Genre Geneology

SPECIAL ISSUE

Genre geneology A look into the history of music genres and the subcultures that formed around them More on p. 1

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01–Jazz

03–Funk

02–Blues 04–Punk

It seems that genres are constantly dividing, becoming more specific, more intricate with the sounds and the bands that define them. Some artists even take pride in their genre-ambiguity, not fitting into any one particular category.

However, these eight genres have a rich history that all music unarguably is rooted in. Their prominence defined sound, trends, fashion, and overall culture during the time of each of their reigns.

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05–New Wave

07–Jazz

06–Electronic

08–Hip Hop

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01 CHARLES MINGUS 1970

INSTRUMENTAL CONVERSATIONS Jazz is a music genre that originated in African American communities of New Orleans, United States, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and developed from roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has become a prominent form of expression.

INFLUENCES It then emerged in the form of independent traditional and popular musical styles, all linked by the common bonds of African American and European American musical parentage with a performance orientation.

[3] Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, call and response vocals, polyrhythms and improvisation. Jazz has roots in West African cultural and musical expression, and in African-American music traditions including blues and ragtime, as well as European military band music.[4] Although the foundation of jazz is deeply rooted within the black experience of the United States, different cultures have contributed their own experience and styles to the art form as well. Intellectuals around the world have hailed jazz as “one of America’s original art forms”.As jazz spread

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around the world, it drew on different national, regional, and local musical cultures, which gave rise to many distinctive styles.

BEGINNINGS New Orleans jazz began in the early 1910s, combining earlier brass-band marches, French quadrilles, biguine, ragtime and blues with collective polyphonic improvisation. In the 1930s, heavily arranged dance-oriented swing big bands, Kansas City jazz, a hard-swinging, bluesy, improvisational style and Gypsy jazz (a style that emphasized musette waltzes) were the prominent styles. Bebop emerged in the 1940s, shifting

MAIN ATTRACTION The 1950s saw the emergence of free jazz, which explored playing without regular meter, beat and formal struc-

tures, and in the mid-1950s, hard bop emerged, which introduced influences from rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues, especially in the saxophone and piano playing. Modal jazz developed in the late 1950s, using the mode, or musical scale, as the basis of musical structure and improvisation. Jazz-rock fusion appeared in the late 1960s and early 1970s, combining jazz improvisation with rock music’s rhythms, electric instruments, and highly amplified stage sound. In the early 1980s, a commercial form of jazz fusion called smooth jazz became successful, garnering significant radio airplay. Other styles and genres abound in the 2000s, such be our freedom. We’re meant to be able to do what we want to do.”[15] The issue of authenticity is important in the punk subculture—the pejorative term “poseur” is applied to those who associate with punk and adopt its stylistic attributes but are deemed not to share or understand the underlying values and philosophy. Scholar Daniel S. Traber argues that “attaining authenticity in the punk identity can be difficult”; as the punk scene matured,

INFLUENCERS Blues is a music genre[2] and musical form originated by African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the end of the 19th century.

The genre developed from roots in African musical traditions, African-American work songs, spirituals, and European folk music.[1] Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads.[3] The blues form, ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll, is characterized by the call-and-response pattern, the blues scale and specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues is the most common. Blue notes (or “worried notes”), usually thirds or fifths flattened in pitch, are also an essential part of the sound. Blues shuffles or walking bass reinforce the trance-like rhythm and form a repetitive effect known as the groove.

BEGINNINGS Blues as a genre is also characterized by its lyrics, bass lines, and instrumentation. Early traditional blues verses consisted of a single line repeated four times. It was only in the first decades of the 20th century that the most common current structure became standard: the AAB pattern, consisting of a line sung over the four first bars, its repetition over the next four, and then a longer concluding line over the last bars. Early blues frequently took the form of a loose narrative, often relating the racial discrimination and other challenges experienced by African-Americans.

in 1908. Blues has since evolved from unaccompanied vocal music and oral traditions of slaves into a wide variety of styles and subgenres. Blues subgenres include country blues, such as Delta blues and Piedmont blues, as well as urban blues styles such as Chicago blues and West Coast blues.

