From a reader:
The great jazz saxophone player and music producer Teo Macero was asked in
an interview in the Boston Globe a couple of years ago if rap/hop is music.
His response was no, it was just a long run on sentence that doesn’t say
anything.
The mathematical formula for popular culture, music or art is:
% of music (art) included is equal to the the remainder of the % of the
sociology subtracted from 100%.
Hip/hop is about 99% sociology. Most rock and roll is about 85% sociology.
Even Springsteen is at best 50% music. Miles Davis is about 95% great music.
And Stravinsky The Symphony of Psalms is 100% music, no sociology at all.
I am almost mathematically illiterate so you might want to have Derb check
my numbers.