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Has the 'rap solo' replaced the guitar solo in chart music?


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Old 30-03-2011, 13:33
ags_rule
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I read something at Popjustice recently where the editor said he would like to remove all guitar solos from classic-rock songs to make them listenable.

But then it occured to me...the 'solo' hasn't disappeared from chart music. It's just no longer a guitar, but a rapper. How many songs in the chart have a token rapper? Virtually all of them. Even Rebecca Black employed one.

Personally I'd take a guitar solo over a rap any day
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Old 30-03-2011, 13:34
Gary Sparrow
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It's just a fad.

People will ALWAYS come back to guitar music- even if it takes 5 years for a 'scene' to die out.
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Old 30-03-2011, 14:21
Glawster2002
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I read something at Popjustice recently where the editor said he would like to remove all guitar solos from classic-rock songs to make them listenable.

But then it occured to me...the 'solo' hasn't disappeared from chart music. It's just no longer a guitar, but a rapper. How many songs in the chart have a token rapper? Virtually all of them. Even Rebecca Black employed one.

Personally I'd take a guitar solo over a rap any day
Which only goes to show he should stick to the things he knows rather than comment on things he obviously doesn't know about....
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Old 30-03-2011, 14:22
Gary Sparrow
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He sounds great, doesn't he?
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Old 30-03-2011, 14:24
rombod
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Popjustice is flawless and accurate, to be honest. Cry more. Rap solos are overdone, I agree. I do think they add something to certain songs, but nowadays their inclusion is more a case of appealing to urban radio (in the US) than actually feeling the song requires one.
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Old 30-03-2011, 14:26
kingofthejungle
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I read somewhere that there has not been a guitar band got to No 1 in the UK in over 2 years.
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Old 30-03-2011, 15:00
Scratchy7929
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I'd taken any solo over a rap solo personally.Sax, piano, synth perhaps even a singing solo which is not drowned out by the back beat even - there are not many pop singers who would want to do that these days though :

Even Rebecca Black employed one.
The production costs for that were supposed to be $2000.Don't think that rent-a-rappa cost alot to hire.Perhaps he did it for nothing.
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Old 30-03-2011, 15:22
Radiomaniac
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I read something at Popjustice recently where the editor said he would like to remove all guitar solos from classic-rock songs to make them listenable.

But then it occured to me...the 'solo' hasn't disappeared from chart music. It's just no longer a guitar, but a rapper. How many songs in the chart have a token rapper? Virtually all of them. Even Rebecca Black employed one.

Personally I'd take a guitar solo over a rap any day
That's a coincidence - I've often thought that many songs would sound so much better without the mandatory (c)rap insert.

I suppose that's why he's the 'editor' something that I've never even heard of.
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Old 30-03-2011, 15:34
gagarules86
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This is an interesting topic for me as I love Hip Hop. A lot of the features are getting ridiculous-especially when the rapper pops up on songs by artists that I don't like.
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Old 30-03-2011, 16:50
gagafan2010
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I read somewhere that there has not been a guitar band got to No 1 in the UK in over 2 years.
Scouting For Girls could arguably be called a 'guitar band' (Roy plays the guitar and Greg plays bass) and This Ain't A Love Song was number 1. Although I guess they're not a guitar band in the vein of Oasis, Kings Of Leon etc. who I know the article meant.
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Old 30-03-2011, 19:16
Star_Bright
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I'd taken any solo over a rap solo personally.Sax, piano, synth perhaps even a singing solo which is not drowned out by the back beat even - there are not many pop singers who would want to do that these days though :



The production costs for that were supposed to be $2000.Don't think that rent-a-rappa cost alot to hire.Perhaps he did it for nothing.
He is Ark
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Old 30-03-2011, 19:33
maninthequeue
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I read something at Popjustice recently where the editor said he would like to remove all guitar solos from classic-rock songs to make them listenable.

But then it occured to me...the 'solo' hasn't disappeared from chart music. It's just no longer a guitar, but a rapper. How many songs in the chart have a token rapper? Virtually all of them. Even Rebecca Black employed one.

Personally I'd take a guitar solo over a rap any day
You are correct. I remember saying that at my local pub to a fellow musically minded friend only the other week.

Of course Peter Robinson with his Popjustice ideological head on is a tool who regards Pet Shop Boys West End Girls as the year zero moment in music, and regards the worse than awful Stock Aitken & Waterman as having made great music.

Just imagine Layla; Whole Lotta Love; Sweet Child Of Mine; Smells Like Teen Spirit; etc witha rap interlude where the guitar solo was .... frightening.

I should add as a freelance journalist for NME; the Guardian & The Word magazine he is much better/more balanced in his music writing.
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Old 31-03-2011, 12:20
lectrospin
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This is an interesting topic for me as I love Hip Hop. A lot of the features are getting ridiculous-especially when the rapper pops up on songs by artists that I don't like.
there's a plague of pointless rap cameos right now.
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Old 31-03-2011, 13:26
eugenespeed
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I read somewhere that there has not been a guitar band got to No 1 in the UK in over 2 years.
Rage Against The Machine were number one 15 months ago.
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Old 31-03-2011, 15:34
mushymanrob
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It's just a fad.

