The connotation of “Hip-Hop” has changed drastically over the years. When people hear it nowadays, the first thing that comes to their head is rapping, profanity, drugs, violence, dancing, etc. Except, you cannot argue that it’s all those things, not when it originated anyways. Hip-Hop is a culture, a culture whose beauty has been forgotten by our world today. When hip hop originated, it was defined as "a set of expressions in vocalization, instrumentation, dancing and the visual arts."(Herc) In more detail, hip hop is made up of the elements graffiti, break dancing, djing and mcing (now called rapping). Hip hop creates a lifestyle with its own music form, language, and way of dressing. Most importantly, hip hop establishes a mindset that 's
In the past few decades, as Hip hop culture as evolved, it has started having lots of influence in our society. Major artists now days can control their audiences to some extent and some people argue that this is leading to higher crime and violence rates. However, it is important to acknowledge how hip hop is benefiting our society. Songs have much deeper lyrical meanings than people realize, it’s not all drugs, crime, and violence. Hip Hop connects our youth and gives them a sense of belonging and opens many doors for them in today’s society. The good definitely outweighs the bad.
To understand the changes that Hip Hop culture has overcome and how it functions in our society, it is important to understand the origin and background of Hip Hop. A key man who is given much credit is DJ Kool Herc, who with the help of a few other people, gave life to the Hip-Hop culture in the south Bronx. In 1965, Herc relocated from Jamaica to an area in New York known as the Western Bronx. Herc 's original style incorporated a lot of Jamaican style, but hadn’t yet been introduced to much reggae. Later, he
In the 1970 's, this form of dance was started in the Bronx. Any song that people listen to today can be stripped down to a simple pattern that is repeating, this is what gives rhythm. DJ’s repeated these patterns over and over and then a beat emerged that could be danced to. This is known as a breakbeat (nowadays it is becoming another genre of music). “Break dancing” gets its name from this very concept; the breakbeat gives dancers a steady rhythm to move to. Unlike any other dance performance that is done on a street, break dancing is quite different. Break dancing is a way to express your character by performing various types of moves. This type of dance was not done solo when it originated but it has evolved as more people have gained interest in it. Typically, a first dancer would made a move by performing a segment of their dance, the next dancer would comprehend that move and reply to it in a creative manner. Just like graffiti, this type of dance was very unique to everyone to participated in it. When break dancing originated, the aim was to be quick and determined. The first ones who started participating in this form of dance were the youth and people in street gangs. It became more widespread later but the kids and people within their gangs used this form to “battle” each other. This dancing acted as a substitute for physical violence back in the 1970s. Nowadays, we know these by the name
Breakdancing was born as a result of the song “Get on the Good Foot” by James Brown when it was featured on television. People would attempt to copy his moves in their living rooms. Clive Campbell, or more famously known as DJ Kool Herc, is credited with evolving breakdancing. Breakdancing started with fancy footwork and intricate tricks such as head spinning. Breakdancing became popular in dance and disco clubs. As breakdancing further evolved, there was the addition of groundwork with moves like handgliding, windmilling, and headspinning. This addition of groundwork helped shape what we know breakdancing to be today (Bedinghaus).
The hip hop culture began in the suburbs of New York over 30 years ago and has gone through drastic changes over this time. Hip Hop contains four different elements including: graffiti, rap, disc jockey and break-dancing. In the 1970’s, musical artists began to express themselves like Kool DJ Herc. Rap music began to spread through the urban neighborhoods of New York City and people used a new form of expression that gave a chance to sing about anything.
Hip-hop can demolish citizen. For instance violence in some songs cause the youth to starts fights and also kill citizens. On the other hand, gangs and street thugs are a few examples. However teenagers kills, steals, vandalize, and etc. Therefore, hip hop has produce an negative impact in the world today. It has promoted an unhealthy lifestyle. This is due to attitudes and behaviors of American Youth. In addition, it teaches African American youth to use profanity. Furthermore, american youth does not have no role model when listening to hip-hop.
Hip-hop music is a popular type of music admired highly across the globe for its famous style, art and mode of expression. This highly admired music genre can include love, broken families, racism, hard times, sexism and adversity as its main theme. It has the power of evoking a different kind of mirth and sentiment in you. When it is sung at its full peach with a DJ, the listeners become ecstatic. If you are music lover or fond of pop song, you are sure to reach a different kind of state- a state of forgetfulness that is far ahead of the common ebullience of life and rustic mirth.
