Hip hop music

Hip-hop or hip hop, also known as rap, and formerly known as disco rap,[7][8] is a genre of popular music that originated in the early 1970s by African Americans and Caribbean immigrants in the Bronx,[9][10][11][12] a borough of New York City.[13][14][15] Hip-hop music originated as an anti-drug and anti-violence genre[16] consisting of stylized rhythmic music (usually built around drum beats) that often accompanies rapping, a rhythmic delivery of poetic speech.[17] According to the professor Asante of African American studies at Temple University, "hip hop is something that blacks can unequivocally claim as their own".[18] The music developed as part of the broader hip hop culture, a subculture defined by four key stylistic elements: MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching with turntables, breakdancing, and graffiti art.[19][20][21] While often used to refer solely to rapping and rap music, "hip hop" more properly denotes the practice of the entire subculture.[22][23] The term hip hop music is sometimes used synonymously with the term rap music,[17][24] though rapping is not a required component of hip hop music; the genre may also incorporate other elements of the culture, including DJing, turntablism, scratching, beatboxing, and instrumental tracks.[25][26]

Hip hop as both a musical genre and a culture was formed during the 1970s when block parties became increasingly popular in New York City, particularly among African American youth residing in the Bronx.[27] At block parties, DJs played percussive breaks of popular songs using two turntables and a DJ mixer to be able to play breaks from two copies of the same record, alternating from one to the other and extending the "break".[28] Hip hop's early evolution occurred as sampling technology and drum machines became widely available and affordable. Turntablist techniques such as scratching and beatmatching developed along with the breaks. Rapping developed as a vocal style in which the artist speaks or chants along rhythmically with an instrumental or synthesized beat.

Hip hop music was not officially recorded to play on radio or television until 1979, largely due to poverty during the genre's birth and lack of acceptance outside ghetto neighborhoods.[29] Old-school hip hop was the first mainstream wave of the genre, marked by its disco influence and party-oriented lyrics. The 1980s marked the diversification of hip hop as the genre developed more complex styles and spread around the world. New-school hip hop was the genre's second wave, marked by its electro sound, and led into golden age hip hop, an innovative period between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s that also developed hip hop's own album era. The gangsta rap subgenre, focused on the violent lifestyles and impoverished conditions of inner-city African American youth, gained popularity at this time. West Coast hip hop was dominated by G-funk in the early-mid 1990s, while East Coast hip hop was dominated by jazz rap, alternative hip hop, and hardcore hip hop. Hip hop continued to diversify at this time with other regional styles emerging, such as Southern rap and Atlanta hip hop. Hip hop became a best-selling genre in the mid-1990s and the top-selling music genre by 1999.

The popularity of hip hop music continued through the late 1990s to early-2000s "bling era" with hip hop influences increasingly finding their way into other genres of popular music, such as neo soul, nu metal, and R&B. The United States also saw the success of regional styles such as crunk, a Southern genre that emphasized the beats and music more than the lyrics, and alternative hip hop began to secure a place in the mainstream, due in part to the crossover success of its artists. During the late 2000s and early 2010s "blog era", rappers were able to build up a following through online methods of music distribution, such as social media and blogs, and mainstream hip hop took on a more melodic, sensitive direction following the commercial decline of gangsta rap. The trap and mumble rap subgenres have become the most popular form of hip hop during the mid-late 2010s and early 2020s. In 2017, rock music was usurped by hip hop as the most popular genre in the United States.[30][31][32]