[7] In lyrics the phrase is often used to describe a depressed mood.[8] Some sources state that the term blues is related to “blue notes”, the flatted, often microtonal notes used in blues, but the Oxford English Dictionary claims that the term blues came first and led to the naming of “blue notes”.

LASTING INFLUENCE The term blues may have come from “blue devils”, meaning melancholy and sadness; an early use of the term in this sense is in George Colman’s one-act farce Blue Devils (1798).[4] The phrase blue devils may also have been derived from Britain in the 1600s, when the term referred to the “intense visual hallucinations that can accompany severe alcohol withdrawal”.[5] As time went on, the phrase lost the reference to devils, and “it came to mean a state of agitation or depression.” By the 1800s in the United States, the term blues was associated with drinking alcohol, a meaning which survives in the phrase blue law, which prohibits the sale of alcohol on Sunday.[5] Though the use of the phrase in African-American music may be older, it has been attested to in print since 1912, when Hart Wand’s “Dallas Blues” became the first copyrighted blues composition.[6]

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MAIN ATTRACTION Many elements, such as the call-andresponse format and the use of blue notes, can be traced back to the music of Africa. The origins of the blues are also closely related to the religious music of the Afro-American community, the spirituals. The first appearance of the blues is often dated to after the ending of slavery and, later, the development of juke joints. It is associated with the newly acquired freedom of the former slaves. Chroniclers began to report about blues music at the dawn of the 20th century. The first publication of blues sheet music was

5 STEVIE RAY VAUGHN

INFLUENCERS Funk originated in the mid-1960s, with James Brown’s development of a signature groove that emphasized the downbeat—with heavy emphasis on the first beat of every measure (“The One”), and the application of swung 16th notes and syncopation on all bass lines, drum patterns, and guitar riffs.[2] Other musical groups, including Sly and the Family Stone and Parliament-Funkadelic, soon began to adopt and develop Brown’s innovations. While much of the written history of funk focuses on men, there have been notable funk women, including Chaka Khan, Labelle, Lyn Collins, Brides of Funkenstein, Klymaxx, Mother’s Finest, and Betty Davis.

Funk derivatives include the psychedelic funk of Sly Stone and Parliament-Funkadelic; the avant-funk of groups such as Talking Heads and the Pop Group; boogie (or electro-funk), a form of electronic music; electro music, a hybrid of electronic music and funk; funk metal (e.g., Living Colour, Faith No More); G-funk, a mix of gangsta rap and funk; Timba, a form of funky Cuban popular dance music; and funk jam (e.g., Phish). Funk samples and breakbeats have been used extensively in genres including hip hop, and various forms of electronic dance music, such as house music, old-school rave, breakbeat, and drum and bass. It is also the main influence of go-go, a subgenre

as either “Funky Butt” or “Buddy Bolden’s Blues” with improvised lyrics that were, according to Donald M. Marquis either “comical and light” or “crude and downright obscene” but, in one way or another, referring to the sweaty atmosphere at dances where Bolden’s band played.[7][8] As late

MAIN ATTRACTIONS and early 1960s, when “funk” and “funky” were used increasingly in the context of jazz music, the terms still were considered indelicate and inappropriate for use in polite company. According to one source, New Orleans-born drummer Earl Palmer “was the first to use the word ‘funky’ to explain to other musicians that their music should be made more syncopated and danceable.”[9] The style later evolved into a rather hard-driving, in-

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associated with funk.[3]

BEGINNINGS The word funk initially referred (and still refers) to a strong odor. It is originally derived from Latin “fumigare” (which means “to smoke”) via Old French “fungiere” and, in this sense, it was first documented in English in 1620. In 1784 “funky” meaning “musty” was first documented, which, in turn, led to a sense of “earthy” that was taken up around 1900 in early jazz slang for something “deeply or strongly felt”.

In early jam sessions, musicians would encourage one another to “get down” by telling one another, “Now, put some stank on it!”. At least as early as 1907, jazz songs carried titles such as Funky.

The first example is an unrecorded number by Buddy Bolden, remembered

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DANCE MUSIC FOR THE SOUL

Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid1960s when African American musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of soul music, jazz, and rhythm and blues (R&B). Funk de-emphasizes melody and chord progressions used in other related genres and brings a strong rhythmic influence.

sistent rhythm, implying a more carnal quality. This early form of the music set the pattern for later musicians.[10] The music was identified as slow, sexy, loose, riff-oriented and danceable.

