Pop Culture Meets Hip-Hop free essay sample

Popular culture, otherwise known as Pop Culture, Is defined by Nectars Online Encyclopedia as values that come from advertising, the entertainment Industry, the media, and Icons of style and are targeted to the ordinary people of todays society. Some of the more Influencing displays of pop culture today Include movies, teen icons, clothing, celebrities, sports, and one of the most influential things, music. The music industry plays a huge role in todays society from many different angles. Most people listen to music everyday, rather it be while driving, working out, r Just relaxing.It is the biggest form of leisure for people in the world today. Music can sometimes influence the way people dress, who they hang out with or look up to, and even sometimes the way you act. The people of pop music are some of todays biggest role models here In America. When I use the word pop music, I am using it very loosely. We will write a custom essay sample on Pop Culture Meets Hip-Hop or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page By pop music, I am not Just singling out Jessica Simpson and Justine Timberline. I am using It in a broad manner, talking about all popular music, which includes anything from the last two mentioned, to raps 50 Cent and Mine, as well s countrys Kenny Cheney and Tim McGraw.I consider pop music to be any music played on the radio or on MET. Today I plan on breaking down music into pop music, and breaking that down into hip-hop music and the influence of it in todays culture. Incarnate defines hip-hop as a type of popular culture that includes rap music, dance styles, graffiti art, and fashion. According to causticitys. Com, hip-hop roots back to West Africa, to a group of traveling singers and poets, whose musical style is reminiscent of hip-hop, called grits. Todays background of hip-hop actually arose n the sasss in New York. Headband. Com states that hip-hop truly came to be when DC Cool Here bought two copies of the same record, and played them 15 seconds apart on two different record players, and mixing them back and fourth, inventing turntables. In 1976, Grandmaster Flash Introduced this technique to the world, and In 1979, Sugarplum Gang Introduced the first rap song, Rappers Delight. This was the beginning of hip-hop music. Over the past 35 years or so, hip-hop has emerged to be on of the most popular forms of music. Artists such as James Brown, theBeastie Boys, Public Enemy, Salt;N-Peppy, and especially Run;DIM recording with rock star Aerostatic, the record Walk This Way, put hip-hop on the map. Until the late sasss, hip-hop was on the good side of society after revolutionize a new, Jazzy, genre of music. Then things started to go bad. A group called NNW which included Dry. Drew, Ice Cube, and Easy-E, made a song called Cop Killers. The song eventually got banned but not before it made a huge impact on society. This was when rap began to have a bad rep. Some people started to follow this gangster approach while others protested against it.The gangster and thug approach stuck around as Tuba Shaker became the next biggest name In the hip-hop world. He eventually was considered one of the top two rappers ever, along with the late Notorious Biggie Smalls. This gangster thug Image stuck around until the East Coast and West Coast began to have conflicts. Or what the rap game Ever since the two killings, rap has mellowed out some, yet the gangster image is still around. Also during the mid-asss, a group called 2 Live Crew was introduced into mainstream rap. They were known for using very explicit lyrics.So much to the fact hat when they put out their third album titled As Nasty As They Want To Be, the song Me So Horny caused so much controversy that the ARIA, or Recording Industry Association of America, created the Parental Advisory label. According to aria. Com, this agreement specified that music releases which contain explicit lyrics, including explicit depictions of violence and sex, be identified so parents can make intelligent listening choices for their children. The hip-hop culture is not only an African American culture. Caucasians and Latin Americans are also very big into hip-hop.A few examples of that are the Beastie Boys, Mine, and Fat Joe. Those three names made a huge impact on the spreading of race throughout rap and hip-hop. This is very important because it keeps America that much farther away from racial boundaries. Another big impact hip-hop has had on American culture is through fashion. It started out with things such as M. C. Hammers baggy, neon wind-pants and box-cut hairdo. People like what they see their idols wearing and model after them. Todays hip-hop fashion has become so big that rappers are coming out with their own looting label.Jay-Z and his Rock-A-Fell label put out their clothing brand Orca-A- Wear. 50 Cent and his G-Unit crew have their own G-Unit clothing line along with Mine and his Shady Wear. Even the less mainstream rappers like The Roots have a clothing line called LARGE, which stands for Lifted Research Group and Just like their music, the more mainstream they become the more mainstream their clothing line is becoming. This line of clothing consists of Jerseys, tank-tops, big-logo t-shirts, oversized hats, and everything fitting baggy.African Americans are taking advantage f this new urban style and are making a giant market out of it. There are far more urban style clothing stores in Greenville alone now then there were even two years ago including Caps and Brick City, not to mention all of the other stores at the Colonial Mall. One of the other latest styles in hip-hop fashion now is dressing preppy. Some of the artists who started this were Kenya West, P. Tidys sidekick Bentley, Common, and Andre 3000. This line of fashion consists of sweaters, polos with popped collars, suits, and umbrellas.This has apparently been noticed as the