Q14 - Music professor: Because rap musicians

[christine.defenbaugh]

Some killer breakdowns here by LSATeater and hyewonkim89!

hyewonkim89, I love that you go for a simple breakdown of the basic core here, but be careful you don't oversimplify, and smoosh important elements. There are actually two independent arguments going on here. Here's my core breakdown:

Prof
PREMISES
A: Rap musicians don't have to accommodate supporting musicians
B: Learning rap is less formal than learning an instrument
CONCLUSIONS
A: Rap is individualistic
B: Rap is nontraditional

Critic
PREMISES
A: Rap musicians conform to the public
B: By using older songs, rap appeals to tradition. It's also creating a tradition of its very own
CONCLUSION
A: Rap musicians are not purely idiosyncratic (i.e., individualistic)
B: Rap has connections to tradition

The critic does not challenge any of the professors evidence. Instead he challenges the conclusion by bringing up new evidence. This is exactly what (B) says: he challenges the conclusion by offering additional observations the professor did not take into account.


You both had some great observations on the elimination process as well! I'd like to combine the highlights from both your posts.

(A) The critic challenges the conclusion, not the premises!
(C) The professor never generalizes to the broader context of music.
(D) The critic does not explain why the events in the professor's premises occur.
(E) As zee.brad notes, this says the critic challenges the premises. He didn't, he challenged the conclusions! I wouldn't get hung up on the fact that this answer choice refers to 'music' generally, instead of 'rap' specifically.


Keep the core breakdown simple and clean, but capture the critical elements (it's a balance!). Props to you all!


#officialexplanation

[LSAT-Chang]

All 5 answers seemed to be so similar to one another that it really confused me I chose (E) for this because the music critic seemed to be doubting each evidence that the music professor has provided. So like:

Music professor: A doesn't do B. A doesn't do C.

Music critic: But A does do B. A does do C.

Does this make sense?? What makes (B) correct and (E) wrong?

[adarsh.murthy]

I think it is more a case of the critic saying: But, A does D and A does E, B and C not being similar to D and C. Thats the reason why B is right. Do you agree?

[alexg89]

E is wrong because it is too general. E is about music in general and B is more accurately narrowing the scope of the issue.

[LSATeater]

I'm surprised this one doesn't have a more comprehensive explanation. I'll give it a go.

This question is asking us to find the method of argument used by the music critic in responding to the music professor.

What is their discussion about?

The music professor concludes that rap music is very individualistic and nontraditional. He cites the fact that rap musicians can work alone in studios to support his conclusion about individuality and cites the fact that learning to rap is less formal than learning to play an instrument which supports his assertion about non-traditionality. Note that the professor's conclusion is very strong while his evidence, at the very least, begets more elaboration. Simply because musicians CAN work alone reveals nothing about whether or how often they DO work alone and/or accommodate supporting musicians' wishes. Likewise, simply because learning to play the violin may have more formal structure than learning to rap reveals little about rap's formal structure and, by extension, deference to a traditional form (or lack thereof). Relative rankings between instruments and rap music does not mean rap cannot also be quite formal.

The critic's response is a rebuttal. We can infer from his statement that he concludes rap music to be a less individual and more traditional music form than the professor believes it to be. The critic says that rap samples older songs and has its own distinct styles and themes to make a case for it being a traditional music form. And he says that successful rap stars at least sometimes cater to public preferences to make a case for it being not extremely individualistic. Note the word shift to "successful rap musicians" with the critic whereas the professor referred to rap musicians in general.

Before looking at the choices we should try to prephrase the answer as it is likely to be in the ballpark of our estimation. The critic clearly disagrees with the professor's conclusion. But, how does he go about it? Whereas the professor's evidence is about studios and a learning process, the critic's evidence is about styles, themes and catering to audience demand. In fact, the critic does not directly deny any of the professor's premises but rather brings his own set of relevant premises to arrive at a starkly different conclusion. We should expect the answer to capture this technique.

On to the choices:

(A) starts off well by noting how the critic challenges the professor but falls apart afterwards because the critic doesn't address the professor's premises about studios and learning processes

(B) is correct because it notes the critic's disagreement with the professor and accurately describes how the critic introduces new information the professor did not use

(C) gets it wrong because the critic's argument is about rap music only and not also music in general

(D) no because the critic does not address the professor's evidence about learning processes and recording studios

(E) wrong because of same reason as A and D and also because, as has been noted in the prior post, it is about music in general whereas we are looking for something to do with rap music in particular

Hope this helps!

[hyewonkim89]

I kind of saw this question in a much simpler way.

Music Professor
C: Rap music is a nontraditional musical form
P: rap musicians work alone, rap musicians don't accommodate supporting musicians' wishes, and learning to rap is not as formal as learning an instrument.

Music Critic:
C: Rap music is a traditional musical form
P: Rap uses bits of older songs, themes and styles of rap have developed into a tradition, and rap musicians conform their work to the preferences of the public.

(A) I didn't think the music critic was offering any evidence against one of the professor's premises. I at first thought the critic did because he does disagree with the professor by saying that rap musicians actually do conform their work to the preferences of the public rather than not accommodating at all. But it's his argument, not evidence.

(B) it correctly states how the critic is responding to the professor. It does challenge the professor's conclusion, and provides additional observations (using older songs and themes and styles of rap being developed into a tradition).

(C) There was no particular context of rap music in the professor's argument.

(D) This answer was tempting to me while I was under the time pressure. But now I see that there was no alternative explanation in the critic's argument, just additional observations of rap music.

(E) The critic only disagrees with one of the professor's claims/premises, not each of them.

Will an LSAT geek please let me know if I eliminated the wrong answers for the right reasons and if I chose the right answer for the right reason?

Thanks in advance!

[zee.brad]

For ans choice E, I don't think the critic ever disagrees each of the claim, exactly as B stated, critic just simply added additional observations. The only thing critic disagreed is the conclusion.