People will ALWAYS come back to guitar music- even if it takes 5 years for a 'scene' to die out.
really? going off the singles chart theres been very few guitar breaks in tracks in the last 20 plus years... they were once obligatory. i think rap breaks are hear to stay, theyve been around for at least 15 years appearing when 'ragga' was big in the early 90's... maybe before.
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Old 31-03-2011, 15:47
Gary Sparrow
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I wouldn't say they were obilgatory, in fairness.

I was also referring more to guitar-based music in general- not necessarily songs with guitar solos in. There will be a big guitar band come through in the next couple of years which will kick start a new desire for guitar-driven music.

The problem is unsigned bands see electronic-based indie as the easiest way to get a record deal. When that fad is over and they stop trying to be super cool bands with their trilbys and glasses of white wine, they'll return to 'normal' rock music.
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Old 31-03-2011, 16:58
neel
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I read something at Popjustice recently where the editor said he would like to remove all guitar solos from classic-rock songs to make them listenable.

But then it occured to me...the 'solo' hasn't disappeared from chart music. It's just no longer a guitar, but a rapper. How many songs in the chart have a token rapper? Virtually all of them. Even Rebecca Black employed one.

Personally I'd take a guitar solo over a rap any day
You know of all the posters on this forum, I did not expect you to read popjustice.

Hurrah for my preconceptions being challenged.

In terms of the solo question. I'm not sure how big a part it ever was in pop music, mainly because you can't dance to a guitar solo, there is few more tragic sights than a grown man in a club playing air guitar to a solo but then again laying my cards on the table i've always been rather anti-solo.

The Santana track from a few years back is the only example I can think of as having a solo in the same way that the guest rapper is currently used in contemporary pop. Perhaps a few MJ tracks and prince tracks? I'm struggling though.

They always struck me as over indulgent and un neccessary, the sort of thing that punk and later grunge should shown up for how dated and pointless it really was.

There are a few example of great appropriate solo's mind you, some of Tom Morello's for example, inovative, exciting most for me sound like fret board masturbation, we're can do without that

In the appropriate genre, they obviously have their place and their fans, but I tend to agree with my pop justice's assesment of the matter.
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Old 31-03-2011, 17:12
ags_rule
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You know of all the posters on this forum, I did not expect you to read popjustice.

Hurrah for my preconceptions being challenged.

In terms of the solo question. I'm not sure how big a part it ever was in pop music, mainly because you can't dance to a guitar solo, there is few more tragic sights than a grown man in a club playing air guitar to a solo but then again laying my cards on the table i've always been rather anti-solo.

The Santana track from a few years back is the only example I can think of as having a solo in the same way that the guest rapper is currently used in contemporary pop. Perhaps a few MJ tracks and prince tracks? I'm struggling though.

They always struck me as over indulgent and un neccessary, the sort of thing that punk and later grunge should shown up for how dated and pointless it really was.

There are a few example of great appropriate solo's mind you, some of Tom Morello's for example, inovative, exciting most for me sound like fret board masturbation, we're can do without that

In the appropriate genre, they obviously have their place and their fans, but I tend to agree with my pop justice's assesment of the matter.
Fair enough, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I'll ask you this then (which really was the point I was getting at) - why should a 'rap solo' have any more credibility in your eyes than a guitar solo?

I agree that guitar solos can be overused or self-indulgent at times, but there are some songs where the solo just makes it because it's so cathartic. Sweet Child O'Mine, No More Tears, Tornado Of Souls, Blackbird. Incidentally, Alter Bridge's 'Blackbird' solo was recently voted in a musicradar reader poll as the best guitar solo ever - says a lot about those who would argue that traditional guitar music is dead, as it was only released about 5 years ago.
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Old 31-03-2011, 17:29
Anika Hanson
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I think if that ever happened music would be officially dead.
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Old 31-03-2011, 18:16
neel
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Fair enough, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I'll ask you this then (which really was the point I was getting at) - why should a 'rap solo' have any more credibility in your eyes than a guitar solo?

I agree that guitar solos can be overused or self-indulgent at times, but there are some songs where the solo just makes it because it's so cathartic. Sweet Child O'Mine, No More Tears, Tornado Of Souls, Blackbird. Incidentally, Alter Bridge's 'Blackbird' solo was recently voted in a musicradar reader poll as the best guitar solo ever - says a lot about those who would argue that traditional guitar music is dead, as it was only released about 5 years ago.
Its just a taste thing I guess, hard to put a finger on, while some will hold up Sweet Child O'Mine as one of the great solo's, to my ears as with most solo's it sounds cheesy and ruins the flow of the song, but to be fair its the song most likely to make me go out for a fag if I hear it when i'm out, I HATE it.

Equally though I think the tagged on "rap" solo equally usually sounds cheesy and ruins the flow of the song. I wouldn't either is something very likely to fill me with joy when I hear it in a song.
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Old 31-03-2011, 19:38
ShadowRider213
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It's just a change of genre. The 80's preferred rock. The 21st century preferred hip hop and R&B.
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