Classical and Contemporary Music Comparison Essay

Many music lovers would often argue that classical music did lose popularity long time ago due to the fact that it was difficult to understand just as the way hip hop music artists like the born Thugs and Harmony, nas, and Dr. Dre they were back in the days. During the classical times, composing music that would appeal to a wide variety of audiences was very challenging.

Classical music takes time to learn. It is the most complicated genre of music to teach for music teachers and the most difficult to learn for students undertaking music classes. It is more of a calling to be able to grasp the theme behind any classical music. It is like poetry. This is because to learn classical music, one has to learn each instrument and emotions, and how they coordinate to present what one wants the listener to feel.

In the modern world, not many people would sit down and create time in order to learn and advance the genre. This has brought about the non-creative; all sound the same music we now hear today. For the purpose of this article we shall discuss hip hop and classical music and compare the two.

It is of no doubt that classical music is not for everyone, like hip-hop, which anyone can easily grasp the message and dance to it. An IQ of 50 is quite enough to understand pretty well everything Eminem sings in his tracks, but to understand a piece of classical music like Luciano Pavarotti’s “Signature”, it takes more than that. Luciano Pavarotti for example, has repeatedly performed his favourite song ‘signature’ in concerts. The song has a great message and end with vibrant high notes that he delivers with the energy he began with.

His songs are all classical in nature, adopting the style of the school and spirit of the age at the same time, the music he sings contains a set of instruments found in an orchestra, together with a few other solo. Unlike hip-hop, the songs are to the discerning ear very smooth and very romantic something that can appeal to someone at any moment in life.

This is far different to when you listen to a hip-hop song like Eminem’s ‘Stan’, though the song borrows deeply from Dido’s “Thank you”, the song begins with a sense of smoothness and kindness but at the end the singer expresses chaos and anger. The songs’ appeal is greatest to disgruntled, rebellious youth out to prove something to the world.

When you look at the Pavarotti song on the other hand it embraces love nature and books, one is able to relate to the song from the beginning to the end. It leads you into a new world of gentleness and calmness never seen or experienced before. This is the main reason behind the appeal of classical music; it takes one beyond imagination to a world that is calm and peaceful all through the use and composition of musical instruments. A wide variety of musical instruments are employed by musicians in the classical music industry including and not limited to fiddles, flutes, oboes, Clarinets, trumpets, horns, trombones, Pianos and a whole range of percussion instruments.

Classical music has several styles that define it, these include; Sentimental style, Opera, overture, Symphony, and Sonata allegro to name but a few.

When you look at hip-hop on the other hand, it is full of hate, pain and revenge, for sure hip-hop does not bring out the essence of virtue in art. Some would argue that hip hop is the modern way of poetry, which is agreeable to some extent. But the poetry itself is of no direction and leads one to accept the situation one is in and not that this situation may be able to change if some forces are put across. Hip-hop also known as Rap/ Rap music contains several characteristics found in this genre of music including; Rapping, Djaying, Dancing, also known as (Boying) and Graffiti (name tagging). Hip-hop is generally accepted as a cultural movement rather than a musical genre.

Hip-hop presents the audience with a 4/4 time structure of beats. The singer usually begins singing before the beat starts with the intention of catching the rhythm. Lyrical content is of great import to hip-hop and has spawned a new style of singing that has riveted the audiences’ attention to this music.

Hip-hop employs the use of various musical instruments and musical techniques in the creation of beats. At first drums, guitars, percussions, bass, and vocalists were part of the instrumentation of hip-hop. Currently, emphasis is put on beats and thus the Drum machine is used. Hip-hop heavily relies on electronic/software based instruments which put it in sharp contrast to classical music which relies on traditional instruments such as Sharps, flutes and Piano’s.

Classical music has often been used in meditation, in exercise, in candle light dinner, and in making a baby go to sleep. This is difficult with hip-hop, where hate, violence, and noise rule the music all through.

Whenever one listens to Pavarotti’s ‘signature’ it slowly and swiftly carries you through different stages of emancipation, you feel and recognize how low you are and experience the healing inside the song, one feels born again and ready to face life in a new order. Unlike when you listen to Eminem’s ‘Stan’, it takes you to a moment of self-destruction. With this in mind, I would back classical music at any costs and recommend it for any type of audience, be it the disturbed one, the sad one, or just the happy one.