Hip Hop Evolution Essay

Hip-Hop is a culture of integrating music dance and rapping. The origin of Hip-Hop came from the founding father Dj Kool Herc in the late 1960s and early 1970s (Turner, 2015). The Hip-Hop culture conceptualizes the habits, skills instruments, and arts setting up the expressions in vocalization, dancing, instrumentation and visual art techniques. Therefore, Hip-Hop is a combination of four significant elements graffiti, DJing, dancing, and MCing that incorporate a lifestyle of a continued evolutionary language, mindset, music, and dressing style (Hess, 2010). The original Hip-Hop culture associates with the African-American culture entangled with Jamaican style of life. Herc's introduced and developed a Djing style and chanting over an instrumental portion of the songs to give a credible rhythm and sound giving rise to the new trend of music in rapping.

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In the 1970s the interaction of the African-American youths and immigrants from the Caribbean enriched a multicultural exchange that enhanced to development and growth of the Hip-Hop culture in New York. The newly introduced musical turn did not only see the change in instrumental productions but, including the voice of the youth from marginalized background reflecting on the social, economic and political disenfranchises reality of the lives they were leading in the highly racial society. The breakdancing element emerged in the 1970's too distinct the culture of music from other musical styles. Later in this era, the DJ's came up with a repeated pattern to form the break-beat. The incorporation of the vigorous moves, expression, and body language gave the evolutional of the newly introduced "street" music and graffiti to be associated with street gangs and kids (Persaud, 2011).

The era of the 1980's was the golden age for Hip-Hop because this was when mainstream Hip-Hip music made the introduction of large productions. The emergence of numerous artists and musicians in Hip-Hop culture came from the metropolitan regions of New York. From the emergence of this genre of musical cultural saw the diversification, change of quality, and innovation strategies of Hip-Hop that the previous regime in the 70s. The 80s marked the diversification of the genre developed into complex and sophisticated styles that saw radical spread beyond the United States boundaries. During this period great and notable Hip-Hop artists emerged and made considerable focus in highlighting the violent lifestyles and impoverished situations suffered by the lower class society and the pains of the marginalized minority communities like the Black Americans (Ball, 2013). Critics of this newly introduced genre of musical production associated Hip-Hop with criminal elements and gangsta dominance of back-street life.

In the 1990's Hip-Hop culture diversified and widened its boundaries with the emergence of improvised cultures into the borrowed concepts from the original theme like the Southern rap or the Atlanta Hip-Hop. By mid-1990's Hip-hop became the best-selling genre and later in that era the top-selling genre of popular music. The popularity of hip-hop music increased in the 2000's with commendable slots in the top American musical chart shows and mainstream pop. As time passed by, hip-hop music flourished and the diversification of the hip-hop culture took up great elements in the complex elements of social and political concerns of the American society (Hess, 2010). In this era, rap element in hip-hop music and culture gave the young urban Americans from minority groups and background an avenue to voice their mind freely without fear of intimidation. This type of music and way of expression grew very popular with the ghetto life as it did not require a lot of investment of training since it was a familiar way of expression and liberation of their feelings. The attachment emanating from the hip-hop genre saw the musical production win tremendously in the wider boundaries beyond the New York source. The rich borrowed Caribbean culture made the genre take on better stages in the Caribbean countries (Kataz, 2012).

In the modern age, hip-hop music and culture shifted from the voicing element and purpose it was potentially perceived for to mainstream part of everyday life. The genre has reached the global cultural corridors and has received absolute acceptance with globalized culture. In the recent years after the 2000's era hip-hop, culture takes on deeper roots to reach a global movement of an artistic style of transnational dimensions. Hip-hop has evolved into the commercialization of acceptable forms of social and political representation on universal perception. In the modern age, Hip-hop is no longer associated with back street life but is taking a new dimension as a vigorous expression of individualized perception of general ideologies. Today's Hip hip movement strongly integrated the four elements of its original culture graffiti, Djing, Mcing and break dancing to shape the incorporated elements of social living (Kruse, 2016).

Conclusion

In conclusion, Hip-hop has grown from a back street culture that was highly associated with marginalized youths in the pathetic conditions in the streets of New York since the 1970's. However, its growth and evolutional stages have seen the hip-hop culture take on significant positions in the mainstream American music industry and to the global perspective. The evolution has not only integrated hit production but strengthened the four initial elements that have all along made a difference in music.

References

Ball, Jared A. (2013). Hip-Hop Fight Club: Radical Theory, Education, and Practice in and Beyond the Classroom. Radical Teacher. Retrieved on 13th June 2018 from http://radicalteacher.library.pitty.edu.

Hess, Mickey, ed (2010). Hip Hop in America: A Regional Guide. Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood Press.

Kataz, Mark. (2012). Groove Music. The Art and Culture of the Hip-Hop DJ. OUP.

Kruse, Adam J. (2016). Being Hip-Hop: Beyond Skills and Songs. Urbana, IL: General Music Today, 30(1), 53 - 58. https://doi.org/10.1177/1048371316658931Persaud, E. Jerry (2011). The Signature of Hip-Hop: A Sociological Perspective. International Journal of Criminology and Sociological Theory, 4 (1), 626 - 647.

Turner, Mitchell (July 15, 2015). Hip Hop and Homophobia: An Ingrained Ignorance. Howls & Echoes. Howls & Echoes. Retrieved June 13, 2018.