Hip Hop Dance : Dance

Hip hop, the creation of electronic sound and enticing language is a style born from the African American and Hispanic cultures. It formed in New York City from block parties and the participation of the youth culture. This style of music began as a minimal change in rhythm to a globally popular culture consisting of graffiti art, dancing, and music. Hip hop was not only a type of tasteful music, but it also became a benchmark in history. When this style of music was created, it served as an outlet for those who did not have a voice, particularly the minority groups. These groups were given rights that they deserved just like everyone else. In the 1970’s is when hip hop began to spread, creating not just

According to Wikipedia, Hip-hop music, also called rap music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted. It developed as part of hip hop culture, a subculture defined by four key stylistic elements: MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching, breaking/dancing, and graffiti writing. Hip hop is also characterized by these other elements: sampling (or synthesis), and beatboxing.

When the music is being spun by the DJ that is when an MC raps. Coke La Rock, Busy Bee, and Luvbug Starts were the earlier MC’s. B-boying was a style of dance associated with hip-hop. The people who danced while a DJ would spin his records were called B-boys and B-girls. The B-boys did many footwork combinations, kicks, spins, and balances on their hands, shoulders, and heads. B-Girl and B-Boy dance battles were very common in the early days of hip-hop culture. On August 11, 1973, the controversial genre of music was born (Powell).

Hip Hop was birthed in the neighborhood, where young people gathered in parks, on playgrounds, and neighborhood street corners, to verbalize poetry over spontaneous sounds and adopted melodies. Hip Hop was not just the music; it was also a way for the young to show their skills in break dancing, gymnastic dance style that was valued, and athleticism over choreographed fluidity. Hip hop was also fashion such as: hats, jackets, gold chains, and name-brand sneakers. Hip Hop was a form of graffiti, to a new way of expression that engaged spray paint on the subway walls as the canvas. In addition, today’s hip hop have changed as where the DJ was once is now the producer as the key music maker, and the park is now a studio.

In order to understand hip-hop dance, it is important to recognize hip-hop music and where it came from. Many scholars of rap music relate the founding of rap to African and African American oral and musical traditions, specifically African griots and storytellers. They link the rhythm of rap to the use of drums in Africa and to African American music in the United States, from slave songs and spirituals to jazz and R&B. Scholars have found very interesting connections between rap music and Black nationalist traditions (traditions historically practiced by black people that serve as part of their racial identity). Rap is similar to the “call and response of the black church, the joy and pain of the blues, the jive talk and slang of the hipsters and jazz musicians, the boasting of street talk, the sidesplitting humor of comedians, and the articulateness of black activists.” All of these African American oral traditions, including rap, can be traced back to West African oral traditions. In traditional African societies, the spoken word and oral culture included poetry, storytelling, and speaking to drumbeats. The links between rap music and African American oral and musical traditions demonstrate that hip-hop music represents more than just sound. It represents history. This aspect of it, in my opinion, makes this type of music very unique and makes it carry more value.

Hip-Hop culture is often confused with the Hip-Hop genre. Hip-Hop as a culture is more than just the music, it is a way of life. Hip-Hop music as a genre has changed from being Rap to including Pop. Hip-Hop is an evolving culture, constantly changing as the older generation fades and the newer generation carries on the legacy along with incorporating it's new style. The new generation of Hip-Hop or rather Hip-Hop today focuses more on Partying, music, and Swag rather than the original elements: Deejaying, Emceeing, Graffiti, and B-Boy or break dancing. These elements are still seen in today's Hip-Hop but have adapted a new style.

Dancing is a historical tradition. Hip-hop dancing has been alive at social functions for centuries, and Popping and Break dancing are the old school days gone by. In recent years, Hip-hop dance has proved its long lasting presence in our lives. It is in our media, our music and day-to-day social functions. It isn't usually taught parent-to-child so people are seeking schools where they can learn. With Dance sport being considered as a medal sport in the next Olympics, more people will be exposed to Social and Hip-hop dance.

Hip-Hop is a complex cultural movement formed during the early 1970s by African Americans in the slums of South Bronx, New York (Dyson 6), it propagated outside of the African American community in late 1980s, and by the opening of the 21th century it became the most spread culture in the world. Hip-Hop consists of four elements: Deejay, Break-Dancing, Rapping, and Graffiti. (Kenon 112)

Hip hop is a culture style that started in the 1970’s. Majority of different funk groups began playing disco music at that time it was popular. During this time funk music was technology driven more electronic sounds was being used on the drum machines. Funk was the new dance in the early 70’s. This particular style of singing in which was being used is called rapping, this begun in African American, Urban Areas, Jamaican American, Latino American and many others cities of the United States. The group of artist or singer say words with a rhythm that rhymes. Some hip hop music lyrics are about violence and illegal drugs. Often time lyrics are about the life of urban people who stay in big cities. Other styles that hip hop uses come from pop music such as disco and reggae. Hip hop and rap music has become very popular and a successful genre in music. The style of dressing called urban clothes is also involved with the hip hop culture. They wore big baggy pants, large t-shirts, and Timberland leather work boots. In the 2000’s the United States and Canada popular music style was hip hop music (Kavanagh).

