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The influence of Hip Hop culture on society
Cultural influence of hip hop
The influence of Hip Hop culture on society
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Art gives the world a foundation in which every human being can express themselves. Music is one art form that can be interpreted to create a better relationship with one another. To be more specific, hip hop has created a mass movement throughout the world ranging from preteens to adults. Recently it has had an immense impact on our society, many believe it is a negative influence that affects our culture. Generally, hip hop has a bad reputation and is not seen as music to the public with its vulgar, violent and sexist lyrics. It has been the scapegoat of our underlying problems in our society by the media. The constant resentment to rappers in the mainstream media demonstrates how prejudice our society has come to this form of poetry. Despite what cynics say, hip hop has positive influences. There are many hip hop songs that raise awareness to the poverty of the lower class, crime and sends a positive message to it listeners.
Hip hop originated in South Bronx, New York in the 1973 by Jamaican DJ, Clive Campbell who is famously known as DJ Kool Herc who took two samples of the same record and broke up the beats and rhythms and played them separately on his “Jamaican turntable techniques” (Swanson). Once Campbell's beats starting playing, his friends would voice out rhymes which started a culture in its self. In South Bronx, majority of its residents were working class African Americans and Hispanics living in poverty “who invented a new form of music that both expressed and shaped the culture of New York City youth in the 1970‘s” (Blanchard). The use of spoken word gave a new meaning to the beats that were produced by DJs giving the youth an outlet in telling their stories of their everyday struggle. It gave them a voice in a p...
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...on theme of following ones dreams and hoping for a better future for themselves and their communities.
Works Cited
Blanchard, Becky. The Social Significance of Rap & Hip Hop Culture. N.p., 26 July 1999. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. .
Chang, Jeff. Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation. N.p.: Macmillan, 2005. Print.
Chang, Jeff. It's A Hip Hop World. N.p., 11 Oct. 2007. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. .
Swanson, Abbie F. The South Bronx: Where Hip-Hop Was Born. N.p., 2 Aug. 2010. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. .
Universal Zulu Nation. The Music World of Afrika Bambaataa. Universal Zulu Nation, 2012. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. .
Watkins, S. Craig. 2005. Hip hop matters: politics, pop culture, and the struggle for the soul of a movement. Boston: Beacon Press.
Hip-Hop became characterized by an aggressive tone marked by graphic descriptions of the harshness and diversity of inner-city life. Primarily a medium of popular entertainment, hip-hop also conveys the more serious voices of youth in the black community. Though the approaches of rappers became more varied in the latter half of the 1980s, message hip-hop remained a viable form for addressing the problems faced by the black community and means to solve those problems. The voices of "message" hip...
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.
George covers much familiar ground: how B-beats became hip hop; how technology changed popular music, which helped to create new technologies; how professional basketball was influenced by hip hop styles; how gangsta rap emerged out of the crack epidemic of the 1980s; how many elements of hip hop culture managed to celebrate, and/or condemn black-on-black violence; how that black-on-black violence was somewhat encouraged by white people scheming on black males to show their foolishness, which often created a huge mess; and finally, how hip hop used and continues to use its art to express black frustration and ambition to blacks while, at the same time, refering that frustration and ambition to millions of whites.
Hip hop is both a culture and a lifestyle. As a musical genre it is characterized by its hard hitting beats and rhythms and expressive spoken word lyrics that address topics ranging from economic disparity and inequality, to gun violence and gang affiliated activity. Though the genre emerged with greater popularity in the 1970’s, the musical elements involved and utilized have been around for many years. In this paper, we will cover the history and
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.
Blair, M Elizabeth. "Commercialization of the Rap Music Youth Subculture." Rpt. in That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader. Ed. Murray Forman and Mark Anthony Neal. New York, NY: Routledge, 2004. 497-504. Print.
These articles depict the controversies of the hip hop industry and how that makes it difficult for one to succeed. Many of these complications and disputes may be invisible to the population, but these articles take the time to reveal them.
Forman, Murray. “Conscious Hip-Hop, Change, and the Obama Era.” American Study Journal. American Study Journal. 2010. Web. 9 Mar. 2014.
Hip hop has multiple branches of style and is a culture of these. This essay will examine Hip Hop from the point of view of the following three popular music scholars, Johnson, Jeffries, and Smitherman. It will delve deeper into their understanding of what hip hop is and its relation to the different people that identify with its message and content. It will also identify the history of hip hop and its transition into popular music. In particular, this essay will focus on what hip hop represents in the black community and how it can be used as a social movement against inequalities faced by them.
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.
Some weaknesses of James McBride’s “Hip Hop Planet” include its cynical tone and his attitude towards the musical side of Hip Hop. McBride opens the essay with a reflection on what his ultimate nightmare is. He showcases the Hip Hop community in a negative light with phrases like, “music that doesn’t seem to be music—rules the world” (McBride, pg. 1). This starts the essay off negatively because it misleads the reader by letting them think he is not a supporter of the Hip Hop movement. As you read the entire essay you realize this is not the case. The article itself isn’t very inviting because tone of the entire essay is very cold and cynical. He also doesn’t agree with the typical Hip Hop sound saying things like, “It sounded like a broken record” (McBride, pg. 1). The sound of Hip Hop music is what helps define it and is a crucial aspect of
In Total Chaos, Jeff Chang references Harry Allen, a hip hop critic and self-proclaimed hip hop activist. Harry Allen compares the hip hop movement to the Big Bang and poses this complex question: “whether hip-hop is, in fact a closed universe-bound to recollapse, ultimately, in a fireball akin to its birth-or an open one, destined to expand forever, until it is cold, dark, and dead” (9). An often heard phase, “hip hop is dead,” refers to the high occurrence of gangster rap in mainstream hip hop. Today’s hip hop regularly features black youths posturing as rich thugs and indulging in expensive merchandise. The “hip hop is dead” perspective is based on the belief that hip hop was destined to become the model of youth resistance and social change. However, its political ambitions have yet to emerge, thus giving rise to hip hops’ criticisms. This essay will examine the past and present of hip hop in o...
"40 Years on from the Party Where Hip Hop Was Born." BBC Culture. N.p., 9 Aug. 2013. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
Not only is hip-hop a way of expressing ones feelings or views, but it is a part of the urban culture and can be used as a communication tool. Slang originally came from hip-hop music and has become a very popular use in today’s society, especially the urban parts. Hip-hop is a standout amongst the most compelling musical sorts on the globe. There are rappers everywhere that know what amount of an impact their music can have. Some entertainers attempt to utilize that force of impact to do great (Ruiz INT).