My Artist's Subculture

My Subculture

The subculture I will be applying to my music video will be Hip-Hop. The Hip-Hop Culture is a popular and large followed subculture because of its style, values and famous followers such as 50 Cent and Jay-Z.

The Hip-Hop culture is seen as an artistic culture that comes from African-American communities during the 1970s in New York City, most specifically the Bronx. The values of Hip-Hop are known to be MCing, DJing, break dancing (normally any type of modern dance such as body popping) and graffiti; another would be beat boxing.

Hip-Hop

The Hip-Hop culture has had a wide following and appeal to many masses since its start in the Bronx, although created by black youth in their communities the hip-hop culture influence has became worldwide. Approximately 75% of the rap and hip-hip audience is non-black. The Hip-Hop culture is so successful and influential that corporate boardrooms have involved themselves in the culture such companies as McDonald’s, Coca Cola, Sprite, Nike, and other corporate giants have capitalized on this phenomenon; supporting the culture for many years not leading to its downfall.


The Culture started with disc jockeys creating rhythmic beats by looping breaks (taking apart small portions of songs and putting them together as one) on two turntables, this is known now as sampling. This later followed up with “rap” and “mcing”, this was a rhythmic style of chanting similar to poetry presented most normally in a 16 bar time frame. Beat boxing soon followed up as it was a vocal technique of sound patterns to imitate certain music which normally were the music effects of hip-hop DJs. An original form of dancing and specific style of dress arose among fans by this new sound, thus creating the culture. 

Graffiti and the hip-hop culture arises as an art form to express an new form of hip-hop elements which is now widely recognised as a hip-hop culture. The practices of graffiti were normally created in areas where hip-hop was largely recognised thus leading artists to use these practices in their videos and other media involving the culture. 

Many critics even world leaders and government officials fixated on the messages of sex, violence, and strong language, which continues to appear in the music and culture. The hip-hop culture has challenged the system (popular culture) in ways that have unified individuals for example youth across black communities everywhere and others. 

Today, hip-hop and rap is the fastest growing music genre and subculture in the U.S; accounting for more than 10% of the $12.3 billion music sales in 1998. Rap music has become a landmark in hip-hop culture as the language (street slang), fashion (baggy clothes, baseball cap, and expensive trainers) have all been established from rap. 

Rappers worldwide popularity is due to the large amount of album sales and pop chart number 1s. At the end of 1998 three of the top selling albums were rap artists such as Jay-Z, Outkast and A Tribe Call Quest. As Richard Dyer believes Stars influence people to be like them, thus this leading to a large amount of youth following their subculture and values as they top sellers. 

History

Hip-hop began in the 1970s which was founded firstly parties and the streets in New York. This was founded most noticeably by DJ Clive “Kool Herc” Campbell who proved influential in the hip-hop culture and music, he moved to Bronx from Jamaica when he was thirteen. He then showed the people of that community a new style of music by using Jamaican culture of using boastful poetry and speech over music which he was shown in his youth in Jamaica.

Herc and other DJs would then soon perform in public areas such as basketball courts and the streets in the Bronx, New York for example 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, this was said to be where hip-hop established itself due to the amount of performances which were made.

Herc also developed ‘break-beat DJing’, where the samples of funk and soul song suited dances in parties. Herc called his dancers break boys and break girls also known as b-boys and b-girls. The breaking dances became a soul part of the hip-hop culture, before it developed fully as everywhere you would see someone mcing there would be dancing.

In the late 1970s hip-hop was still seen as an underground urban which black communities only looked to express in the Bronx, New York. Although the music and culture started to gain more attention with the release of Sugar Hill Gang’s successful song ‘Rappers Delight’, this developed the genre and culture. Graffiti, break dancing, rap, and the fashion of hip-hop became the number one culture a black urban communities.

Music videos of hip-hop changed media as videos were normally shown in urban neighbourhoods. The music video “Planet Rock” showed off the subculture of hip-hop by showing graffiti, rappers, and break dancers. With the rise of hip-hop by 1985, youth worldwide embraced and enjoyed the hip-culture by its elements which were entertaining. I will use urban communities as a strong influence in my music video.

Slang

Street language is a strong element of the hip-hop culture. The street language is of broken down English with the urban community, for example ‘homie’ which means someone close to your home a neighbour in some sense although in street terms someone from the same community as you or someone close to you. Even if hip-hop artists have different first languages, they can still understand each other in slang of hip-hop this is also often with people who follow the culture.

Fashion

Many rap artists come from ghettos and streets as these are where hip-hop is embraced and has a lot of influence, thus the viewers normally seeing them showing off money and jewellery as in their music videos and media to their success. Even though showing off their expensive they still have a sense of who they once was as a star, a paradox being that they still wear urban fashion but more expensive designs.

The hip-hop culture has dominated fashion since the 1990s. The fashion normally being baggy jeans worn loosely showing off their underwear, baseball caps worn either backwards or front which are normally NBA, NFL or successful university athletic teams, oversized or fitted rugby or polo shirts, and expensive trainers. Hip-hop fashion unlike any other cultural fashion over the years has appealed and applied itself to every ethnicity. Many ethnic groups such as Africans, Caribbeans, Americans, Europeans, Latinos and Asians of the ages between 12 and 30 embrace the fashion almost sub-consciously.

Media

The hip-hop culture has prompted many industries to acknowledge their enthusiasm. Sit-coms such as the ‘Fresh Prince of Bel Air’, ‘Martin’ and ‘Harvey’ appeal to black communities and cultures. In the past black humour only appealed to a few outside black communities although now it is widespread. Also movies such as ‘Boyz N the Hood’ and ‘Menace II Society’ are gritty hard movies showing the reality of urban streets and the realness of how black communities live and what struggles they under cross. Although comedy films such as ‘Friday’ and ‘Booty Call’ show the humour that still surroundings black communities which appeal to other ethnicities.

Hip-hop culture has received numerous coverage in the media especially television. For a long time since their beginning in 1980, BET was the only television channel likely or even to play hip-hop music and to showcase the subculture but as the culture developed the mainstream popular culture television channels like VH1 and MTV have added significant amount of hip-hop music.

Magazines such as Vibe, Blaze, and The Source were created to appeal to black communities and other ethnic groups who followed the culture to fully understand it and see the changes undergoing within it. These magazines have become internationally successful since their release in the late 90s.

Censorship

Hip-hop uses profanity as a strong reference in music and slang also sometimes a persons personality. The use of profanity, violence and sex challenged the hip-hop being on television due to some of the videos content and how they are viewed. This caused many stations not to broadcast their videos and some radios not to play their music for example Nelly’s Tip Drill which was shown to exploit women. As a result many record labels censored images and muted lyrics out of tracks or replaced them with other lyrics. This was done so viewers may not be offended by its content.

Conclusion

Unlike any other subculture in history, the hip-hop culture has transcended ethnic boundaries this is why I will use this culture in my music video because I know the elements of how to use this subculture in my music video and how to appeal to them by the use of rap, fashion and dance. Hip-hop is widely recognised in many communities as it now stands out more than any other cultures due to its music, language and fashion, thus allowing me having more success of appealing it to my video also my song helps me even more as it is the hip-hop genre.