Funk creates an intense groove by using strong guitar riffs and bass lines.

Like Motown recordings, funk songs used bass lines as the centerpiece of songs. Slap bass’s mixture of thumbslapped low notes and finger “popped” (or plucked) high notes allowed the bass to have a drum-like rhythmic role, which became a distinctive element of funk.

himself, when he was a part of the Isley Brothers backing band and lived in the attic temporarily at the Isleys’ household. Jimmy Nolen and Phelps Collins are famous funk rhythm guitarists who both worked with James Brown. On Brown’s “Give It Up or Turnit a Loose” (1969), Jimmy Nolen’s guitar part has a bare bones tonal structure. The pattern of attack-points is the emphasis, not the pattern of pitches. The guitar is used the way that an African drum, or idiophone would be used. Note that the measures alternate between beginning on the beat, and beginning on offbeats.

In funk bands, guitarists typically play in a percussive style, often using the wah-wah sound effect and muting the notes in their riffs to create a percussive sound. Guitarist Ernie Isley of the Isley Brothers and Eddie Hazel of Funkadelic were notably influenced

by Jimi Hendrix’s improvised solos.

Eddie Hazel, who worked with George Clinton, is one of the most notable guitar soloists in funk. Ernie Isley was tutored at an early age by Jimi Hendrix

Funk uses the same richly-coloured extended chords found in bebop jazz, such as minor chords with added sevenths and elevenths, or dominant seventh chords with altered ninths.

However, unlike bebop jazz, with its complex, rapid-fire chord changes, funk virtually abandoned chord changes, creating static single chord vamps with melodo-harmonic movement and a complex, driving rhythmic feel. Some of the best known and most

skilful soloists in funk have jazz backgrounds. Trombonist Fred Wesley and saxophonist Pee Wee Ellis and Maceo Parker are among the most notable musicians in the funk music genre, with both of them working with James Brown, George Clinton and Prince.

The chords used in funk songs typically imply a dorian or mixolydian mode, as opposed to the major or natural minor tonalities of most popular music. Melodic content was derived by mixing these modes with the blues scale. In the 1970s, jazz music drew upon funk to create a new subgenre of jazz-funk, which can be heard in recordings by Miles Davis (Live-Evil, On the Corner), and Herbie Hancock (Head Hunters).

SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE, 1971

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04

THE DIY SCENE OF 1970S U.K. AND AMERICA Punk rock (or “punk”) is a rock music genre that developed in the early to mid1970s in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in 1960s garage rock and other forms of what is now known as “proto-punk” music, punk rock bands rejected perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock. Punk bands typically produced short or fast-paced songs, with hard-edged melodies and singing styles, stripped-down instrumentation, and often political, anti-establishment lyrics. Punk embraces a DIY ethic; many bands self-produce recordings and distribute them through informal channels.

The term “punk” was first used in relation to rock music by some American critics in the early 1970s, to describe garage bands and their devotees. By late 1976, bands such as the New York Dolls, Television, and the Ramones in New York City, the Sex Pistols, the Clash, and the Damned in London, and The Saints in Brisbane were recognized as the vanguard of a new musical movement. The following year saw

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INFLUENCERS punk rock spreading around the world, and it became a major cultural phenomenon in the United Kingdom. For the most part, punk took root in local scenes that tended to reject association with the mainstream. An associated punk subculture emerged, expressing youthful rebellion and characterized by distinctive styles of clothing and adornment (ranging from deliberately offensive T-shirts, leather jackets, spike bands and other studded or spiked jewelry to bondage and S&M clothes) and a variety of anti-authoritarian ideologies.

BEGINNINGS By the early 1980s, faster and more aggressive styles such as hardcore punk (e.g. Minor Threat), street punk (e.g. the Exploited), and anarcho-punk (e.g. Crass) had become the predominant mode of punk rock. Musicians identifying with or inspired by punk also pursued a broad range of other variations, giving rise to post-punk and new wave and later indie pop, alternative rock, and noise rock. By the 1990s, punk rock had re-emerged in the mainstream, as pop punk bands such as Green Day and the Offspring brought the genre widespread popularity.

