Athenae said this was a “post what you will” day, so here goes:
I think rap stinks on ice, but for a different reason (probably) than most, and it’s not racial or cultural.
I hate poetry read aloud.
I can’t stand it.
I thought beatniks doing it at coffee houses in the 50s sucked.
I think their later incarnation of “slam poetry” sucked.
Dressing it up with drum machines and other people’s sampled music doesn’t make it suck any less.
I have nothing against poetry per se, but it should be read by the consumer, so that it’s a private experience, in the voice that the reader gives it internally. To me, it’s a personal communication from the writer to the reader, not some kind of “listen to ME” declaration to an audience.
I guess I could read poetry out loud in a public transit situation, at the top of my lungs (and I have some powerful lungs), but that would probably be annoying.