Notably, hip-hop is the culture from which rap music emerged. According to Keyes, rap music is a musical form that makes use of rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular, which is recited or sung over a musical soundtrack (Rap Music and Street Consciousness, 1). Rap is a combination of MCing and DJing, which are two of hip-hop’s four
"I think the element of hip-hop left when rap music started being created on a slow tempo...It just stayed there for years. Right now, a lot of rap music today is being created at very low tempos. There 's no more of that 'wave your hands in the air like you just don 't care ' - you know, something that makes you want to get out there and breakdance...Rap music has lost that element right now, mainly over in America. There’s not too many great hip-hop records out there, but there are some great rap records.” (“The Difference Between Rap & Hip-Hop,”
Hip-Hop is a cultural movement that emerged from the dilapidated South Bronx, New York in the early 1970’s. The area’s mostly African American and Puerto Rican residents originated this uniquely American musical genre and culture that over the past four decades has developed into a global sensation impacting the formation of youth culture around the world. The South Bronx was a whirlpool of political, social, and economic upheaval in the years leading up to the inception of Hip-Hop. The early part of the 1970’s found many African American and Hispanic communities desperately seeking relief from the poverty, drug, and crime epidemics engulfing the gang dominated neighborhoods. Hip-Hop proved to be successful as both a creative outlet for expressing the struggles of life amidst the prevailing crime and violence as well as an enjoyable and cheap form of recreation.
“When done correctly, there may not be another genre in all of music with more substance within its texture.” This line was said by Colin McGuire, a blogger who wrote a blog on his Top 10 Lyricists in the history of hip-hop. Lyricists? Isn’t hip-hop that music genre where rappers talk bout fast cars, women and money over energetic, bass-heavy beats? The average listener may ask this. Hip-hop lyrics are widely misunderstood because people aren’t educated on the genre, some people are prejudice and it’s just “black” music to them, and the radio only plays the energetic, bass-heavy party songs.
“Call and response” is also utilized, which is when the DJ and the dancers will communicate in order to maintain a certain hip hop flow, and to encourage audience enthusiasm. The moves, along with the music works together to emphasize the rapid rhythm breaks. The dancers perform moves that involve flips, upside down movement, and spinning, along with “drops” that were smooth transitions to “front swipes, back swipes, dips, and corkscrews”.” One dancer even performs a “chair freeze” which was originally one of the most popular break dancing moves, and is when the arms and upper body support the body while the legs and lower half of the body are free flowing (Forman & Neal, 2012, pg. 58). These moves require much momentum and balance, which according to popular b-boy Ken Swift, is an essential aspect to this hip hop movement (Forman & Neal, 2012, pg. 59). In both films, b-boying or breakdancing is a way to resolve some type of conflict or competition due to being able to “attack without mercy yet still see their opponents as distinct and valuable human beings” and avoid any unnecessary violence that already occurs in drastic rates within inner city neighborhoods (Chang, 2006, pg.
Hip hop culture has been around since the 1970s. Multiple sources all come down to the South Bronx in New York City, as the origin of hip hop culture. The culture began to take its shape within the African American, Afro-Caribbean, and Latino communities. The father of the start of this culture was a Jamaican-born DJ named Clive Campbell but also known as DJ Kool Herc. He brought forth a new sound system and the Jamaican style of “toasting.” Toasting was when Jamaicans would talk or rap over the music they played. This whole new style soon brought what is now known as DJs, B-Boys, MC’s, and graffiti artists (Kaminski).
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.
So for eight months I’ve been learning the skills of hip hop and breakdancing by going to at a hip hop club at every week where I learned the basic skills of breaking like how to top-rock and six-step. B-boying is a form of hip hop dancing which is popularly known as breaking. It consists of top or up rock, footwork, spinning moves (power moves), and freeze. B-boying came from Bronx, NY. The term "B-boy" or "B-boying" was created by Kool Herc who was a DJ spinning at block parties in Bronx back in the days. B-Boys means break boys and they were called so because they dance to the break part of music. Later, by repeating this break part done by DJ, "breakbeats" was born. Although people tend to pick up only power moves, real b-boys should master the all elements of b-boying. There are controversy between people who emphasize on style and power moves. One puts his emphasis on power moves and their combination and the other shows their style and individuality by footwork and freeze. Rock Steady Crew has been the one who emphasizes styles to show dancer's individual flavor. Even though power moves have a great impact and very energetic, it is hard to put individual flavor...
In order to comprehend hip hop, one must first know the definition and its importance as a component of black culture. Hip hop culture is rap, rap a musical
Hip Hop is defined as: “subculture especially of inner-city youths who are typically devotees of Rap music, graffiti, break dancing, and DJing”. If one asks a fan of Hip Hop what the definition is to them, then one might get something deeper. Some fans define Hip Hop as a culture that consist of many of its own subculture and its knowledge of the history and principles of Hip Hop. Hip Hop can also be defined as an expression of the relationship between urban ...
What is hip-hop? Assuming that you address hip-hop fans, the term alludes to more than simply a musical type - it incorporates an entire society, including dance structures, graffiti symbolization, and fashion (Selke INT). Hip-hop music is portrayed by an entertainer rapping over a track that regularly comprises of loops or specimens of other music woven together (Selke INT). Hip-hop appeared originally in the Bronx around the 1970s and steadily turned into the predominant mainstream music structure by the 1990s, representing a multi- billion dollar industry today (Selke INT).