1980's Music Analysis

Perry ultimately analyzes Hip Hop music through the meaning of the lyrics and the impact that the song has on its surroundings. This criteria for examination can be applied to the analysis of the differences and similarities between “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five and “N.Y. State of Mind” by Nas. Although both records are significantly different in terms of the musical aspects of each song, they are ultimately similar in that they both portray the reality of the ghetto areas in New York through the significant use of rapping. Thus, both records have significantly impacted the evolution of rap music and rap’s role in the music industry today. Both ultimately are used to promote an awareness of continuing racial and social injustices and the need for it to be diminished.

McBride begins the essay by telling the readers of his nightmare. He once feared that his daughter would arrive home one day with a stereotyped rapper husband with “ mouthful of gold teeth, a do-rag on his head… and a thug attitude” (McBride 1). He came to realize that he in fact, hip-hop, a genre that he once didn’t believe was music, had become one of the most known genres in the world. The speaker first heard his first rap song at a college party in Harlem in 1980. The jazz lover he was, cringed at the rap music he claimed to be so poorly thought out and written. For the next 26 years of his life, he went out of his way to avoid hip-hop music all together, as if It was never there in the first place.

In the essay, McBride’s logical appeals are used to help his purpose by using facts and examples to describe the rise of hip hop culture, and explain its significance based on more than just opinion. A particular instance of McBride making a logical appeal would be “In the mid-1970s, New York City

Joan Morgan, a self proclaimed feminist, loves the power that rap and hip hop offers. Joan, also a music writer, is exceptionally troubled by the disrespect of women in not only in the musical lyrics but also the music videos. In the June 1990 edition of Ebony Magazine, Charles Whitaker wrote an editorial addressing the problems American culture brought on by the hip hop industry. Even though, his editorial was published in the 1990’s, it is extremely clear Charles Whitaker saw the negativity brought along with “The Hip Hop and Rap Revolution.” Both authors loved the powerful energy the new hip hop movement brought along with its beginnings, dating back to the mid to late 1970’s. With that being said, the two authors, both had one recurring theme within their respective works, the evolution of hip hop and rap. In other words, both Joan Morgan and Charles Whitaker addressed the issues brought on by the change in the rap and hip hop industry over its short exists. Change is the absolute most constant thing in our world, whether it is positive or negative change that is uncertain, in both of the articles that change in hip hop and rap is demonstrated

Thesis: the paper’s focus on hip-hop as a music genre that has changed the lives of the black Americans

During the 1970’s, The Bronx in New York City was an incredibly poor, deteriorating, poverty-stricken area that was comprised of primarily Black and Latino residents. As a response to the systemic racism that these communities faced, young black men became vocal about their communities’ issues through the use of hip hop music. Thus, it was during this time that hip hop became a rising platform; and was predominantly influenced by the Black power movements which promoted black nationalism, liberation and empowerment as a response to systemic anti-black racism. This platform allowed many young black men to address and vocalize the issues that affected their communities due to systemic oppressions upheld by white hegemonic ideologies and institutions. Throughout this time, artist’s addressed issues of poverty, unemployment, wealth inequality -- essentially used as a critique of neoliberalism. It was not until the corporate profitization of hip-hop during the late 90’s/00’s that these issues became less frequent in the forefront of the lyrics.

“I want kids of this generation to see that everything is cool, that there 's some kind of unity in hip-hop. We all found something that 's really important to us, and music is all we 've really got” – Missy Elliot. Hip-Hop is a cultural movement and popular genre of music that emerged during the early 1970 's by working class Black youths in New York City. The cultural movement has rapidly expanded across different countries and ethnicities over the years, becoming one of the few markers that define a generation. Hip-Hop can be seen as “the fundamental matrix of self-expression for this whole generation” (Katz & Smith, 1993). Through music, itself, artists can express their feelings towards different events or social changes that they’ve see or have experienced in their lives. According to Frith (1986), this perspective towards writing music is similar to Mooney’s argument that popular song lyrics is a reflection of what’s missing or needed at their time, giving us a trace of America’s ‘mood’ throughout history. In return, music artists captivate the minds of people among various backgrounds who use these relatable music lyrics as a source of empowerment or as an expression of their own thoughts. While some music artists create music to uplift their audience by giving them a sense of freedom, other artists create music that separates their audience by dehumanizing one group and giving power to the other.

After the 1980s blacks had finally made their own identities which were recognized through their talents. While creating black studies and preferring to be called African Americans instead of derogatory names such as a “Nigger” or “Negroes.” However, music symbolizes the younger generations in the 1960s, especially Hip Hop and Rap music. Hip Hop gives blacks authentic music they can relate to with the lyrics and their everyday life struggles. It also conveys attitudes in a specific art form. Rap music defines the artist’s character and allow them to speak from their hearts with passion. This music gives a voice to the poor, oppressed and younger youth against harassment while portraying the image of black people in poverty.

