Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The evolution of hip hop and how it effects culture
History of hip hop dance Essay
Culture influences on hip hop
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: The evolution of hip hop and how it effects culture
Hip hop dance was important to African American culture because it allowed them to create their own culture, their own music their own style. When watching Flex is Kings, there are many young men in a video demonstrating what hip hop dance culture has evolved to in the 21st century. They are a contemporary urban dance movement. One can see the emotion and the “seriousness” in their movements. Hip hop dance is these people’s lives’(“Flex Is Kings”). Flex is a type of street dance, sometimes is called “bone breaking” due to their moves looking like a person either has no bones or that they are literally breaking them to create the skin cringing dances they create(“Flexing”). Dancers such as Storyboard P have mastered the art of flexing. He mentions in one of his interviews that when dancing one is revealing who they are (“Storyboard P”). African American people lean on this particular art form to elaborate how, as a race we have been able to display our culture to mainstream America. Mainstream is basically a majority of people (Mainstream). Hip hop, however, has transformed into mainstream culture, therefore losing itself. "Black culture, which has a long tradition of struggling against (and at the same time, working in close collaboration with) the dominant white culture, has rounded the corner of the 21st century with what looks in one sense like an unequivocal victory. Young America now embraces hip-hop as the signal pop-music genre of its time. So why does that victory feel strange: not exactly hollow, but a little haunted?" (“When the People Cheer”). As hip hop itself has begun to change so has the form of dance. Hip hop dance now has a mixture of what the Flex kings do in their videos and dances such as the popular dance “N... ... middle of paper ... ...tp://www.biography.com/people/josephine-baker-9195959?page=2>. Josephine Baker: The Activist Entertainer. Perf. Josephine Baker. Josephine Baker: The Activist Entertainer. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Apr. 2014. . "The Official Josephine Baker Website." The Official Josephine Baker Website. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Apr. 2014. . "- Slave Rebellion.org." - SlaveRebellion.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Apr. 2014. . "THE SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF RAP & HIP-HOP CULTURE." THE SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF RAP & HIP-HOP CULTURE. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Apr. 2014. .
She had hard time with her husband. When she was thirteen she was married to Willy Wells. They stayed together for two months, but Josephine never saw Willy as a significant partner as she once broke a bottle of beer on his head. She tried to forget this marriage. Fortunately, when she was fifteen years old, she married to another man who named is Billy Baker. Billy liked her when he saw her at the local theater. Then they got married, and she was happy that she was able to change her last name into Baker. For the first time, she no longer gets the insecure feeling from her last name. However, she still hasn’t got the perfect “personal life”. Billy’s mother disapproved of Josephine because her skin was darker than her husband’s and because she was a chorus girl with apparently no family to talk
Lewis, Jone J. "Josephine Baker." About.com Women's History. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Dec. 2013. .
Josephine Baker was an exceptional woman who never depended on a man. She never hesitated to leave a man when she felt good and ready. In her lifetime she accomplished many great things. She adopted 12 children, served France during World War II, and was an honorable correspondent for the French Resistance. She fought against fascism in Europe during World War II and racism in the United States. She grew up poor and left home at an early age and worked her way onto the stage. Baker was more popular in France than in the states. Audiences in America were racist towards Baker and that’s when she vowed she wouldn’t perform in a place that wasn’t integrated.
The movie Lady Day: The Many Faces Of Billie Holiday paints an interesting, and thought provoking portrait of one of jazz and blues most charismatic, and influential artists. The incomparable talent of Billie Holiday, both truth and legend are immortalized in this one-hour documentary film. The film follows Holiday, also referred to as “Lady Day” or “Lady”, through the many triumphs and trials of her career, and does it’s very best to separate the facts from fiction. Her autobiography Lady Sings The Blues is used as a rough guide of how she desired her life story to be viewed by her public. Those who knew her, worked with her, and loved her paint a different picture than this popular, and mostly fictional autobiography.
Born Josephine Freda McDonald on June 3, 1906, Josephine Baker was the product of a "footloose merchant of whom the family saw little, and a mother [who] supported herself and the children in a slum hovel by taking in laundry." #
Her family ties to the south, her unique talent, her ability to travel and make money are similar to the Blues women movement that preceded her. It can be said that Nina Simone goes a step further the by directly attacking inequities pertaining to race and gender in her music. However, what distinguishes her is her unique musicianship and that is what ultimately garners her massive exposure and experiences than those of her past contemporaries. Like the Blues women Simone expands ideas pertaining to self-expression, identity and beauty as they relate to black women. She does this by embracing what is definitively African American and connecting that to a historical context. By doing so she is the embodiment of a political statement. Her journey which began like many entertaine...
Available: http://www.africana.com/Articles/tt_036.htm - A basic biography of Josephine Baker’s life, but from the African American point of view.
