The kind of culture that I am interested
in is hip hop culture. It also can be regarded as street culture. Hip hop culture
is a movement that formed during the early 1970s. The people who started it are
African American and Latino youths in the South Bronx in New York City. There
are four main elements of hip hop culture : rap music, Disc Jockey, b-boying
and graffiti art. They were born for four different kind of feelings for
people. Rap music is oral, Disc Jockey is aural, b-boying is physical and
graffiti art is visual. Nowadays, there has been many elements besides these
four, and they are skateboarding, roller skating, street basketball, beat box,
etc.
Hip hop culture came from Brooklyn, New
York City around 1970s. At that time, there were many poor young people in
Brooklyn and many of them were African Americans. They did not have a job and
they did not go to school because they could not afford the tuition fee. The
things what they did are dancing, singing, and playing basketball on the
streets. They did have talent on these things. They could feel the rhythm
correctly and their bodies are flexible. As time goes by, their talents were
put into singing, dancing and basketball, and they became a kind of culture,
which is exactly hip hop culture. At that time, they did not have money to go
to studio and make a record of their song, so they just use the old big recorder.
Besides, they did not have enough money to buy new clothes, and they just wore
their parents' clothes and the clothes are larger than the suitable size for
them. Then, more and more people knew what these people did in the South Bronx
part of New York City. The hip-hop culture became more famous, and it was spread
out.
File:Rappin.jpg1. Rap music is a main element of hip hop culture. At the beginning, rap is a word among African Americans, which means talking. Rapping is distinct from spoken-word poetry in that it is performed in time to a beat. Rapping is often associated with and a primary ingredient of hip-hop music, but the origins of the phenomenon can be said to predate hip-hop culture by centuries. The Disc Jockeys put the popular rhythm of funk music in to disco and made their own loops. Then, rap music became popular, and there were many different types of rap music. They are West Coast Rap, Southern Rap, Pop Rap, Old School, Midwest Rap, Latin Rap, Hardcore Rap, Gangsta Rap, and East Coast Rap. Nowadays, there are too many famous rap singers who are respected by people, such as Kanye West, 50 cent, Jay-Z, Eminem and Dr. Dre. My favorite one is Eminem. He is a white person but he is really famous and really good at rapping. He had won many Grammy's Awards, and it is hard for a white guy to get such accomplishment. Besides, he is the teacher of 50 cent, who is also a really famous rapping music singers. Eminem has many fans around the world, not just in the United States. The traditional African American rap is always connected with big rings, chains on the neck, bars, clubs, sex and drugs. But Eminem's rapping is never related with these dirty things. He started a white people rapping legend which is really unbelievable. Rapping music has became really strong no
Disc Jockey is a job for people who beat-mixing and a person who introduces and plays recorded popular music, especially on radio or at a disco. Disc Jockey is also known as turntablism. The beginning of Disc Jockey is a song called "Play the Funky Music" by Cherry Lips. This kind of different music was really popular and young people loved it. There are a lot of disc jockeys in bars and nightclubs. In venues such as a club or rave, this is an audience of dancers. Originally, disc refers to phonograph records, not the later compact discs. Nowadays, disc jockeys have become really popular. This is a job for people who really love music and mixing the music.
File:DISCJ.jpegFile:B-boying.jpgB-boying is a type of famous dance like breaking. It made up with four parts : top or up rock, footwork, spinning moves and freeze. B-boying also came from Bronx, and it came from DJ Kool Herc's parties in Bronx. Once DJ Kool Herc is mixing the music and he found out the rhythm of b-boying that he can put between the breaks of the music. He was so excited and said, " Yo! Look at this b boyz." Then, b-boying was born. B-boying is not just for boys. There is another kind of dance called B-girl which is for girls. Besides, there are two different types of b-boying. One is power move and another is style move. There are a lot of famous b-boying dancers around the world, and there are competitions every year.
Graffiti art also started in Bronx, New York City. Bronx was the poorest place in New York City, and there were a lot of ruined walls. At the beginning, the gangs in Bronx painted the symbols of them on the walls. The symbols were really bad and ugly, and they could not be called graffiti art. There were some talented people who did not like the symbols on the wall, and they improved the paintings. They did much better than the gangs. Then, people realized that the wall is a cheap place for them to paint., and people who loved painting started to paint on the walls. Nowadays, the majority of graffiti has nothing to do with the gangs. They are just some people who would like to express their ideas and minds. They do not want to get money, and the only thing they want is to express their feelings and minds. The graffiti artists want to show that they are different from the gangs labelers. They would like to call themselves writers instead of painters. Now, there are many special terms for graffiti arts, such as all-city, bite, buff, burner, crossing our and battle.
Through my journey to New York City during the Thanksgiving holiday, where the hip hop started. I can see, smell the scent, and feel the hip hop cultures everywhere. There are many people who perform in the subway stations. There are many types of performance, such as instruments, rap, dance and magic. There is one thing in common, they all have a license that allow them to perform. From their performances, I can see that they really enjoy doing this. The passion is their motive to keep going forward. But I can see that the performers are not rich, and many of them are making a living by doing this. This is similar to how the hip hop culture started. Besides, there are a lot of graffiti works in subway stations and on some independent walls. The graffiti works are really good, it is a way how they express their feelings. The graffiti can be a word or a picture, and there's no limits to it, because a main meaning of hip-hop culture is freedom. In addition, there are a lot people who love skateboarding in New York City, and I can see them in many places. From my observations, people who love hip-hop culture always dress in a large t-shirt, which is larger than the suitable size for them. Besides, people who like skateboarding may wear differently. They may wear clothes and shoes for skateboarding.
Nowadays, hip hop culture does not really represent poverty and African Americans. Hip hop has became a kind of popular culture around the world. They are in the United States, South Korea, Japan, China, and many countries in the world. There has been many people who love hip hop culture. There are many brands that are related to hip hop culture, such as Nike Skateboarding, Supreme, Stussy and G-UNIT. G-UNIT is established by 50-cent, the rapping singer I talked before. There are a lot of people wear clothes that are designed by these brands. I do love hip hop cultures, too. I have several Supreme t-shirts and Stussy T-shirts. Besides, I tried to learn to skateboard, too.
Every culture represent a lot of people and their wills. If the culture still exists, there must be a reason that it still exists. Hip hop culture started with people's wills. People put their wills on dancing, singing, and basketball. Then, this culture became real to carry people's wills.
Work
Cited
Ahearn, Charlie; Fricke, Jim,
eds. (2002). Yes Yes Y'All:
The Experience Music Project Oral History of Hip Hop's First Decade. New
York City, New York: Da Capo Press.
Campbell, Clive; Chang, Jeff (2005). Can't
Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation. New York City, New
York: Picador.
Hager, Steven (1984). Hip Hop: The Illustrated History of
Breaking Dancing, Rap Music and Graffiti. New York City, New York: St. Martin's Press
