The Progression of Hip Hop

Hip hop is one of the most popular musical genresthis particular technique was DJ Kool Herc who is
today, largely in part to it's following of the youngercommonly credited as one of the original founders of
population. The younger children of today's generationhip-hop, a title that very few can come close to
are more in tune with what's going on in the musicalowning.
world as they're the primary target audience ofFast forward to modern day hip hop and you will
television shows and programs which target thisnotice the progression of the entire culture. Instead of
industry. And younger people have shown to buyonly having breaks cut out of sampled Jamaican music
more products than the older generation, thus propellingsongs, it incorporates many elements, such as break
hip hop into a huge market which rakes in billions ofdancing, graffiti art, rapping or emceeing and of course,
dollars per year in annual sales. From the actual tapes,DJing, also known as turntablism. It is also well known
CDs and DVDs the music and videos are pressedthat hip hop is no longer confined into the streets and
onto to the posters, T-shirts and other memorabilia theblocks of the Bronx or any other part of New York
images are printed onto, it is clear that hip hop is aCity. Instead it is a universal culture that continues to
massive industry.grow and will certainly thrive on for many years to
Beginning in the early '70s in New York City, the Bronxcome.
specifically, hip hop began as a way for people toThere are participants in this culture from all over the
have fun at block parties, a popular event held in tightworld, in places that only 30 years ago had never
knit neighborhoods. The DJ's who controlled the musiceven heard of rap music itself. This is still an incredibly
and atmosphere of the block parties would mainly playyoung culture and we're only beginning to see its
soul music and funk, very popular genres at the time.growth and maturation. Within another 30 years one
When the disc jockeys began to realize how popularcan easily imagine how completely different the culture
these genres were, they would chop out certain partswill become. As many people in the past have
of the songs, called breaks, and play them with eachfamously quoted: "You can't stop the Hip Hop!
other alone. One of the most famous employers of