Jazz Dance Lab

In the article, Hip-hop; Music and Cultural Movement written by Alan Light, Greg Tate stated that “The term Hip-hop refers to a complex culture comprising four elements: deejaying, or turntabling; rapping, also known as “MCing” or “rhyming”; graffiti painting known as “graf” or “writing”; and “B-boying,” which encompasses hip-hop dance, style, and attitude, along with the sort of virile body language that philosopher Cornel West described as “postural

Hip-hop is a cultured 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 were 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

“…the appropriation of hip-hop cultural forms suggest not that whites want a black identity: rather, they want characteristics of blackness.” (Perry 2002, 109). This is quote by Pamela Perry, a sociologist as University of California Santa Cruz, from her book Shades of White:White Kids and Racial Identities in High School. Pamela Perry is a sociologist from University of California, Santa Cruz, throughout her book she touches on the idea of white children developing a sort of identity crisis depending on their environment. This quote helps put the appropriation of African American culture in its simplest terms. In most cases people associate Hip Hop culture with African Americans. With that being said, many artist of different genres who attempt to have a more hip hop vibe, fall subject to appropriating African American Culture. Various artist have been appropriating culture in several different ways whether it’s through dance, sound, or even image.

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.

I believe that Can't Stop, Won't Stop, Wild Style, Egyptian Lover, Finding the funk, and Breakin' n' Enterin' speak to each other in helping narrate hip hop's origin mythologies. Each of these represent different sectors of the black community and how it all intertwines. Breaking down each element it will be easy to see how each goes hand in hand with each other. Can't Stop, Won't Stop is an element that gives a lot of information from different areas. This provides a highlight on some of the most important people of the time, Fab Five Freddy.

Knowledge of jazz has fallen far behind its development. Most people do not know the facts on jazz, only some generalities and stereotypes. Often being called America’s only original art form, jazz began as an ethnic music, but there is much more to jazz than music. It is difficult to think of jazz without thinking of African-American

Hip Hop has been a thread of music that is deeply rooted in the struggle within the black communities of America. It acted as a window for people outside of the black community to acknowledge and experience, to an extent, what endeavors those communities encounter. Although Hip Hop’s central purpose is to denote the subjugation that was implemented on the black community, Hip Hop began as a mere offshoot of 1970’s jazz, funk, and soul.

Jazz is a music genre that has complex characteristics and history of development and thus many musicians and scholars face troubles in defining what jazz is. In general, jazz is believed to have born in New Orleans. Jazz developed for the pleasure of the social dancers. According to the “Understanding Jazz: What Is Jazz?” of John F. Kennedy center for the Performing Arts, Jazz was created mainly by Afro-Americans, and had elements of European and Afro-American culture. Also, it emphasizes few elements of Jazz, which are swing-feel, syncopation, and improvisation. These different culture and elements of jazz may be explained by how jazz

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 has multiple branches of style and is a culture of these. This essay will examine Hip Hop from the point of view of the following three popular music scholars, Johnson, Jeffries and Smitherman. It will delve deeper into their understanding of what hip hop is and its relation to the different people that identify with its message and contents. It will also identify the history of Hip hop and its transition into popular music. In particular this essay will focus on what hip hop represents in the black community and how it can be used as a social movement against inequalities faced by them. This will then open up the discussion for the how this has influenced society, and the impact it has had in terms of race issues which hip hop

The varieties of jazz dance reflect the diversity of American culture. Jazz dance mirrors the social history of the American people, reflecting ethnic influences, historic events, and cultural changes. Jazz dance has been greatly influenced by social dance and popular music. But, like so much that is “from America”, the history of jazz dance begins somewhere else.

The dance community that surrounds me has been the most impactful in my life. My mother first signed me up for dance classes when I was only four years old, and now almost fifteen years later I am still dancing. I started out at a dance studio in Gresham, Oregon, where I then danced for ten years. I took classes, performed, and started competing against other dancers and studios around when I was nine years old. It didn’t hit me that I enjoyed performing until I started dancing in more and more shows. Dance was a struggle for many years at this specific studio. There was a lot of moves that I couldn’t do, and I got left behind, as the other dancers my age improved and became more flexible. I felt like I owed the teachers, staff, and other

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

Jazz was inspired by African-American folk music, Blues and Ragtime in the early 20th century and introduced in New Orleans. According to the text book “Discovering Humanities”, “Jazz was “the” American music, and was almost as popular in Paris and Berlin as it was in New York, Chicago, and New Orleans” (468). The first feature of Jazz is improvisation, when a song was played there is no specific arrangement, it is spontaneously elaborated around a specific song (Listen, 386). A second feature is that there is a rhythmic style that involves highly developed syncopation. Syncopation occurs when accents in

Hip-hop dance is a popular and energetic dance genre, usually accompanied by hip-hop music. It has enjoyed popularity among young people all over the world. I have been interested in hip-hop music and dance for a long time. I can show my love for life and exercise my body by practicing hip-hop dance. Young people like hip-hop dance because they can invent their own moves. It offers young people a new way to express their own personalities and emotion. Hip-hop dance also shows that they feel good about life and that they are not afraid of problems. With a history of about 40 years, hip-hop dance first began in the 1970s in the US (Pabon, 1999). In early times, people in New York and Los Angles began to perform hip-hop dance. It was first