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Example research essay topic: Visual And Audio Materials In Hip Hop Industry - 1,746 words

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Visual and Audio Materials in Hip-Hop Industry Hip hop music and culture, once considered an American phenomenon, exists throughout the world today. In each cultural area, hip hop artists filter American and other foreign hip hop styles through their own local musical, social, and linguistic practices, creating unique musical forms. In this paper I will attempt to evaluate the visual and audio characteristics that contribute to the culture of hip-hop and produce the image of the aforementioned style which encompasses a range of related activities such as: rapping, break dancing, graffiti, the business of hip-hop record selling, etc. Rap, for example, is considered to be something more than music or entertainment. The words rhythmically recited, chanted, or sung over music by the likes of Public Enemy, Queen Latifah, Arrested Development, and many more represent a sense of identity and belonging for young people in America and throughout the world. Rap is the voice of a population that has been ignored by mainstream leaders and institutions, until now.

Within the past couple of years rap has began to emerge into the pulse, thoughts, values, and experiences of youth worldwide. Even though rap has become more popular today, than ever there are still many people who are unaware of the history and roots behind of the music we celebrate and love so much. Rap was around long before it was actually called rap. Rap started out as an oral form of storytelling and the telling of ones history by the social commentator, also known as a Griots.

The griots was a historian, storyteller, comedian, reporter, mediator, social commentator, and sometimes performer of religious ceremonies and rites of passage. Griot's had to possess musical abilities. Griot's often accompanied themselves on a hartline instrument called a kora. Griot's were used as a way to tell of and remember the history and heritage of African Americans after the Atlantic slave trade, which took place from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. In addition to the Griot's tradition, rap is rooted in the pain of African American experience, which began with slavery.

As Europeans conquered, settled, and stole Americas, they required cheap labor to help build up their colonies and exploit natural resources for trade. Europeans initially turned to the Native American's to build up their colonies, but the natives could not survive under the harsh and cruel working and living conditions. Many of them became ill because of diseases such as smallpox. Slavery existed in African societies long before the seventeenth century, but it was very different from the kind of bondage that characterized the North Atlantic slave trade. Slaves were taken in conquests or as repayment for debts or wrong doings. The slaves were fully integrated into their new villages and tribes and granted many rights and privileges.

The North Atlantic slave trade was the largest and most traumatic forced movement of human beings in history. During more than 150 years of operation, at least 10 million Africans were captured and shipped to the Americas on a hellish trans-Atlantic journey that became known as the Middle Passage. The Middle Passage lasted from two months to a year, depending on the African port of departure and the conditions on the open sea. One of the biggest myths about slavery is that slave dealers and owners destroyed the spirit of their African captives.

From the start of captivity in Africa, white slave dealers initiated strict program of control and domination over their captives. It began with speech. Before Africans descended into the holds of slave ships, they were separated from other members of their families and tribes. They were mixed with people from different regions and split up from those who spoke the same language. Once the Africans reached the United States the pattern of separation and silence was continued. The Africans were forbidden from speaking in their native tongues.

They were also stripped of their real names and forced to assume names given to them by their masters. This was meant to strip slaves of their self-esteem by destroying culture, history, and individuality. However, all was not lost. After being denied of their original cultures slaves created a new culture. This culture embraced and captured their African past and accommodated their new status as captives. Along with this new culture came a new oral tradition, one that would give rise to rap.

The African-American oral tradition developed first and foremost with the slaves' adaptation of their masters' religion, Christianity. The services of the slaves were reminiscent of religious ceremonies in Africa. They were lively, uplifting affairs complete with music, chanting, and spiritual possessions. The high point of the service was the preacher's sermon, of call, and the congregation's response. Ministers expected the congregation to interrupt their sermons with applause and affirmations. Centuries later and under different circumstances, rap and hip-hop continue the tradition of a call and response that began in slave churches.

The griots, the slave preacher, and the storyteller all displayed a skillful use of language. The inherent African love of the spoken word, and the new way of life that America forced upon enslaved blacks set the stage for the black cultural explosion of the twentieth century and the explosion of hip-hop. After the freeing of slaves in 1863 a period known as the Reconstruction Era began; which lasted from 1866 to 1877. Up until 1917, the livelihood of most blacks remained in the South. During that year the United States entered World War I. Many of the industrialized male workers of the North entered the armed forces; newly emerging industries needed factory workers.

