Cultural Analysis FiNAL DRAFT

Jerrod Scarber

Mr. Paszek

English 1020-001

6 July 2011

According to the web page “A Brief History Of Rap and Hip Hop” Hip Hop is a culture of art and musical abilities and expressions, born in the African American and Latino communities of New York City during the 1970’s, It consists of four major elements djing, graffiti, breaking ,and mcing. Mcing is also known as rapping, which is spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics. Djing is when a Dj uses two albums creating tricks and scratches on a turntable. Breaking, also known as break dancing is a style of dance. Graffiti is an expression painted by artist using pictures. The Mcing element rapping is the biggest element out of the four. It has had the most impact and has created its own sub culture called rap culture Turntables, mixing boards, and computers are just some of the technology used in hip hop culture today. Without these Djs, artist, producers, and engineers would not be able to work the way they do playing, mixing, and producing music. Also they would not be able to connect to their audience. Technology has changed the way independent and mainstream rap artists promote and produce their music in the Hip Hop culture.

Since its birth, Hip Hop has emerged from the small community of the South Bronx, New York to become a worldwide culture. All over America the hip hop culture is being embraced by all races and communities. This culture is one of the main cultures in the entertainment industry today. Also it is one of the most controversial cultures in the entertainment industry today. The Hip Hop culture is also connected to the fashion and movie industry. It has created many entertainment moguls and entrepreneurs.

Back in the 1970’s when Hip Hop started, the technology were being used in its culture was slow paced. Disk records, turntables, and atrax were what artists and Djs used to put out their music and promote themselves. Most of the people in the Hip Hop culture communicated by using the radios listening to their favorite artists. The advancement in technology has changed the Hip Hop culture in a huge way. Now in the hip hop culture today technology has changed in a huge way. There are some many different forms of technology being used to communicate. Computer, Internet blogs, social networking sites are all being used. This technology has made it faster for fans and artists to communicate, also it has elevated the growth of Hip Hop culture and the audience it has.   

Furthermore, Music production in the Hip Hop culture has been changed by technology. Desktops and laptop computers, and recording programs all play a big role in the change of music production. Desktop and laptop computers are being built bigger and faster. According to Dainel Roy a MIT college student, this gives rap artist in the Hip Hop culture better quality of sound when making their music. These computers have larger memory bases and faster hard drives, which make it faster for artists to record songs. Mainly desktops computers are being used in large recording studios. Mac computers are usually the choice of brand used by rap artists in the Hip Hop culture. The laptops computers are usually used by independent rap artists who do not have the money to record in big studios. Also, these laptops are being used at home to record music. Laptops give a independent artists the ability to create the same type of music mainstream rap artists do, without spending as much money. Recording programs are being used on the lap tops and desktops to produce the rap artist music. These programs do editing and mixing of the rap artists vocals and instrumentals. There are many recording programs to choose from. Some popular brands are Fruity Loops, Pro Tools, Acid Pro, and Logic. Studio equipment has changed rap culture with better microphones, mixing boards, and headphones, to record with. It gives artist a better sound and a more efficient way to edit their music. According to college student Daniel Roy, some popular brand name studio equipment is Akai, Tascan, and Korg.

Another major aspect of Hip Hop culture is promotion. Once artists have produced their music they need to promote it. There are many ways to accomplish this . The original way artists promoted their music was the radio and word of mouth at concerts. These worked well and have been the usual ways to promote since the 1970s, and today with the growth in technology, promotion has been taken to another level. The Internet has elevated the growth of promotion worldwide. Social networking, streaming, and file sharing sites play a big and important role in this growth. With these social networking and streaming sites, rap artists are able to promote their music worldwide from a computer. Streaming sites called Youtube and Ustream both let artists promote themselves with music videos, commercials, home videos, live chats, music, and pictures. Also with popular music catalog sites, for example Itunes and livemixtapes they can sell their CDs and publish their Mixtapes for free. File sharing site also give artists the ability to put out one song at a time on the Internet. Their fans are able to download it for free. These sites enable the artists to connect to their fans and audience. Also these help independent artists who are up and coming and financially not stable enough to promote like a main stream artist. They can promote from their own home without spending much money.

 As a result of the changes in rap culture due to technology it has made a positive image on itself. Technology has brought a lot of good to the culture but also a lot of bad. Some negatives point’s technology has brought to rap culture are, music production the studio programs being used are making rap artists sound better than what they really are. The product called Autotune is an audio processor. It process vocals of artists and allows them to sing perfectly in tuned songs, without needing to exactly sing in tune. Autotune was originally created for singers but now is being used by rap artist. People criticize rap artist and the culture because the use of Autotune. People question the culture asking is Hip Hop dead?

Promotion has always been a main aspect in rap culture internet blogs, social networking, and streaming sites all have contributed to the change and growth of Hip Hop culture, But with the good technology has brought, it has also brought some bad. The bad effects technology has brought are criticize on and the culture from blogs. Popular blogs sites WorldsStarHipHop and Hot New Hip Hop criticize artists publicizing the negative events artists do. The blogs show a negative imagine of artist to their fans. This can hurt their careers also the artists can loose fans, their audience, record contracts, and credibility in the rap culture.

 Briefly Hip Hop And technology have both come along way from the early 1970s when Hip Hop was born and the original aspects of technology was being used. From radio to word of mouth and concerts back the 1970s to today, the internet streaming, social networking sites, recording programs and desktop and laptop computers all play a big important role in the change in way main stream and independent artist promote themselves and produce their music. The change has had a positive effect on the culture and negative effect on the culture. With that being said Hip Hop culture will continue to be one of the biggest cultures of the world expanding everyday in technology. Technology will always be an important aspect of Hip Hop culture. 

Works Cited

Adaso,H.(2010).A brief history of hip-hop and rap web page.
     Retrived Febuary 17,2011, from http://rap.about.com/od/rootsofhip/p/RootsOfRap.htm

Scaruffi,P.(2005).The history of rock music web page.
     Retrived Febuary 17,2011, from www.scaruffi.com/history/hiphop.html

Roy, Daniel. "Hip Hop Music Technology and Blowing up."

     Http://web.mit.edu/21m.775/www/Papers/droyhiphop.pdf. 03 Feb. 2003. Web.