Hip-hop Vs. Rock And Roll: Which Genre Holds More Cultural Significane
Hip-Hop and Rock-n-Roll, at their beginnings, both had the same treatment as a genre and lifestyle. Both have been highly criticized for being too crude, brash, or callous. Even after all their criticism, these two genres would pave the way for some of America's most successful and legendary artists; thus introduces the question, Which one had a greater impact on American culture: Hip-Hop or Rock-n-Roll? Hip-Hop had a more sensitive subject matter for it’s time, Hip-Hop right out the gate homogenized and made a bigger impact than Rock-n-Roll did in its early days, and Hip-Hop is/turned into the genre that Rock-n-Roll wanted to be.
Rock-n-Roll during the 1950’s was accredited as being the template for rebellion and defiance, being born from “culture and vocalists singing about social matters and have pushing rhythm and blues.” Rock-n-Roll during the 50’s was targeted as the root to the unprecedented teenage nonconformity and bravado, this would lead to conservative households and religious organizations deeming the genre, “Satan’s music” or “the Devil’s music”. The Independence Hall writes in an article that, “Rock and roll sent shockwaves across America. A generation of young teenagers collectively rebelled against the music their parents loved. In general, the older generation loathed rock and roll. Appalled by the new styles of dance the movement evoked, churches proclaimed it Satan's music.” However, Rock-n-Roll’s focus on culture and social matters would be dethroned by Hip-Hop. The Bronx and Brooklyn, as crime and poverty-stricken community would become the catalyst for Hip-Hop and it’s reflection on life in America’s ever growing inner city populations. With this storytelling formula, Hip-Hop would deliver “rappers” which would be able to give a more ample descriptions such as drug trafficking, gang violence, and poverty while encouraging the African-American youth to pursue better choices. Allan Light and Greg Tate of the Britannica Encyclopedia notes rapper influencers and origins such as, “ West African griots, talking blues songs, jailhouse toasts (long rhyming poems recounting outlandish deeds and misdeeds), and the dozens (the ritualized word game based on exchanging insults, usually about members of the opponent’s family) inspiring radical black political ideology, building on the social consciousness of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s “The Message” (1982).” We can see that Rock-n-Roll trailblazed the path for having social and cultural aware lyrics in songs, there is no doubt that Rock-n-Roll curated and inspired many genres (one being Hip-Hop), however, Hip-Hop would collect and solidify these loose periscopes into a new art form to primarily express political, religious, social, and cultural views through rapping, for all to enjoy, especially the young African-Americans. With this we can be begin to understand that Hip-Hop has a larger connection to us in the 21st century that Rock-n-Roll in the 50’s. With ever growing populations and fluctuation of political turmoils, Hip-Hop and Rap have better odds in connecting and communicating serious experiences and messages to their audience while Rock and Roll is about creating and celebrating the life of the party and good times.
During the very late 70’s and early 80’s, as Hip-Hop was barley being constructed and formed by the streets of Brooklyn and the Bronx and well as influencers such as DJ Kool Herc, Grand Wizard Theodore, Afrika Bambaataa, and Grandmaster Flash, it would take off and go viral among the entire United States, creating sensational artists by the end of the decade. Rock and Roll, however, was confined by the Billboard for more than a decade until a breakthrough record would top the charts. The New Yorker writes, “Billboard started charting songs in 1940. By 1949, it was publishing charts in three categories: pop, country-and-Western, and (a new term, replacing “race music”) rhythm and blues. Every week, in each category, there were lists of the songs most frequently sold in record shops, most frequently requested in jukeboxes, and most frequently played by disk jockeys. The charting system was predicated on a segregated market. How did Billboard know when a song was a rhythm-and-blues hit, and not a pop hit? Because its sales were reported by stores that catered to an African-American clientele, its on-air plays were reported by radio stations that programmed for African-American listeners, and its jukebox requests were made in venues with African-American customers.” As Rock-n-Roll was developing throughout the 1940’s, it was confound to Rhythm-and-Blues and was not given the recognition it deserved from outside of the African-American community. It would take nearly a decade for white artists like Elvis Presley to finally break the segregated mainstream. On the other hand, Hip-Hop spread its wings early in it creation, creating hit songs and artists, migrating from sampling Rhythm-and-Blues and dancing on the song breaks to achieve lyrically deep songs and run a monopoly on urban culture. The Britannica Encyclopedia writes, “At the forefront was Run-D.M.C., a trio of middle-class African Americans who fused rap with hard rock, defined a new style of hip dress, and became staples on MTV as they brought rap to a mainstream audience.” “They were the first rappers to have a gold album Run-D.M.C. (1984) and the first rap act to appear on MTV, becoming popular with the cable channel’s largely white audience via their fusion of hardcore hip-hop and screaming guitar solos on hits such as “Rock Box” (1984) and a 1986 remake of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way” (featuring the song’s hard-rocking originators).” Run-DMC would become the breakthrough that Hip-Hop was looking for, the Elvis Presley of Hip-Hop, becoming the first mainstream compromisers, combining break dancing instrumentals with “MC” lyricism and wordsmithing. Hip-Hop, in half a decade had already become mainstream and transformed into its own genre and began branching into its own classifications. With this, we can begin to understand that Hip-Hop take of in the music industry was supplemented and consequently boosted by its location as well as time period. With Hip-Hop’s creation being in the more technologically advanced period in America’s history as well as being distributed in densely populated New York.