Word of available jobs in the North reached the South. About 2 million blacks migrated from the South. Into urban areas, such as Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis, and New York in search of a better life through new jobs in factories. This movement was known as the Great Migration. As blacks entered these urban areas, the African-American oral and musical traditions gave birth to the development of rap at an astonishing rate.

Out of this period the blues emerged giving birth to jazz. Jazz was ironic, soulful, cool, colorful, and complex. It depicted the realities of life for blacks, as they faced racism, poverty, and other social reminders from the days of slavery. By the 1940 s and 1950 s, black disc jockeys were adding to the language and style of jazz. Deejays attracted huge audiences in cities across the nation. Between spinning records and instrumental breaks of songs, deejays passed messages between lovers, commented on local affairs all while keeping listeners entertained with catchy lines and phrases.

Such talk became known as jive talk. The jive and rhyming skills of deejays had a great deal to do with their individual popularity. In this sense, they were the forefathers of the deejay / performer role that many early rappers assumed. While this new black culture of speech and music developed in the streets and over the airwaves comedians were adding humor although, some was degrading it still proved to be funny.

Out of this form of humor emerged the dozens. The dozens were good-natured vocal competitions in which opponent's made disparaging remarks about each other's mother. The dozens were always played with an audience, which encourage the two opponents to outdo or "cap" each other. By the year 1978 American music was flat. The dull thud of disco dominated the airwaves. Bored with the artificial thud on the radio black kids began to rummaging through the record collections of their parents' in search of a new beat to party to.

Two Bronx deejays, DJ Hollywood and DJ Kool Herc, who have sense, became known as the fathers of rap. Herc born Jamaican immigrated to New York City when he was twelve years old. By that age he had taken a great interest in the world of rap. In 1975 Herc started decaying at teen clubs, community centers, and parties in the Bronx. At his shows he began spinning short sections of different records and talking over them. Soon after that he began to play records on two turntables at the same time.

With the aid of a sound mixer he was allowed to fade in and out between records, Herc developed the technique of mixing passages from one song into another. He became notorious for incorporating the most obscure records into his mixes. Herc along with other deejays began using MCs in their shows. In the summer of 1979, rap hit the scene in full force. A trio called the Sugar Hill Gang unleashed "Rappers Delight." (Margolis 23) The Sugar Hill Gang was brought together by, former soul singer, Sylvia Robinson. The group was named after a fashionable Harlem neighborhood that boasted doctors, lawyers, and ministers among its residents. "Rapper's Delight" sold over 500, 000 copies and hit number one on the pop music charts.

Terms like hip-hop and other enduring rap phrases came out of the song (Perkins 5). Another pivotal force in the early days of rap was Afrika Bambaata and his Zulu Nation. Bambaata was a Bronx street deejay who spun records at block parties and in the parks. Unlike, other deejays he incorporated a strong element of cultural awareness into his shows. He became accepted as a unifying force in an area that was plagued by turf wars between gangs.

Punk rockers were the first group outside the ghetto to acknowledge rap. Fab 5 Freddy, a struggling Harlem-born artist was a pivotal figure in bridging the gap between the worlds of punk and rap. Rap's first non-ghetto acknowledgment came from the punk-rock group Blondie. After emerging with punk the music industry still wasn't ready to take rap seriously. Many of the music industry's initial dismissals of rap were laced with racism. In addition industry executives assumed that rap was just a fad created by poor black kids from New York's ghettos and that it was "too raw, " and "too ethic" to gain mass popularity (Nelson, Gonzalez xviii).

Run-D. M. C. was rap's first superstars. The trio's image rejected many of rap's norms. They performed in street clothes.

They were rap's pioneer b-boys. The group broke many barriers for rap, and became living legends. Somewhere, along the rode of its growing popularity rap and the messages rappers told in their lyrics went from mainstream to big screen with movies like Boyz N the Hood. Today, there is an array of hip-hop artists, both male and female. With an increase in


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Research essay sample on Visual And Audio Materials In Hip Hop Industry

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