriously this is about as stupid a question as you can have.

i didn't even bother listening to the video but this question is so ****ing subjective. i've listened to some amazing stuff that's just feedback.

if you're making music you're a musician, even if what you are making isn't something that the majority of people would consider music.

what about merbow?

Merzbow - Minus Zero - YouTube

how about a self generative patch on a buchla music easel?

Easel Krell Patch i - YouTube

neither of those are to everyone's taste but both are music.
Click to expand...


Music-The art of arranging sounds in time so as to produce a continuous, unified, and evocative composition, as through melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre.

There was not any harmony, melody or rhythm in any one of the videos you posted. They were just sounds being played back through a device. The sounds being made from me typing on the keyboard does not equate to music, just cause I feel it does.
 
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McLovin Beatz said:
Music-The art of arranging sounds in time so as to produce a continuous, unified, and evocative composition, as through melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre.

There was not any harmony, melody or rhythm in any one of the videos you posted. They were just sounds being played back through a device. The sounds being made from me typing on the keyboard does not equate to music, just cause I feel it does.
Click to expand...
The problem with this definition is that there are forms of music that reject these boundaries, such as avant-guarde jazz.
some people might call this random noise, not really described by that definition you cited.

I can record me typing on the keyboard as a form of percussion.
 
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mwandishi said:
The problem with this definition is that there are forms of music that reject these boundaries, such as avant-guarde jazz.
some people might call this random noise, not really described by that definition you cited.

I can record me typing on the keyboard as a form of percussion.
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This still has melody tho.
 
McLovin Beatz said:
Music-The art of arranging sounds in time so as to produce a continuous, unified, and evocative composition, as through melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre.

There was not any harmony, melody or rhythm in any one of the videos you posted. They were just sounds being played back through a device. The sounds being made from me typing on the keyboard does not equate to music, just cause I feel it does.
Click to expand...

This is where the word subjective comes into play.

You say it's not music and it's missing quite a few things that would make it music and I don't care.



Here is something by Karl Stockhausen who is regarded as one of the most important composers of the 20th century.

Is it music?

Karlheinz Stockhausen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
McLovin Beatz said:
Music-The art of arranging sounds in time so as to produce a continuous, unified, and evocative composition, as through melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre.

There was not any harmony, melody or rhythm in any one of the videos you posted. They were just sounds being played back through a device. The sounds being made from me typing on the keyboard does not equate to music, just cause I feel it does.
Click to expand...

The merzbow was to foist merzbow on the unsuspecting. I haven't decided if I'm a fan of his but he has a huge body of work and been doing it for a long time.

Merzbow - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The second one is an example of aleatoric music. If anyone is going to NAMM 2014 Todd Barton will be at the Buchla table and be presenting

Aleatoric music - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
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