The first wave of punk rock was aggressively modern, distancing itself from the bombast and sentimentality of early 1970s rock. According to Ramones drummer Tommy Ramone, “In its initial form, a lot of [1960s] stuff was innovative and exciting. Unfortunately, what happens is that people who could not hold a candle to the likes of Hendrix started noodling away.

Soon you had endless solos that went nowhere. By 1973, I knew that what was needed was some pure, stripped down, no bullshit rock ‘n’ roll.”[4] John Holmstrom, founding editor of Punk magazine, recalls feeling “punk rock had to come along because the rock scene had become so tame that [acts] like Billy Joel and Simon and Garfunkel were being called rock and roll, when to me and other fans, rock and roll meant this wild and rebellious music.”[5] In critic Robert Christgau’s description, “It was also a subculture that scornfully rejected the political idealism and Californian flower-power silliness of hippie myth.”[6]

THE GERMS, 1977

MAIN ATTRACTIONS Technical accessibility and a Do it yourself (DIY) spirit are prized in punk rock. UK pub rock from 1972-1975 contributed to the emergence of punk rock by developing a network of small venues, such as pubs, where non-mainstream bands could play.

[7] Pub rock also introduced the idea of independent record labels, such as Stiff Records, which put out basic, low-cost records.[7] Pub rock bands organized their own small venue tours and put out small pressings of their records. In the early days of punk rock, this DIY ethic stood in marked contrast to what those in the scene regarded as the ostentatious musical effects and technological demands of many mainstream rock bands.[8] Musical virtuosity was often looked on with suspicion. According to Holmstrom, punk rock was “rock and roll by people who didn’t have very many skills as musicians but still felt the need to express themselves through music”.[5] In December 1976, the English fanzine Sideburns published a now-famous illustration of three chords, captioned “This is a chord, this is another, this is a third. Now form a band”.

[9] The title of a 1980 single by the New York punk band Stimulators, “Loud Fast Rules!”, inscribed a catchphrase for punk’s basic musical approach.

culture it was associated with, but their own most celebrated music predecessors: “No Elvis, Beatles or the Rolling Stones in 1977”, declared the Clash song “1977”.[11] The previous year, when the punk rock revolution began in Great Britain, was to be both a musical and a cultural “Year Zero”.[12] Even as nostalgia was discarded, many in the scene adopted a nihilistic attitude summed up by the Sex Pistols slogan “No Future”;[3] in the later words of one observer, amid the unemployment and social unrest in 1977, “punk’s nihilistic swagger was the most thrilling thing in England.”

LASTING EFFECTS Some of British punk rock’s leading figures made a show of rejecting not only contemporary mainstream rock and the broader

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05 A SYNTHESIZED WORLD POST PUNK New wave is a genre of rock music[2] popular from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s with ties to 1970s punk rock.[18] New wave moved away from blues and rock and roll sounds to create pop music that incorporated disco, mod, and electronic music.

INFLUENCERS New wave differs from other movements with ties to first-wave punk as it displays characteristics common to pop music, rather than the more “artsy” post-punk.

[19] Although it incorporates much of the original punk rock sound and ethos,[5] [20] new wave exhibits greater complexity in both music and lyrics. Common characteristics of new wave music include the use of synthesizers and electronic productions, the importance of styling and the arts, as well as diversity.

Subsequently, the genre influenced other genres.[excessive citations][improper synthesis?] During the 2000s, a number of acts, such as the Strokes, Interpol, Franz Ferdinand and The Killers explored new wave and post-punk influences. These acts were sometimes labeled “new wave of new wave”. The catch-all nature of new wave music has been a source of much confusion and controversy. The 1985 discography Who’s New Wave in Music listed artists in

over 130 separate categories.[30] The New Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock calls the term “virtually meaningless”.

BEGINNINGS New wave has been called one of the definitive genres of the 1980s,[21] after it grew partially fixated on MTV (the Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star” music video was broadcast as the first music video to promote the channel’s launch),[19] and the popularity of several new wave artists, attributed to their exposure on the channel. In the mid-1980s, differences between new wave and other music genres began to blur.

MAIN ATTRACTION wave has enjoyed resurgences since

the 1990s, after a rising “nostalgia” for several new wave-influenced artists.

