Abolish Rap At RJHS Prom

Rap is pretty much impossible to dance to, all people ever do at our dances is grind and the administration considers this "inappropriate" for some reason, so really, there is nothing left to do except stand around and be bored. In addition to this, rap is just noise - it's garbage, it is a pointless genre that will most likely fade away in the next decade anyway.

What we need at prom is music which can actually be danced to, and enjoyed by everyone. All in all, if we play stuff the people actually LIKE, there may even be an increase in turnout to future dances.

THE FOLLOWING IS A REPLY TO THE FIRST MESSAGE POSTED BY "Sum Dude": (All you damned hypocrits at my school who say rap sucks and should be abolished at dances yet retract your statements after I actually do something about it better read this!)

Man, first off, you're obviously treading into waters you don't know about here - "ROCK is just a whole of loud noise mixed with inaudible and non-sensical lyrics." - first off, the "ROCK" you are thinking of is called METAL, don't confuse your genres, and the METAL you are talking about here is Black/Death/Thrash Metal, and even Hair Metal, which I am all big fans of, but if you aren't thats fine by me, everyone is entitled to his opinion. And some ROCK, is actually quite soft an coherent, such as Air Supply (not that I am a big fan I just use them as an example). Anyway, who said anything about ROCK on this petition? The image which states "Rock On" may imply something like this, but doesn't necessarily come out and say "rock needs to be played at prom" Maybe I, the author of this petition, was thinking techno should be played, or maybe a slow song here and there seeing as it IS a formal dance w/ a date. Or maybe the music I was implying was disco? Surely disco can be danced to - Studio 54 did quite well for itself. What about 80's retro such as Bananarama? Maybe that was they type of music the author was thinking, that is a danceable music. How about 80's pop music such as Michael Jackson or Wang Chung? Those two artists are completely danceable. What did the generations before us dance to? I'll tell you - all of the above except for rap, a relatively new genre. The 20's saw the jazz scene emerge, the 30's saw the era of big band which lasted through the 40's, the 50's saw the rise of not only ROCK N' ROLL, but also do-wop, which was big through the mid 60's, until the british invasion which lasted into the early 70's, which still had people dancing to it - yes British Invasion bads are ROCK, and I don't find The Beatles or the Rolling Stones to be loud noise or to have non-sensical lyrics. Now don't get me wrong, some songs are just plain stupid, but some do actually have deep meanings masked under all the "loud noise", as you say. After the British Invasion came along a fresh new sound, which I do enjoy although it is sometimes refered to as "the rap of the 70's" - disco, many rockers of the time hated it, just as we hate rap of today, but disco actually had a beat, it could be danced to, and the lyrics were not violent and degrating, sure they were non-sensical, but they were sure fun to dance to, unlike rap, which people can only grind to, and as stated in the petition history is "outlawed" at my school. After the death of disco in the early 80's, retro, such as the sound of Bananarama came about, which was played and danced to in clubs throughout the country; as well as the heavy pop influence of this age, such as Cyndi Lauper and Michael Jackson. Pop even made it's way into mixing with ROCK to become Hair Metal, which also was danced to time and time agian whether it be at live show or dance hall. I am in full agreement that Hair Metal band's lyrics don't always have the deepest meaning, but their songs known as POWER BALLADS, often times DID have a deeper meaning than the usual "get laid and drunk tonight" lyiric style.

After a well-known grunge band hit it big in the 1991 with their album Nevermind and thei most famous song of all-time "Smells Like Teen Spirit", youth all over the country were finding another form of dance called SLAM DANCING, most commonly known as moshing. As violent as this may seem, it is a valid form of dance and is practiced at Punk and Metal shows all over the globe, as well as at school dances. Also at this time in the early 90's a hybrid sound emerged which sounded like disco, but mixed with rap emerged. The most well-known example of this is C&C Music Factorie's "Gonna Make You Sweat", which swept night clubs by storm, as well as the classic old school rap song done by MC Hammer - "U Can't Touch This". I myself hate rap with a passion, but these two songs actually did have beats by which one could dance.

The rap of today is stricly grind-worthy and should be contained to the night clubs of today, and not a school dance where grinding is "forbidden". Having said this, I believe that it is not necessary to play rap OR rock at the prom of RJHS, the other forms of dance music are most acceptable. P.S. -rap sucks, ROCK owns (*_*) m/