New Press Release
Controversial Musician Who Says “Rap Is Not Music and I can Prove It” , Seeks
Federal Identification Guidelines
WASHINGTON Feb. 27, 2006 Controversy concerning comments made by jazz musician Gregory Charles Royal,
that the MTV/Hip Hop Generation is killing classical and jazz music, have been the subject of many internet chat
rooms of late. However, his latest statement that rap is not music, that he can prove it, and it should therefore,
under law, be packaged appropriately, is sure to raise eyebrows.
Royal, a former trombonist with the Grammy Award winning Duke Ellington Orchestra and current artistic director of
the American Youth Symphony (AYS), says there is a stealth crisis in this country whereby young kids cannot
discern between the melodic tones of, for example, singing, and the spoken artform of rapping. He says the issue is
complicated even more by the pervasiveness of electronic music and sampling in the MTV/Hip Hop culture. "This
generation has become the victim of technology and thus, has totally distorted the parameters of what music is and
what constitutes its performance." (Royal addresses this issue in a separate press release and a 20 page report
involving classical music attendance which can be viewed and reprinted at http://www.hardboplife.com).
Says Royal, “I personally love a lot of rap, but this is not about being judgmental of an artform. This is a game
versus sport argument, which for the sake of totally confused children growing up in America, a distinction has to be
made".
Royal says proving that rap is not music (not the music which plays behind rap) is simple because the actual
process of rapping is a rhythmic rather than melodic act. “Dancers use rhythm, athletes use rhythm, rhythm is but
one component of music. Melody, however, is associated only with music and no other action. Rappers are poets
and rhythmic wordsmiths. Likewise, I believe a rapper would take offense to a vocalist saying she is rapping simply
because her words rhymed.”
The problem, according to Royal, comes when rap artists are marketed to the young public as musicians or musical
artists. It then becomes "a legitimate educational issue and a legitimate fair trade issue". “How do you expect a
teacher to convince a child to take up the trumpet when the very definition of music is under siege and digital
programming, splicing and sampling has replaced the years of practice required to master an instrument?”
Royal, as a private citizen, is preparing to lobby congress and the FTC to consider expanding the FTC Fair
Packaging and Labeling Act or provide some protections or enact some public policy regarding the terms music
and musical performance. He hopes that the art of rapping can be legally classified as a form of poetry or a spoken
word artform and that the programming or tracking of sound samples can be deemed a non-musical performance
under the law.
Additional Proposals Announced by the American Youth Symphony, who will continue their educational campaign to
promote instrumental music performance and appreciation among youth, include:
1) A National PSA DVD to play at schools featuring hip hop artists taking music lessons or showing off their musical
talents in tongue and cheek skits.
2) Seeking licensing rights to produce an instrumentalist version of American Idol in 2007 to spark interest in youth.
Royal's comments were voiced at the American Youth Symphony Plight of American Music Initiative Conference. On
the Discussion Panel were: Travis Bowerman; Washington Performing Arts Society (WPAS.org); Ashley Gauthier,
attorney US News World Report; Ron Pinchback, WPFW Pacifica Radio; ,Ava Spece, DC Youth Orchestra Program.
NEWS ARTICLE From FORBES.com
Noted Jazz Musician Says MTV/Hip Hop Generation May Kill Classical and Jazz Music
Monday September 26, 4:59 am ET
(May copy for print. No further permission required)
WASHINGTON, Sept. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- The MTV/Hip Hop Generation, which is indoctrinated in electronic and
non-melodious music, has placed classical music and jazz in "grave" danger according to trombonist Gregory Charles
Royal, an alumnus of the Grammy Award winning Duke Ellington Orchestra.
Royal, artistic director of the American Youth Symphony (AYS) in Washington, DC says that the growth in Hip Hop and
MTV has resulted in a 30- and- under generation with no appreciation of traditional music. In fact, Royal has written a
play about the subject, which was a New York JVC Jazz Festival Special Event. The play is available free on DVD at
http://www.hardboplife.com.
"If you consider that the vast amount of college graduates over the past few years don't even register in their
consciousness the sound of a cello, clarinet, French horn or flute, how can you even begin to expect them to
appreciate traditional forms of music, not to mention going out and actually purchasing a ticket?" says Royal, who has
lectured on American music at colleges and universities.
Royal says that the lack of general music education in the schools and the misuse of technology that allows young
artists to bypass musical skill have provided what he calls the "nail in the coffin."
"The fact that the under-30 generation can call Rap records "songs," even though the vast majority of them have no
melody, is a barometer of how far musical standards have fallen," says Royal, who holds a Master of Music in Jazz
Studies from Howard University.
"We in the artistic community must make up lost ground for our abandonment and lack of guidance of this generation.
We must partner with Hip Hop artists and labels to lobby them to utilize acoustic instruments. We must also persuade
organizations interested in the preservation of traditional music, like the Knight Foundation, to offer grants to Hip Hop
producers that choose to use real instruments in their music. We have to get acoustic sounds back in the
marketplace," says Susan Veres, Executive Director of AYS.
Plight of American Music Initiative™ is a project of American Youth Symphony in collaboration with
Susan Veres and Associates and GCR Music Company
Comments? Questions? Problems? Contact patrons@hardboplife.com
© 2005 American Youth Symphony. All Rights Reserved. Privacy
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New Press Release:
REPORT: Major Symphony Orchestras Wrongly Ignore New Paradigm:
The Electronic Sampling Culture of the MTV/Hip Hop Generation
WASHINGTON, Feb. 21 2006 The American Youth Symphony (AYS) has issued a report which addresses what it
calls a “stealth musical crisis” in America─a now pervasive and massive electronic sampling culture being ignored
by the major symphony orchestras which appear unable or unwilling to attract new young listeners.
The report, part of AYS Plight of American Music Initiative, states that many of today’s youth, including college
graduates, have grown up on so much electronic sounds and sampling that the traditional parameters of what
constituted music and a musical performance have been dramatically expanded. “There no longer exists in the
young generation a differential between someone who plays a violin, and someone who chooses a violin sound
sample and then keys it into a song,” says AYS artistic director Gregory Charles Royal.
Royal who has extensive credentials as a trombone soloist with the Grammy Award winning Duke Ellington
Orchestra and as a lecturer and former hip hop producer, says it is unclear if the major symphonic culture is naïve,
in denial or has no serious intention of addressing the new paradigm of the MTV/Hip Hop Generation.
“Regardless, they have held their communities’ dollars long enough and its time for some new blood─the nation’s
youth orchestras─to carry the torch that will rescue instrumental music.”
The report recommends that the nation’s youth orchestras, who already engage youth performers but which are
immature financially, forge alliances with popular artists of the young generation. “We are envisioning young pop
and hip hop artists drawing big crowds to orchestra concerts and youth orchestras traveling to New York to record
on a grunge artists’ album,” says Susan Veres, Executive Director of AYS.(View entire report beginning
Wednesday March 1, 2006 at http://www.hardboplife.com).