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THE TALKING HEADS, 1980

INFLUENCERS

MAIN ATTRACTION

Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments and circuitry-based music technology. In general, a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means, such as violins and drums, and that produced using electronic technology.

[1] Electromechanical instruments include mechanical elements, such as strings, hammers, and so on, and electric elements, such as magnetic pickups, power amplifiers and loudspeakers. Examples of electromechanical sound producing devices include the telharmonium, Hammond organ, and the electric guitar, which are typically made loud enough for performers and audiences to hear with an instrument amplifier and speaker cabinet.

Pure electronic instruments do not have vibrating strings, hammers, or other sound-producing mechanisms.

Devices such as the theremin, sound synthesizer, and computer can pro-

In the late 1960s, pop and rock musicians, including The Beach Boys and The Beatles, began to use electronic instruments, like the theremin and Mellotron, to supplement and define their sound. By the end of the decade, the Moog synthesizer took a leading place in the sound of emerging progressive rock with bands including Pink Floyd, Yes, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and Genesis making them part of their sound. Instrumental prog rock was particularly significant in continental Europe, allowing bands like Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Can, and Faust to circumvent the language barrier.[108] Their synthesiser-heavy “krautrock�, along with the work of Brian Eno (for a time the keyboard player with Roxy Music), would be a major influence on subsequent elec-

duce electronic sounds.

BEGINNINGS The first electronic devices for performing music were developed at the end of the 19th century, and shortly afterward Italian futurists explored sounds that had not been considered musical. During the 1920s and 1930s, electronic instruments were introduced and the first compositions for electronic instruments were made.

By the 1940s, magnetic audio tape allowed musicians to tape sounds and then modify them by changing the tape speed or direction, leading to the development of electroacoustic tape music in the 1940s, in Egypt and France. Musique concrète, created in Paris in 1948, was based on editing together recorded fragments of natural and industrial sounds. Music produced solely from electronic generators was first produced in Germany in 1953. Electronic music was also created in Japan and the United States beginning in the 1950s. An important new development was the advent of computers to compose music.

Algorithmic composition was first demonstrated in Australia in 1951.

such as a long echo delay were also used.[111] Other notable artists within the genre include Dreadzone, Higher Intelligence Agency, The Orb, Ott, Loop Guru, Woob and Transglobal Underground.[112]commolorum eum quiaeratent evelest, omnihil iassit ex eum autemque ipienim invent.

tronic rock.[109] Ambient dub was pioneered by King Tubby and other Jamaican sound artists, using DJ-inspired ambient electronics, complete with drop-outs, echo, equalization and psychedelic electronic effects. It featured layering techniques and incorporated elements of world music, deep bass lines and harmonic sounds.[110] Techniques

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DONE AND REDONE: INDEPENDENT MUSIC Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United States and the United Kingdom in the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produced and was initially used interchangeably with “alternative rock”. As grunge and punk revival bands in the US, and then Britpop bands in the UK, broke into the mainstream in the 1990s, it came to be used to identify those acts that retained an outsider and underground perspective. In the 2000s, as a result of changes in the music industry and the growing importance of the Internet, some indie rock acts began to enjoy commercial success, leading to questions about its meaningfulness as a term.

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Sometimes used interchangeably with “guitar pop rock”,[1] in the mid-1980s, the term “indie” (or “indie pop”) began to be used to describe the music produced on punk and post-punk labels.[2] Some prominent indie rock record labels were founded during the 1980s. During the 1990s, Grunge bands broke into the mainstream, and the term “alternative” lost its original counter-cultural meaning. The term “indie rock” became associated with the bands and genres

INFLUENCERS

PAVEMENT, 1992

In the early 2000s, a new group of bands that played a stripped-down and back-tobasics version of guitar rock emerged into the mainstream. The commercial breakthrough from these scenes was led by four bands: The Strokes, The White Stripes, The Hives and The Vines. Emo also broke into mainstream culture in the early 2000s.[5] By the end of the 2000s the proliferation of indie bands was being referred to as “indie landfill”.

MAIN ATTRACTION In the 2000s, the changing music industry, the decline in record sales, the growth of new digital technology and increased use of the Internet as a tool for music promotion, allowed a new wave of indie rock bands to achieve mainstream success.