Rock-n-Roll, after the 1950’s, would grow and branch into numerous and distinct subgenres that would go on to hold their own torches as well. Rock-n-Roll had kindled the flame for the melting pot that Rock-n-Roll would become. Rock-n-Roll would become what is known as Rock. Simon Frith of the Britannica Encyclopedia writes, “As rock spread globally this had different implications in different countries, but in general it allowed rock to continue to define itself as youthful even as its performers and listeners grew up and settled down. And it meant that rock’s radical claim the suggestion that the music remained somehow against the establishment even as it became part of it was sustained by an adolescent irresponsibility, a commitment to the immediate thrills of sex ’n’ drugs ’n’ outrage and never mind the consequences.” Rock-n-Roll had amplified and swollen it’s aura of brash and crude defiance and rebellion. Rock would form into the loud and thrash genre that we would see throughout the 21st century, as well as transforming the lifestyle more lively, vigorous, and aggressive. However, Hip-Hop during its evolution into what it is today, took the same menacing and ominous stance that Rock wanted to achieve and a lot it did so a lot faster than Rock did throughout the 60’s and 70’s. Greg Tate states in the Britannica Encyclopedia, “Gangsta rap, a reflection and product of the often violent lifestyle of American inner cities afflicted with poverty and the dangers of drug use and drug dealing. The romanticization of the outlaw at the centre of much of gangsta rap appealed to rebellious suburbanites as well as to those who had firsthand experience of the the harsh realities of the ghetto.” Hip-Hop would now appeal to people who lived harsh lifestyles that Rock wanted to obtain as well. Hip-Hop had taken the same “hard-core” position and mentality to further cast and cought a larger audience, furthermore, all of these changes happened only half a decade after the 80’s boom of Hip-Hop. With this, we can begin to observe that there was a notable haste in making the Hip-Hop genre become viral. Even though the internet wasn’t available at the time, the music industry learned from past genres and pushed to advertise and commercialize off of anything possible.
In conclusion, Hip-Hop had more sensitive subject matters, being molded by the Bronx and Brooklyn’s crime, poverty, and turmoils with cultural, social, and political messages being able to spread with styles like MCing and Rapping. Hip-Hop during the mid-80’s was able to come together from the early days of mixing Rhythm-and-Blues records at parties to making platinum records in only under a decade. After Hip-Hop was inducted into the mainstream, it still sailed out to look for new audiences and thus creating new sound like Gangsta rap as well as it’s lifestyle it came with. Hip-Hop throughout its early life has given all its effort to break the glass ceiling and become a genre like no other; becoming a sound by the people for the people, for the people.
Works Cited
- “America Rocks and Rolls.” Ushistory.org, Independence Hall Association, www.ushistory.org/us/53d.asp.
- Frith, Simon. “Rock.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 9 Oct. 2018, www.britannica.com/art/rock-music/Crucial-rock-musicians.
- “Gold & Platinum.” RIAA, www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?tab_active=default-award&ar=Run-D.M.C.&ti=Raising+Hell#search_section.
- Light, Alan, and Greg Tate. “Hip-Hop.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 11 Apr. 2019, www.britannica.com/art/hip-hop.
- Menand, Louis, and Louis Menand. “The Real History of Rock and Roll.” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 19 June 2017, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/11/16/the-elvic-oracle.
- Tate, Greg. “Gangsta Rap.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 26 Nov. 2013, www.britannica.com/art/gangsta-rap.
- Tate, Greg. “Run-DMC.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 15 Nov. 2018, www.britannica.com/topic/Run-DMC.
