educatedfilm, I certainly never intended to say that rap is the ONLY type of music that has been trendy and people have flocked to for acceptance. Certainly not. My point was only that for a lot of these kids there isn't any true love of the genre but only a love of the image that it gives them. Of coures this can be applied to any genre; I'm sure back in the heavy metal days there was the same phenomenon.

While we got on the topic of rap vocals... I don't think rapping takes as much skill, practice, or dedication as an actual singer goes through, but that's not to say it's easy to do what they do... definatly in rap there is strong emphasis on rhythm and beat, so you have to be in touch with that.
I think Chris Mood had a good analyzation of it...