I originally made this post on Reddit, but the subreddit I posted it on has a low response rate to threads. I wanted to gain input from you guys as well on this since I didn't want to make you use Reddit for it, whether you like that place or not.

I believe that because rock has been out for a long time, that hip hop brought something fresh, which is something I can understand. However, I'm still only willing to listen to rock, because I have an emotional attachment to the sound. Both rock and hip hop can be seen to be offensive, but I see rock to be more emotional and offensive - I believe that rock music, and perhaps heavy metal music, can potentially sound unappealing enough to the majority in that it gets hated by religious fundamentalists who believe that the music is satanic. I think that rock, pop music and heavy metal also helped to blur gender boundaries up a bit; it wasn't really the norm for guys to wear their hair long before the 1970s.

The only appeal I think hip hop has is that it is quite political in nature and is offensive as well, although I think for the latter, it isn't very offensive, except to the racists, helicopter parents and people who think that hip hop will get those into crime and promiscuity easily. I think rock kind of does those things as well (people hated the black guys who were playing jazz and blues and then rock, and people thought that rock would encourage others to be promiscuous, get into drugs and perform other physically risky behaviours), but what I like about rock is the sound, and the fact that it, along with pop music, appears to question gender norms.

To be fair, I did grow up a bit on what my parents listened to. I preferred rock music and some pop music, and didn't really get into stuff like hip hop and R&B because I thought that it was too mainstream and that people who weren't really nice got into it. Even then, I thought I was a bit too young for hip hop and R&B despite me listening to the explicit version of "Girlfriend" by Avril Lavigne in private.

I'm posting this because I've seen something online for like twice now about how hip hop has overtaken rock music in its popularity, and because the consensus of LWG (lewronggeneration, a subreddit) is for people to accept the new popularity that hip hop has enjoyed since probably the 1990s or 2000s.

Note to mods: I'm trying not to compare decades here; I'm trying to compare two different music genres, so I'm sorry in advance if anything goes wrong here.

 

I have an emotional attachment to hip-hop much like you have to rock.  My parents hated it most of all so naturally that was the genre that I listened to to be rebellious.  It's just kind of stuck with me.

I agree though I think the current state of hip-hop with trap dominating is pretty sad compared to what it was even just a few years ago.  I think hip-hop can be made great again, we just have to get past the trap era.

I have an emotional attachment to hip-hop much like you have to rock.  My parents hated it most of all so naturally that was the genre that I listened to to be rebellious.  It's just kind of stuck with me.

I agree though I think the current state of hip-hop with trap dominating is pretty sad compared to what it was even just a few years ago.  I think hip-hop can be made great again, we just have to get past the trap era.

I prefer songs that fuse rock and hip hop together, because I get that edgy sound as well as with the edgy lyrics. However, hip hop music generally doesn't have a big focus on the instrumentals in my opinion. I like music for how it sounds overall because of what I've grown up with - I can somewhat easily ignore lyrics, which makes it easy for me to enjoy foreign music. This kind of makes enjoying hip hop a bit difficult for me. All of this excludes the aesthetic.

While there is pop and electronic music out there with decent instrumentals, I feel like they sound too tame, and that the artists look too inoffensive even if you get girls and/or guys who have practically beachwear (or less) on them - they look rather conforming to gender norms as well, although this decade has been trying to increase expectations of different sexualities - the music still isn't my taste, and it's only really the girls that get much of the admiration minus a few boy bands and other songs.