Left From Center: Rap vs. Rock

By Jacob Kolkman Posted October, 22, 2008

For decades there has been a harsh debate on which is the better genre of music: rock or rap. Both genres have worked together to produce such hits as Public Enemy and Anthrax doing Public Enemy’s “Bring the Noise” and Aerosmith and Run-DMC combining to perform “Walk this Way”. Despite the coalitions, the feud has still continued to this day.

Rock had been the dominant form of music for more than 40 years ever since the late 1960s and early 1970s. Starting back in the 1950s with blues-rock musicians like Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley and finally progressing to new age and grunge musicians like Kurt Cobain and Adam Jones. Then in the early 1980s in the underground of New York City started the revolution of rap, much like the revolution of rock in the late 1960s, with artists like Public Enemy, Run-DMC, and Ice-T, and it remained in the underground until the late 1990s with the coming of Tupac, Biggie Smalls, and NWA.

To settle this decades-long debate, I went out to the campus of Lowry High School to get some of the opinions of the students to see what they thought about this. Sophomore, Stephanie Hageman gives her vote to rap stating, “I like the rhythm of rap and how it makes me want to dance.” Junior, Chance Billows quotes AC-DC saying, “Rock and Roll ain’t noise pollution.” Freshman, Destiny Kolkman supports rap saying, “The beat and rhymes of rap beats all the scream-singing and guitars of rock.”

I guess this debate will never end, in my opinion, however rock will always be better. More than any other type of music it has influenced our culture, inciting revolutions that no one will ever forget. However, rap will also never be forgotten. While it hasn’t ignited such monumental revolutions, it has had an impact on our culture. Give me some Public Enemy or NWA. and I’ll be right there getting jiggy with the rest of them. So the great musical debate still rages on and probably will never be resolved; to this reporter’s dismay.

Leave a Reply