Not That Simple

“Bloom implies that all popular music ‘has the beat of sexual intercourse.’ Taking exactly the same view, Steven Tyler of the hard rock band Aerosmith boasts: ‘It’s rhythm and blues, its twos and fours, it’s f***ing.’ In general, neither friend nor foe acknowledges that the monotonous beat of hard rock (and, indeed, of much rap) is a travesty of the rich, tireless, complicated rhytms of Afro-American music at its best. All I can say to such people is, if the rhythms of good jazz, funk, blues, or gospel remind you of sexual intercourse, then—well, my hat’s off to you” (Martha Bayles, Hole in our Soul, p. 11).