Poetry

So, let's get a little real for a few minutes. I'm super into poetry of all kinds. Whether it's written poetic forms, musical, or long form like Shakespeare. But, (I'm sure you could sense the but), the whole concept of poetry has been really bothering me lately. Let me explain.

Someone I know, not a close friend, let's say an acquaintance, posted a short video on Facebook about rap, titled "Mumble Rap." The videos premise was simple: Mumble rap is not actually hip-hop, but it's own separate thing all together. And that got me thinking, about why does it even matter? I've always hated trying to pin something down into a certain category, and I see music fall victim to this all the time. "I remember when this band was punk, now they're just hard rock!" I've heard a statement similar to this one more times that I like to admit, and each time I always want to shout "SO?"

Here's my take: as much as I hate cliches, art is art. Yes, what is considered creative and original to one person may just be garbage and silly to another, but despite this, the piece is still art. It does not matter whether you mumble into a microphone "yeah" for three and a half minutes, or you create a ten foot sculpture by hand, both are creative expression to someone. Granted, you could then question the difficulty, and which one is more creative, but I personally do not believe that one is better than the other. It's all perspective. Some people are way into country music, a genre that I myself dislike. I'm not going to bash the artists for that, their fans really love, and get a lot from that music, that's what art is all about. "It's not hip-hop," that's fine, maybe the artist doesn't want it to be. The people who are listening, that's who decides what it is. "That band isn't punk anymore, they're sellouts!" Well, sorry you made them successful enough to where they could actually start making the music they've always wanted to, and have grown from their past, you know you don't have to listen to them anyway, right? So why bother hating something that you do not have to bother with? I could incoherently babble about this for pages, but it's time to wrap it up.

Once again, I love poetry, of all kinds, but what I hate is categorizing someones work, and then shaming them for it. We should be thankful that there is a wide spectrum of artist out there, that way everyone can be into something different, no matter how strange or weird to some. Remember, no one is forcing you to follow that band, or watch that movie, if you don't like it, then just unsubscribe to it. Never, EVER sit there and shame someone for their art work, just because it's not what you consider creative or original just go, "I'm don't really like it, I like this instead." Healthy discussion is fine about which is better, but simply disliking something because it's not what it was, or hating on something because it doesn't align with your views, that is not okay.

Anyway, that's my rant for the day.