The Evolution of Hip-Hop Culture: Music, Fashion, and Art

When you hear the term hip-hop, does the image of rap synonym come to your mind? Or is it also the fashion, dance, and art in total? Well, Hip-hop is much more than just a music genre, it is a whole cultural movement that began in the 1970s in New York City and has spread around the world since. The evolution of this movement has been shaped by different factors of society, economy, and culture that created a profound impact on popular, mainstream music as well as general youth culture.

The old school Hip-hop: Its origin

Hip-hop the term itself refers to a complex culture, comprising different artistic elements; mainly rapping which is also known as rhyming or MCing, DJing or also known as turntabling, B-boying which is the dance style of hip-hop, and graffiti which is also known as writing or graf. According to philosopher Cornel West, the cultural movement also comprises a fifth element, a sort of masculine body language that he described as "postural semantics". The place of origin for Hip-hop is New York City's economically depressed South Bronx where in the late 1970s this movement emerged. Originating in a predominantly African-American community, it soon caught the eye of the world and became one of the most popular cultures around the globe.

Graffiti and breakdancing are the aspects of the culture that first caught the public eye. By the time of 1975, youths in the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn were going into train yards undercover to spray paint their names, comics, and scenes of the underground. Hip-hop crews, which were groups of DJs, break-dancers, and rappers, started to form in different parts of the city before spreading around the country, and then the world. It was also the time when Hip-hop started getting recognition in the mainstream media as well.

The start of Hip-hop music

When we talk about the debut of hip-hop music, it does not have a specific year or time. However, we might credit the beginning of this music genre to a particular address in some form; it is 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, the Bronx, New York. Here on the fateful day of 11 August 1973, a young talented musician named DJ Kool Herc debuted who then came to be one of the foundations of the culture and, especially the musical movement. His performance began from an attempt to draw out the percussive 'breaks' in some of the popular funk and soul records. This soon became a performance with two turntables that pleased the dance-hungry crowds to another level.

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Along with Herc, other talented DJs Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaataa, and Grand Wizard Theodore also began isolating and extending the breakbeats which is a particular part of a dance record where all sounds apart from the drums drop out. This stimulated improvisational dance routines and contests started developing to find the best breakdancers. This is how breakdancing was born which included gravity-defying headspins and backspins, occasional airborne moves, and mainly acrobatic moves.

The Golden Age of Hip-hop

It was during the mid-1980s and early 1990s when Hip-hop spread all over the country, in its full force and brought a significant improvement in hip-hop culture. This is why this era is known as the golden age of hip-hop which saw mass influence, diversity, artistic innovation, and most importantly mainstream success.

It was during this time that record labels started recognizing this genre as an emerging trend, making them invest in the movement. Several independent labels like Tommy Boy, Prism Records, and Def Jam became extremely successful in this period due to the mainstream success of hip-hop. As the culture popularized, different styles and new scenes started to emerge from different cities across the country. Even though hip-hop was still mostly experimental, these new-age producers started using new and more advanced drum machines and samplers that helped them take the genre to the next level. One of the most significant characteristics of hip hop's golden age was its heavy usage of samples, which was not limited to music or previous songs.

Different types of rap music

It was in the golden era that the music genre became diversified. New styles of rap music started to emerge such as old-school and new-school rap. The main difference between these two was that old school had simpler beats along with more traditional rhymes, whereas new school hip-hop or rap contained more complex beats and more experimental rhyme patterns. It was in the late 1980s when the hip-hop genre started to incorporate elements from other music genres such as rock, funk, and reggae.

It was also the time when a new subgenre of rap music, "gangsta rap" emerged which was focused on themes of crime, violence, and poverty. In the beginning, this new subgenre gained a lot of criticism and faced a lot of negative reactions as it depicted violence and negative stereotypes. However, this also gained a wide following, created a large impact, and gained mainstream popularity in the following time.

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Mainstream success

Hip-hop soon in a span of mere decades became one of the most popular and influential cultures in the world. The music became even more commercial and by the late 1900s, it became the top-selling music genre. Different regional styles such as West Coast hip hop, gangster rap, Southern rap, rap rock, etc. emerged with a lot of new artists like N.W.A., Dr. Dre, Tupac Shakur, Snoop Dog, the Notorious B.I.G., Nas, Jay-Z, etc.

This cultural movement has seen several developments and changes since its inception in the late 1970s. What began as a local movement soon became something that is cherished and followed by the whole world.