[4] Existing indie bands that were now able to enter the mainstream included more musically and emotionally complex bands[44] including Modest Mouse (whose 2004 album Good News for People Who Love Bad News reached the US top 40 and was nominated for a Grammy Award), Bright Eyes (who in 2004 had two singles at the top of the Billboard magazine Hot 100 Single Sales)[45] and Death Cab for Cutie (whose 2005 album Plans debuted at number four in the US, remaining on the Billboard charts for nearly one year and achieving platinum status and a Grammy nomination).[46] This new commercial breakthrough and the widespread use of the term indie to other forms of popular culture, led a number of commentators to suggest that indie rock had ceased to be a meaningful term.

In the early 2000s, a new group of bands that played a stripped-down and backto-basics version of guitar rock emerged into the mainstream. They were variously characterised as part of a garage rock, new wave or post-punk revival.Because the bands came from across the globe, cited diverse influences (from traditional blues, through new wave to grunge), and adopted differing styles of dress, their unity as a genre has been disputed.[53] There had been attempts to revive garage rock and elements of punk in the 1980s and 1990s and by 2000 scenes had grown up in several countries.[54] The Detroit rock scene included The Von Bondies, Electric Six, The Dirtbombs and The Detroit Cobras[55] and that of New York

The commercial breakthrough from these scenes was led by four bands: The Strokes, who emerged from the New York club scene with their début album Is This It (2001); The White Stripes, from Detroit, with their third album White Blood Cells (2001); The Hives from Sweden, after their compilation album Your New Favourite Band (2001); and The Vines from Australia with Highly Evolved (2002).[61] They were christened the “The” bands by the media, and dubbed “The saviours of rock ‘n’ roll”, leading to accusations of hype.[62] A second wave of bands that managed to gain international recognition as a result of the movement included The Black Keys, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Modest Mouse, The Killers, Interpol and Kings of Leon from the US.[63] From the UK were The Libertines, Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party, Editors,[64] The Fratellis, Placebo, Razorlight, Kaiser Chiefs and The Kooks.[65] British band Arctic Monkeys were the most prominent act to owe their initial commercial success to the use of Internet social networking, topping the charts with their debut single “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor”.

[66] Also successful were Jet from Australia,[67] and The Datsuns and The D4 from New Zealand.[68] Many of the British bands listed above, with the exception of Arctic Monkeys, experienced a sharp decline in commercial fortunes owing to what The Guardian has called the “slow and painful death” of indie rock.

CULTURE “Indie pop” and “indie” were originally synonymous.[17] In the mid-1980s, “indie” began to be used to describe the music produced on post-punk labels rather than the labels themselves.

[2] The indie rock scene in the US was prefigured by the college rock[18] that dominated college radio playlists, which included key bands like R.E.M. from the US and The Smiths from the UK.[19] These two bands rejected the dominant synthpop of the early 1980s,[20][21] and helped inspire guitar-based jangle pop; other important bands in the genre included 10,000 Maniacs and the dB’s from the US, and The Housemartins and The La’s from the UK. In the United States, the term was particularly associated with the abrasive, distortion-heavy sounds of the Pixies, Hüsker Dü, Minutemen, Meat Puppets, Dinosaur Jr., and The Replacements.

In the United Kingdom the C86 cassette, a 1986 NME compilation featuring Primal Scream, The Pastels, The Wedding Present and other bands, was a document of the UK indie scene at the start of 1986. It gave its name to the indie pop scene that followed, which was a major influence on the development of the British indie scene as a whole.

[22][23] Major precursors of indie pop included Postcard bands Josef K and

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INFLUENCERS 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, often Muslim youth residing in the Bronx.[15] 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”.[16] 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 and Jamaican toasting, a chanting vocal style, was used over the beats. Rapping developed as a vocal style in which the artist speaks or chants along rhythmically with an instrumental or synthesized beat. Notable artists at this time include DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, Fab Five Freddy, Marley Marl, Afrika Bambaataa, Kool Moe Dee, Kurtis Blow, Doug E. Fresh, Whodini, Warp 9, The Fat Boys, and Spoonie Gee. The Sugarhill Gang’s 1979 song “Rapper’s Delight” is widely regarded to be the first hip hop record to gain widespread popularity in the mainstream.[17] The 1980s marked the diversification of hip hop as the genre developed more complex styles.[18] Prior to the 1980s, hip hop music was largely confined within the United States. However, during the 1980s, it began to spread to music scenes in dozens of countries, many of which mixed hip hop with local styles to create new subgenres.

