M&C Week 9

Education in entertainment can be thought of as a genre of music. There are many genres’ of music, for example: country, hip hop, jazz, and R& B etc. Artist that choose to create music for the purpose of educating listeners on particular issues, usually consistently stick to that style in most of their work. Hence, they can be itemized into a sub category or as I said before a type of genre of music. Music is a powerful tool that can be used to educate as well as to entertain. Music is extremely useful when conveying messages and that is why music is popular among all people. There is always someone out there that can relate to an artist. In my experience, education and entertainment have not been mutually exclusives. Reason being, in order to be a musician, or a successful artist for that matter, it requires that one possess some type of talent, usually. The talent is what entertains the fans. Therefore, the entertainment aspect is certainly evident. I for one am a huge fan of conscious hip hop. Conscious hip hop is a sub category or another form of the hip hop genre. In my opinion this music requires a higher degree of intellect and talent than an artist who usually creates mainstream style of hip hop, for example: club tracks. A conscious hip hop artist takes pride in his or her own work and the positive influence it has on their listeners. Nine times out of ten, the vocabulary is much more elevated than the other types of hip hop artists. Also, the artist has strong views and opinions over debatable topics. There are many techniques that hip hop artists can master in their flows but it is without a doubt the conscious hip hop artist who can articulate their thoughts more effectively and take a more creative approach when constructing his or her lyrics. Metaphors are mastered among the conscious rappers. The visionaries, an underground hip hop group, literally rap about God and many other positive messages. The visionaries are definitely not a gospel group, they are conscious rappers. Their material is clearly un-comparable to mainstream or music only created for entertainment purposes. These artists have messages and the messages they create are created with integrity all the while, still using their many entertainment abilities to attract fans and magnetize flocks of people to the dance floor. I believe those that strive to educate through their music, ultimately entertain because of the fact that the two are undeniably intermingled.