In less than forty years, the city of Compton went from a shielded suburb near the confines of Los Angeles, to a terrorizing image of American culture. The results of this transformation and creation of “gangsta rap” is still well renowned today. Through de jure segregation, Reagan economics, undermining of black prosperity, N.W.A., and “Boyz n the Hood”, the city of Compton told its story and became a global image. This paper will analyze the shift of culture in Compton and the transcendent cultural effect it formed in America.

Greg Tate of the Encyclopedia Brittanica (insider for hip-hop music) stated best that “...the romanticization of the outlaw at the centre of much of gangsta rap appealed to rebellious suburbanites as well as to those who had firsthand experience of the harsh realities of the ghetto.” Here, Tate explains the true meaning behind the genre ‘gangsta rap’. Though brutal and straightforward, this music selection was an expression of freedom for those stuck in low-income homes, poverty stricken neighborhoods, drug polluted streets, and gang filled high schools. Gangsta rap not only proved to be an outlet from the ‘ghettos’ but it also altered the hip-hop sound. Gangsta rap proved, in the early 80s and late 90s, to be the music that would alter the previous hip-hop movement through narrative lyrics, hardcore beats, and realistic messages from the east and west coasts.

1986 saw Ice T and NWA, recently lauded in the film Straight Outta Compton, “using brutally honest rhymes and hardcore beats, put their frustration and anger about life in the most dangerous place in America into the most powerful weapon they had: their music… these cultural rebels-armed only with their lyrics, swagger, bravado and raw talent-stood up to the authorities [the police] that meant to keep them down and formed the world's most dangerous group, N.W.A. And as they spoke the truth that no one had before and exposed life in the hood, their voice ignited a social revolution that is still reverberating today.”5 Sadly, NWA’s “truth… [and]… social revolution” also included lyrics both racist and misogynistic that advocated violence against groups simply because of their skin color, biology, or profession: in a word, prejudice. While racially-targeted housing discrimination, randomized police gang manifests, the beating of Rodney King and resulting Watts Riots all make understandable such a musical backlash, it does not make it acceptable. Such prejudice is mirrored in the LA-area disaster fiction and film, perhaps most notably in the white-supremacist Turner Diaries, a “lurid, violent, apocalyptic, misogynistic, racist and anti-Semitic neo Nazi” in which Aryan forces overthrow the U.S. government, in one section eerily foreshadowing Timothy McVeigh’s all-too-real Oklahoma City Bombing.6 Fashion choices for musical and fictional heroes followed their instigators, and shaved heads (white supremacists) or baggy clothes bearing “Compton” made clear a person’s allegiances to the casual bystander. A return to the bookstore, preferably a brick-and-mortar edifice, gives a small amount of hope to a continuing thread of racism weaving its way through popular and counter-culture California world of arts and letters. From 1990 to the

As the ‘golden age’ came to an end at the start of the 1980s, a new type of hip-hop was developed, it’s called “gangsta rap” and was created by artists such as N.W.A, Schoolly D and Ice T. This variation of rap was different because of the violent lyrics and inappropriate

Rap music, also known as hip-hop, is a popular art form. Having risen from humble origins on the streets of New York City during the mid-1970s, hip-hop has since become a multifaceted cultural force. Indeed, observers say, hip-hop is more than just music. The culture that has blossomed around rap music in recent decades has influenced fashion, dance, television, film and—perhaps what has become the most controversially—the attitudes of American youth. For many rappers and rap fans during it’s early time, hip-hop provided an accurate, honest depiction of city life that had been considered conspicuously absent from other media sources, such as television. With a growing number of rap artists within this period, using hip-hop as a platform to call for social progress and impart positive messages to listeners, the genre entered a so-called Golden Age

The Album 'Raising Hell' released in 1986 is an important album to discuss. Particular tracks from this album are examples from Run-D.M.C's career that could be used to discuss the commodification of the group, therefore the subculturethey represent. The tracklist includes songs that introduce the merging of seperate subcultures to make them mainstream, the selling of style and brand directly through music and the continual promotion of the group post the peak of their popularity. I will discuss what Run-D.M.C exemplifies and the implications that this has on Hip-hop, does becoming 'pop' dismiss the authenticity of a genre and the origins of a

It in the 80’s when Denny bought a Bronco II model from make Ford which according with the marketing manual available was a vehicle that was “suitable to contemporary life styles” and to “commuting from suburban and city driving.” It was a vehicle considered highly appealing to women with kids due to the fact that it was able to change from two-wheel to four-wheel and vice versa fact that made it look safer for drive in snow and ice.