Youth Culture, Hip-Hop

Throughout the Past 25 years, a new form of expression, hip-hop, has continually evolved despite the efforts of many in so-called mainstream culture to minimize its influence on young people. Hip-hop is a form of expression that was once limited to urban music and dance but has now become a widespread form of communication and expression by young people throughout the world. Hip-Hop is no longer limited to rap music and break dancing; today, it represents a multi-billion-dollar industry that influences everything from automotive design and fashion to prime-time television programming, collegiate and professional sports, mass media marketing, and Madison Avenue advertising. Today hip-hop is, for many, a way of life, a culture that is intricately woven into every aspect of their daily lives.

In contemplating this phenomenon and making an effort to understand its foundation and the premises that compose the root of hip-hop ideology, it is important to remember that this developing culture has similarities to other cultures that have emerged throughout history. Hip-hop was initially born of the ability of those early practitioners of rap music, DJ wizardry, and street corner fashion creation to overcome their inability to gain acceptance and recognition by the established music, fashion, and entertainment industries.

Further galvanizing the fledgling culture was the absence in the adult culture of recognition that these newly emerging forms of expression were legitimate. This lack of acceptance may have been particularly true among parents. Many parents and other authority figures did not understand hip-hop and admonished young people when they embraced it—merely compelling them to further immerse themselves in this newly developing culture.

Hip-hop, like rock ‘n’ roll before it, is not only a genre of music but also a complex system of ideas, values, and concepts that reflect newly emerging and ever-changing creative and expressive manifestations, including but not limited to song, poetry, film, and fashion. In the early days of its inception, hip-hop was primarily related to the rhyming, rhythmic, spokenword art form known as rapping. Rapping as an art form is, in fact, not a new method of creative expression, but the ease with which young people found they were able to participate in this form of creativity seems to have facilitated the phenomenal growth of this genre of music and its expression.

Review of rap music lyrics and stylings from the early to mid-1970s, when hip-hop began, reveals several aspects of the musical genre that appear to have had significant appeal to young people, particularly those in urban communities. It should be noted that there has never been one all-inclusive form of rap music. To the contrary, the ranges of rap are broad and far-reaching, and they typically reflect ideas, styling, and techniques unique to specific demographic areas, geographic regions, and territories or locales. The following describe some of the trends in early rap music:

• Simple yet dominant percussive patterns.
• Limited reliance on traditional musical systems of chord, verse, chorus, and other formal and/or traditional methods of Western musical structure.
• Nontraditional use of musical instruments, including the human voice. For example, the technique known as “beat boxing,” where a person imitates the sounds of percussive instruments, is a key feature of rap. An innovation of hip-hop is the technique known as “scratching,” where the DJ drags the stylus of the needle across a phonographic record on a turntable to create unique sounds and rhythmic patterns.
• Use of rapping as a method of declaring pride in one's community. Rapping served as a method of competition, whereby rappers could display their skills as well as defend their neighborhoods or communities. Created during the early [Page 1172]days of rap, this method is commonly referred to as “battling.”
• Early rap relied heavily on lyrical compositions that expressed the joy of immersing oneself in the music, dancing, and partying and competing in the various forms of musical expression, particularly rapping, scratching, and break dancing.
• Spontaneous rapping (delivery of rhythmic lyrical compositions) known as “freestyling” characterized many competitions between rappers, occurring in sites as diverse as school corridors and grounds, street corners, and large promoted demonstrations. The presence of rapping across such sites has remained a mainstay of hip-hop culture.

It is interesting to note that rap music was widely ignored by the music industry until approximately the mid-1980s. Even MTV, the groundbreaking cable television music station, avoided rap music and hiphop during their infancy. However, when rap music became more violent and volatile, the music industry seemed to become interested in the business possibilities the genre represented.

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