To commerate Black History Month, I have decided to do reasearch on an exceptionally talented musician Ella Fitzgerald. She was essentially the Aretha Franklin of the Jazz Age. She was an incredibly talented jazz singer who was considered the best by almost everyone. The reason she’s been chosen as today’s Black History Month is because she holds the distinction of being the first Grammy Award Winner who was both Black and female. Ella Fitzgerald had an everlasting impact on, not only how jazz music sounded, but also who performed it. When looking at a compulsive life as Ella’s, I was inspired by the huge impact she brought throught out music; especially jazz.
Since the early to mid 90’s, hip-hop has undergone changes that purists would consider degenerating to its culture. At the root of these changes is what has been called “commercial hip-hop". Commercial hip-hop has deteriorated what so many emcees in the 80’s tried to build- a culture of music, dance, creativity, and artistry that would give people not only something to bob their head to, but also an avenue to express themselves and deliver a positive message to their surroundings.
Ella Fitzgerald has come to herself multiple nicknames on account of her amazing voice. For example, she has been called to “First Lady of Song” (“Ella Fitzgerald”) and “The Queen of Jazz”) “(10 Interesting Ella Fitzgerald Facts”). She was also famous for being a master of dance. Ella has been given these names and credits of fame do with her talent. No one could scat like her. In fact, she made a wide spread of Jazz and scat music (“Ella Fitzgerald was the master of scat singing”). After all, Scat singing was Ella’s trade mark.
I’m Freda Josephine Baker born to Carrie McDonald and Eddie Carson on June 3rd, 1906, in St. Louis, Missouri, but most of you may know me as Josephine Baker. At the age of 12 I dropped out of school to become an entertainer, yes yes, I remember it like it was yesterday, I was young and ready to become a star. I grew up cleaning houses and babysitting for white families, and they always reminded me “be sure not to kiss the baby”. When I was 13, I got a waitressing job at the Chauffeur’s Club, which was where I met my first husband, our marriage was very brief; I had never hesitated to leave anyone, never depended on any man for anything, that’s for sure.
In fact, the way Japan molds their hip-hop culture should not be a surprise to us because hip-hop is a part of culture. Culture is rooted in the nature of humanity, and the essence of human nature is to be different, diverse, and malleable. Due to the plasticity of human nature, the cultural medium of hip-hop is manufactured and sculpted into a masterpiece, musical and lyrical, that transcends across borders.
Hip-hop, which originally began more than 20 years ago, has undergone many changes during its lifetime. The music has always remained centered in urban landscapes, with most performers of the music rising up from the inner-city neighborhoods. Throughout its history, hip-hop has centered on the rhythm of the beat rather than the melody, which shows the connection between modern hip-hop and traditional African tribal music, often featuring complex polyrhythms and little to no melody. Hip-hop has also featured heavy bass sounds through out its history, with the rhythms hitting the second and fourth beat of each measure hard with either a heavy bass drum or a bass guitar. Hip-hop beats have evolved in many different ways throughout their twenty-year history, yet they are all centered around rhythm and feature heavy, syncopated bass.
Hip hop has permeated popular culture in an unprecedented fashion. Because of its crossover appeal, it is a great unifier of diverse populations. Although created by black youth on the streets, hip hop's influence has become well received by a number of different races in this country. A large number of the rap and hip hop audience is non-black. It has gone from the fringes, to the suburbs, and into the corporate boardrooms. Because it has become the fastest growing music genre in the U.S., companies and corporate giants have used its appeal to capitalize on it. Although critics of rap music and hip hop seem to be fixated on the messages of sex, violence, and harsh language, this genre offers a new paradigm of what can be (Lewis, 1998.) The potential of this art form to mend ethnic relations is substantial. Hip hop has challenged the system in ways that have unified individuals across a rich ethnic spectrum. This art form was once considered a fad has kept going strong for more than three decades. Generations consisting of Blacks, Whites, Latinos, and Asians have grown up immersed in hip-hop. Hip hop represents a realignment of America?s cultural aesthetics. Rap songs deliver a message, again and again, to keep it real. It has influenced young people of all races to search for excitement, artistic fulfillment, and a sense of identity by exploring the black underclass (Foreman, 2002). Though it is music, many people do not realize that it is much more than that. Hip hop is a form of art and culture, style, and language, and extension of commerce, and for many, a natural means of living. The purpose of this paper is to examine hip hop and its effect on American culture. Different aspects of hip hop will also be examined to shed some light that helps readers to what hip hop actually is. In order to see hip hop as a cultural influence we need to take a look at its history.
Dance is a way of expressing once true feelings and problems in the world. One type of dance is hip hop, it originated in the early 1970s as a cultural movement by African Americans and Latino youths on the South Bronx of New York City. The hip hop cultural movement was represented into four different ideas: rap music, Djing, b-boying, and graffiti art. Hip hop was a way of responding to racial barriers and the end of civil rights movement. So, it began with DJ Kool Herc who started Djing and brought in all the crowds and dancers. Thus he became the father of hip hop. Along with DJ Afrika Bambaataa they expanded the hip hop culture and created the Zulu Nation. The Zulu Nation helped teens get out of the violence and gangs. Breakdancing was