As Tricia Rose explains in A Style Nobody Can Deal With, hip-hop culture originated in the mid to late-1970s in urban New York as a way for minorities to express themselves. In the beginning, hip-hop culture consisted of four ‘elements’, or ways of expression: rapping, DJing, break-dancing, and graffiti (Rose 73). The rapper, or MC (master of ceremonies), expresses themselves through the most basic form of communication, words. He or she performs their lyrics over instrumentation provided by the DJ. These DJs brought unique sounds by

Hip-hop culture began to develop in the south Bronx area of New York City during the 1970s. It had a significant influence in the music industry. Hip-hop music generally includes rapping, but other elements such as sampling and beatboxing also play important roles. Rapping, as a key part in the hip-hop music, takes different forms, which including signifying, dozen, toast and jazz poetry. Initially, hip-hop music was a voice of people living in low-income areas, reflecting social, economic and political phenomenon in their life [1]. As time moves on, hip-hop music reached its “golden age”, where it became a mainstream music, featuring diversity, quality, innovation and influence [2]. Gangsta rap, one of the most significant innovations in

Hip Hop was born in the neighborhood, where young people gathered in parks, on playgrounds, and street corners, to speak poetry over mechanical sounds and borrowed melodies. Hip Hop was always bigger than just the music; it was also break dancing, the gymnastic dance style that valued improvised, angular athleticism over choreographed fluidity. Hip hop was also fashion such as: hats, jackets, gold chains, and brand sneakers. Hip Hop was graffiti, to a new way of expression that employed spray paint as the medium and subway walls as the canvas.

There has always been a strong connection between hip hop music and pop music. It has brought a bountiful amount of collaborations and music that makes individuals want to dance and have a great time. Many times there is a negative connection between the musical styles. For example, there is also a lot of disdain between artists, many times about whether their respective genre is what they consider “real” music. Pop music has been defined as “a body of music which is distinguishable from popular jazz, rock and folk music.” Hip Hop music has been defined as “ a music genre that consists of stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted.” The sheer number of similarities between hip

Because of these reasons, Rock Steady Crew suggests that footworks-emphasiezed style should be the direction of breaking of 90s. Breaking is the most popular style of hip hop dancing and it has been spreading all over the world while new school dancing such as hip hop and house limited to big cities in the US and Japan. See examples of freezes history It was late 60s , early 70s when people started a sort of b-boying. Their dancing was called "Good Foot" from James Brown's record of the same name. The Good Foot was the first freestyle dance that incorporated moves involving drops and spins, and resembled the beginning s of breaking. Breakin seems so different from all other kinds of dancing that the first question people ask when they see it is: "Where did these kids learn to dance like that?" To many people, this dance seems to have come out of nowhere. But like everything else, Breakin did come from somewhere, something and someone. In the case of Breakin, the someone is the great superstar, James Brown, and the something is the dance, the Good Foot. In 1969, when James Brown came out with the Hustle which was the big dance style of the day and he performed, he did the kind of dance you'd expect James Brown to do. High Energy which was almost acrobatic. By the time the Good Foot became the new dance style, the tradition of dance battle was well established. Dancers would gather at places like Harlem World on 116th Street in Harlem and

There are two broad categories of Hip-hop dance: new school and old school. Old school of hip-hop dance contains several styles that were created in the 1970s and 1980s, including breaking, locking and popping (Bronner 3). The main element of breaking dance is movements executed close to the ground. Breaking dance is a battle between several groups. Dancers use different movements, spins with heads, leg movements and arm movements. They dance to the rhythms of hip-hop music. Generally speaking, breaking is more suitable for males because it is more masculine and fiercer. Although popping and locking dances look similar, there are many differences between them. In locking, dancers maintain a movement for a while. Main movements in locking contain lock, points, and rollover of the fist. Popping dance takes use of vibration of body parts according to the rhythm. Main movements of popping include floating, gliding, and sliding, ticking and robot. New school hip-hop dance includes house, street jazz and other forms that were created in the 1990s (Bronner 3). New forms of hip-hop introduce many elements of other dance styles, such as jazz, Latin dance and ballet. Generally, they are more suitable for females.