Country and Rap

I am a huge fan of music, and have a very wide taste in genre- I like everything from ambient Icelandic tonal poems to heavy metal. Now that may seem like I will listen to anything, but there are two genres I just can't stand- rap and country.

Country music, while many of the artists do have respectable voices, there is just a certain 'twang' to their voices that I just can't stand. It's not their fault- it's just the style of the music. I have never liked said 'twang', and just find it plain annoying nine times out of ten. The only times I tolerate country are with bluegrass or folk, and when it is country rock/pop- either way, that noticeable 'twang' is absent. If I had to listen to any country artist, it would be Carrie Underwood, who has a beautiful voice and whose songs are a little less country-sounding.

The main reason why I can't stand rap is that it has no melody. Music, by my books, involves actual notes and pitches, meaning to me, rapping is just talking. Even if the lyrics are really memorable and poetic, to me, it's still just them talking quickly. I would have less of a problem with it if the accompaniment is unique and interesting, but most the time, it's repetitive, way too loud bass and drums, forming an unchanging and uninteresting, often irritating, beat. There are some exceptions to this 'no rap' policy, though. I generally like non-English rap, and I know that sounds really weird, but in general, non-English rap has influences from that particular country's music style, like a Latin beat if it is Spanish or synth-heavy pads if it is Japanese (aka I mainly like Spanish and Japanese rap). I also like artists like Ed Sheeran who have musical merit, but sometimes include rap in their songs. Another good example of that would be Linkin Park. It's artists like Lil' Wayne and Kayne West that I just can't stand.

I know that it is isn't in the title or mentioned in the introduction, but some kinds of pop also drive me crazy. I find that pop is a very broad genre, encompassing many different musical and singing abilities. Some pop artists, in most cases those that are a little more on the rock side of pop, can actually sing really well and don't use much, if any, autotune in their songs. Their songs also tend to be a bit more interesting, dynamic, and original, if a pop song can be classified as any of those things. Other times, pop artists, like Ke$ha, David Guetta, and way too many boy bands to count, only use autotune, leading to generic, synthesized-sounding voices and songs that, to be brutally honest, are really stupid and annoying.

While I can be very critical of music, and there are a couple genres that I for the most part despise, there are always exceptions. After all, if you love something as much as I love music, you only want the very best of it.