  1. ^ a b "Hip-Hop's Jazz Roots". Merriam-Urban Jazz. Urban Jazz, Incorporated. Archived from the original on December 16, 2019. Retrieved August 24, 2015.
  2. ^ David Browne (August 11, 2023). "Kool Herc and the History (and Mystery) of Hip-Hop's First Day". Rolling Stone. Retrieved August 25, 2023.
  3. ^ Ruth Blatt (April 10, 2014). "Why Rap Creates Entrepreneurs". Forbes. Retrieved November 25, 2019.
  4. ^ Juana Summers (August 5, 2023). "50 years of hip-hop: A genre born from a backyard party". NPR. Retrieved August 25, 2023.
  5. ^ "Rappers Are Singers Now. Thank Drake". The New York Times. November 24, 2019. Retrieved February 21, 2021.
  6. ^ "Rappers Singing on Their Own Songs for the First Time". XXL Magazine. May 12, 2020. Retrieved February 21, 2021.
  7. ^ Trapp, Erin (July 1, 2005). "The Push and Pull of Hip-Hop: A Social Movement Analysis". American Behavioral Scientist. 48 (11): 1482. doi:10.1177/0002764205277427. S2CID 146340783. Much scholarly effort has been devoted to hip-hop (also known as rap) music in the past two decades...
  8. ^ Leach, Andrew (2008). ""One Day It'll All Make Sense": Hip-Hop and Rap Resources for Music Librarians". Notes. 65 (1): 9–37. doi:10.1353/not.0.0039. ISSN 0027-4380. JSTOR 30163606. S2CID 144572911. Archived from the original on January 28, 2021. Retrieved December 5, 2020.
  9. ^ "Hip hop is born at a birthday party in the Bronx – HISTORY".
  10. ^ "The South Bronx: Where Hip-Hop Was Born". WNYC. Retrieved March 29, 2023.
  11. ^ "Birthplace Of Hip Hop | History Detectives". PBS. Retrieved March 29, 2023.
  12. ^ "Hip-Hop: A Culture of Vision and Voice". The Kennedy Center. Retrieved March 29, 2023.
  13. ^ "Honolulu Star-Bulletin 01 Sep 1988, page 23". Newspapers.com. Retrieved May 7, 2023.
  14. ^ "Chicago Tribune 09 Jun 1985, page 282". Newspapers.com. Retrieved May 7, 2023.
  15. ^ "The Press-Tribune 15 Sep 1988, page 15". Newspapers.com. Retrieved May 7, 2023.
  16. ^ "News-Press 06 Jul 1984, page Page 43". Newspapers.com. Retrieved May 7, 2023.
  17. ^ a b Encyclopædia Britannica article on rap, retrieved from britannica.com Archived August 3, 2011, at the Wayback Machine: Rap, musical style in which rhythmic and/or rhyming speech is chanted ("rapped") to musical accompaniment. This backing music, which can include digital sampling (music and sounds extracted from other recordings by a DJ), is also called hip-hop, the name used to refer to a broader cultural movement that includes rap, deejaying (turntable manipulation), graffiti painting, and break dancing.
  18. ^ "The Boston Globe 27 Jul 1992, page 52". Newspapers.com. Retrieved May 7, 2023.
  19. ^ Kugelberg, Johan (2007). Born in the Bronx. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-7893-1540-3.
  20. ^ Brown, Lauren (February 18, 2009). "Hip to the Game – Dance World vs. Music Industry, The Battle for Hip Hop's Legacy". Movmnt Magazine. Archived from the original on April 3, 2010. Retrieved July 30, 2009.
  21. ^ Chang, Jeff (2005). Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation. New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 90. ISBN 0-312-30143-X.
  22. ^ Harvard Dictionary of Music article for hip hop, retrieved from Google Books Archived January 10, 2016, at the Wayback Machine: While often used to refer to rap music, hip hop more properly denotes the practice of the entire subculture
  23. ^ AllMusic article for Hip-hop/Urban, retrieved from AllMusic.com: Hip-Hop is the catch-all term for rap and the culture it spawned. Archived March 11, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  24. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica article on hip-hop, retrieved from britannica.com Archived May 11, 2011, at the Wayback Machine: Hip-hop, cultural movement that attained widespread popularity in the 1980s and '90s; also, the backing music for rap, the musical style incorporating rhythmic and/or rhyming speech that became the movement's most lasting and influential art form.
  25. ^ "Hip-hop". Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. Retrieved February 5, 2017.
  26. ^ "Hip-hop". Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Retrieved October 6, 2011.
  27. ^ Lamotte, Martin (March 2014). "Rebels Without a Pause: Hip-hop and Resistance in the City: Debates and Developments". International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. 38 (2): 686–694. doi:10.1111/1468-2427.12087.[dead link]
  28. ^ McNamee, David (January 11, 2010). "Hey, what's that sound: Turntablism". The Guardian. Retrieved March 22, 2017.
  29. ^ Dyson, Michael Eric, 2007, Know What I Mean?: Reflections on Hip-Hop, Basic Civitas Books, p. 6.
  30. ^ Berry, Peter A. (July 18, 2017). "Nielsen Says Hip-Hop/R&B Is Now Most Consumed Genre in U.S." XXL Mag. Retrieved November 22, 2021.
  31. ^ Lynch, John. "For the first time in history, hip-hop has surpassed rock to become the most popular music genre, according to Nielsen". Business Insider. Retrieved November 22, 2021.
  32. ^ "Hip hop and R&B surpass rock as biggest U.S. music genre". Reuters. January 4, 2018. Retrieved November 22, 2021.