proper fashion s of late in the eyes of the NAB Commissioner David Stern. As of this NAB season, 2005-2006, the players can no longer wear the original hip-hop gear to and from the gymnasium. This means that they can not wear Jerseys, large chains, hats, sweat suits, or any other form of hip-hop wear to and from the games. Stern is making them either wear suits or shirts and ties because he says that the NAB is becoming too accustomed to the gangster and thug image (nab. Mom). This is causing a minor controversy because the players dont feel that he should have any say on what they ear to and from work, and that it is like them telling Stern that he isnt allowed to wear suits on the way to his office everyday. The players dont get paid to come to work; they get paid for playing the game. Some of the players are calling this a form was mostly only the African Americans who wore the banned clothing styles and this was Just something that didnt need to occur.People continuously complain about racism still being around, and its because of people like David Stern making pointless rules on irrelevant subjects, knowing he was going to get on peoples bad side. So that is Just another way the hip-hop fashion has influenced society. Aside from clothing, hip-hop players have Just recently entered a new area of the fashion world. Shoes used to be made for athletes such as Michael Jordan, Grant Hill, or Lebanon James. Jay-Z and 50 Cent have Just recently signed a shoe deal with Rebook making them the first official shoe-sponsored music artists. Although this wasnt the first shoes made popular by rappers, they were the first shoes made specifically for the rappers. Prior to this, Run-DIM made the Aids Shell Toes popular by wearing only hat specific style of shoes. Another occurrence was about two years ago when Newly made the song Air Force Ones. Of course everyone was already wearing them, however he made a statement about them, and in return Nikkei gave him free Nikkei Air Force Ones for life (hippodrome. Com). There are many viewpoints of rap and the culture of hip-hop.Some people believe that it is Just music and fashion and a way of expressing opinions. Some people look at it as way for people to escape the poor reality of life, and to make it a new lifestyle, sometimes resulting in the rich and famous. There are also the people that look at it as a way of expressing unneeded violence, sex, drugs, and explicit language. They believe that kids will listen to gangster music and try to reenact it in real life by going out shooting, robbing, and raping people. This is where if FCC, or the Federal Communications Commission, plays a large part.According to FCC. Gob, the FCC regulates what can be played on radio, television, satellite and cable. This helps determine what is edited on music videos or songs on the radio. This plays a big part in which songs the artists pick to be there radio hits. Some artists go as far as to make radio-specific songs that are made to get the attention of the radio and music video listeners and watchers. So not only does hip-hop play a role on peoples culture, but people play a role on hip- hops culture.The FCC also has a lot of feelings against gun violence and hate issues. As far as the hate issues go, people have a freedom of speech and it seems as if the FCC doesnt value that as part of the Constitution. They try to ban certain lyrics from Mine when he talks about homos and fags, when all he is doing is speaking his mind and using his freedom of speech in his music. When it comes to gun violence, the FCC, as well as other people in general, needs to realize that guns dont kill people, people who dont know any better use guns to kill people. If the parents of these violent kids did their Job, then music wouldnt have that strong of an influence on them. I grew up listening to rap, listening to people say kill him, smoking weed is cool, so on and so fourth, but my parents taught me what was right and wrong, so the music never impacted me in that way. Coming back to the viewpoints towards hip-hops culture, I personally feel that hip-hop is a way of life. Yes I know that some of the rappers out today have never been in a gun fight or lived in poverty, and yet they still rap about it.Others dont rap about it because they know its not their life, and then there are those who rap about drugs, murder, and rape because these are the things they were brought up around as a child. These are their true life because it shows some people what they are fortunate enough to not have to go through, and it shows other people that they arena the only people who go through struggles and that they still have a chance to get out of that lifest yle. The majority of the rappers who went through the struggle and are now rich and famous, give back to the community, even though they rap about all the other bad things they have done. 0 Cent has given money to numerous charities to help kids get off the streets and out of the slums. Just because they make themselves have a bad image in the rap game doesnt mean they are bad people and I believe that is something other people do not see. In conclusion, it is evident that hip-hop has influenced the culture around us over the past 30 or so years. Some of the influence has been bad, such as ids turning to violence, but for the most part, hip-hop has really made a good impact on society.It gives rappers a chance to tell their life stories in a musical way so they can show people that no matter what happens there is still hope. It has opened a door to the fashion industry, giving it two completely opposite forms of fashion, rather it be the gangster look of throwback Jerseys and baggy clothing, or it be the new hip-hop preppy look of sweaters, ties, and popped collars. Hip-hop shows that even in an already super diverse society, they can stand out and be diverse in thei r own way, using their little piece of culture.