Many definitions of music implicitly hold that music is a communicative activity which conveys to the listener moods, emotions, thoughts, impressions, or philosophical, sexual, or political concepts or positions. "Musical language" may be used to mean style or genre, while music may be treated as language without being called such, as in Fred Lerdahl or others' analysis of musical grammar. Levi R. Bryant defines music not as a language, but as a marked-based, problem-solving method such as mathematics (Ashby 2004, 4).
Because of its ability to communicate, music is sometimes described as the "universal language". Yet the "meaning" of music is obviously culturally mediated. For example, in Western society, minor chords are often perceived as "sad", an understanding other cultures rarely share.
THE EVOLUTION OF HIP HOP MUSIC
Afro American people have always used verbal or the oral tradition to convey history. As Afro Americans used these traditions they started to use more and more entertaining words and making the story more animated. Did you know that this is the first time that Hip Hop came to be? Back in the days of slavery when slaves were on the plantation singing spiritual songs they were using a form of rap music. How, you may ask? These slaves had no instruments: they used beats from any object that they got their hands on. Whatever was on the slaves' minds they sung about? Sometimes they would sing about being free like the bird. They would also sing about going back home. While they were on the porch or in the back yard other slaves would join in and add their two cents. Much like the hip hop-rap music of today. After some raps other person starts to take over.
Hip Hop music is also in the black church. How so, you may ask? The call and response of the preacher. The preacher calls out and says 'church can I get an Amen,' and the church response with the amen. Like today when a rap artist yells out 'give me a ho ho,' and the audinces shouts back with a 'ho ho.'
DJ Kool Herc
Clive Campbell (born April 16, 1955), AKA Kool Herc, DJ Kool Herc and Kool DJ Herc, is a Jamaican-born DJ who is credited as originating hip hop music, in the Bronx, New York City. His playing of hard funk records of the sort typified by James Brown was an alternative both to the violent gang culture of the Bronx and to the nascent popularity of disco in the 1970s. In response to the reactions of his dancers, Campbell in 1972 began to isolate the instrumental portion of the record which emphasized the drum beat—the break—and switch from one break to another to yet another.
Using the two turntable set-up of the disco DJs, Campbell's style led to the use of two copies of the same record to elongate the break. This break beats DJing, using hard funk, rock, and records with Latin percussion, formed the basis of hip hop music. Campbell's announcements and exhortations to dancers would lead to the syncopated, rhymed spoken accompaniment we now know as raping. He dubbed his dancers break-boys and break-girls, or simply b-boys and b-girls. Campbell's DJ style was quickly taken up by figures such as Africa Bambaataa and Grandmaster flash. Unlike them, he never made the move into recorded hip hop in its earliest years.
Hip hop music is a genre of music typically consisting of a rhythmic style of speaking called rap over backing beats performed on a turntable by a DJ. Hip hop music is part of hip hop culture, which began in New York City in the 1970s, predominantly among African Americans and Latinos (two other elements are breakdancing and graffiti art). [1] The term rap is sometimes used synonymously with hip hop music, though it originally referred only to rapping itself.
Rapping, also referred to as MCing or emceeing, is a vocal style in which the performer speaks rhythmically and in rhyme, generally to a beat. Beats are traditionally sampled from portions of other songs by a DJ, though synthesizers drum machines, and live bands are also used, especially in newer music. Rappers may perform poetry which they have written ahead of time, or improvise rhymes on the spot. Though rap is usually an integral component of hip hop music, DJs sometimes performs and record alone, and many instrumental acts are also defined as hip hop.
Rapping (also known as emceeing, MCing, spitting, or just rhyming) is the rhythmic spoken delivery of rhymes and wordplay, one of the elements of hip hop music and culture. The use of the word to describe quick speech or repartee long predates the musical form,[1] meaning originally "to hit".[2] The word had been used in British English since the 16th century, and specifically meaning "to say" since the 18th. It was part of the African American dialect of English in the 1960s meaning "to converse", and very soon after that in its present usage as a term denoting the musical style.[3]
James Brown
James Joseph Brown, Jr. (May 3, 1933 - December 25, 2006), commonly referred to as "The Godfather of Soul," "King of Funk," and "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business", was a two-time Grammy Award-winning and multiple Grammy Award-nominated Americanentertainer recognized as one of the most influential figures in 20th century popular music. He was renowned for his shouting vocals, feverish dancing and unique rhythmic style.
Brown began his professional music career in 1953, and rose to fame during the late 1950s and early 1960s on the strength of his thrilling live performances and string of smash hits. In spite of various personal problems and setbacks he continued to score hits in every decade through to the 1980s. In addition to his acclaim in music, Brown was a presence in American political affairs during the 1960s and 1970s, noted especially for his activism on behalf of fellow African Americans and the poor. During the early 1980s, Brown's music helped to shape the rhythms of early hip-hop music, with numerous groups looping or sampling his funk grooves and turning them into what became hip hop classics and the foundations of the music genre.