BEGINNINGS

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New school hip hop was the second wave of hip hop music, originating in 1983–84 with the early records of Run-D.M.C. and LL Cool J. The Golden age hip hop period was an innovative period between the mid-1980s and the early 1990s.

Notable artists from this era include the Juice Crew, Public Enemy, Eric B. & Rakim, Boogie Down Productions and KRS-One, EPMD, Slick Rick, Beastie Boys, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane, Ultramagnetic MCs, De La Soul, and A Tribe Called

08 A BURGEONING GENERATION OF ARTISTS Hip hop music, also called hip-hop or rap music, is a music genre developed in the United States by inner-city African Americans in the 1970s which consists of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted.

Quest. Gangsta rap is a subgenre of hip hop that often focuses on the violent lifestyles and impoverished conditions of inner-city African-American youth. Schoolly D, N.W.A, Ice-T, Ice Cube, and the Geto Boys are key founding artists, known for mixing the political and social commentary of political rap with the criminal elements and crime stories found in gangsta rap.

[19] In the West Coast hip hop style, G-funk dominated mainstream hip hop for several years during the 1990s with artists such as Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg.

MAIN ATTRACTION In the 1990s, hip hop began to diversify with other regional styles emerging, such as Southern rap and Atlanta hip hop. At the same time, hip hop continued to be assimilated into other genres of popular music, examples being neo soul (e.g.: Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu) and nu metal (e.g.: Korn, Limp Bizkit).

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 2000s, with hip hop influences also increasingly finding their way into mainstream pop. The United States also saw the success of regional styles such as crunk (e.g.: Lil Jon & the East

NWA, 1988

and nu metal (e.g.: Korn, Limp Bizkit).

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 2000s, with hip hop influences also increasingly finding their way into mainstream pop. The United States also saw the success of regional styles such as crunk (e.g.: Lil Jon & the East Side Boys, the Ying Yang Twins), a Southern genre that emphasized the beats and music more than the lyrics.

Starting in 2005, sales of hip hop music in the United States began to severely wane. During the mid-2000s, alternative hip hop secured a place in the mainstream, due in part to the crossover success of artists such as OutKast and Kanye West.[20] During the late 2000s and early 2010s, rappers such as Lil Wayne, Soulja Boy, and B.o.B were the most popular rappers.

During the 2010s, rappers such as Drake, Nicki Minaj, J. Cole, and Kendrick Lamar all have been extremely popular.

CULTURE Rapping, also referred to as MCing or emceeing, is a vocal style in which the artist speaks lyrically and rhythmically, in rhyme and verse, generally to an instrumental or synthesized beat.

Beats, almost always in 4/4 time signature, can be created by sampling and/

or sequencing portions of other songs by a producer.[63] They also incorporate synthesizers, drum machines, and live bands. Rappers may write, memorize, or improvise their lyrics and perform their works a cappella or to a beat. Hip hop music predates the introduction of rapping into hip hop culture, and rap vocals are absent from many hip hop tracks, such as “Hip Hop, Be Bop (Don’t Stop)” by Man Parrish; “Chinese Arithmetic” by Eric B. & Rakim; “Al-Naafiysh (The Soul)” and “We’re Rocking the Planet”

by Hashim; and “Destination Earth”

by Newcleus. However, the majority of the genre has been accompanied by rap vocals, such as the Sci-fi influenced electro hip hop group Warp 9.[64] Female rappers appeared on the scene in the late 1970s and early 80s, including Bronx artist MC Sha Rock, member of the Funky Four Plus One, credited with being the first female MC [65] and The Sequence, a hip hop trio signed to Sugar Hill Records, the first all female group to release a rap record, Funk You Up. The roots of rapping are found in African-American music and ultimately African music, particularly that of the griots of West African culture.[66] The African-American traditions of signifyin’, the dozens, and jazz poetry all influence hip hop music.

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