Wednesday, May 27, 2009

A Little Bit of Music: The Origins of Hip-Hop

What comes to your mind as soon as you hear the words "hip-hop"? Three things, probably: music, gestures and clothes. Let´s briefly analyze them.

Hip-hop music: This is how the wikipedia defines it: Hip-hop music is a musical genre typically consisting of a rhythmic vocal style called rap which is accompanied with backing beats. I´d say it´s sometimes the result of mixing rhythmic passages of albums on a turnable.

Hip-hop gestures: I can picture them in my mind but I just can´t explain what they mean. Try this for an explanation

Hip-hop clothes: Can we say there is an "unofficial uniform"?: baggy pants, oversized jerseys, sweatshirts, hoodies, (expensive) sneakers .... and accessories: belts, buckles (you can´t see them most of the time but they are there!), wrist cuffs, large eyeglasses, multiple rings, bling-bling, that is, heavy gold jewelry (mainly gold chains for men and gold earrings for women) and grills (=silver, gold or platinum teeth coverings, sometimes inlaid with precious stones...)

Many encyclopaedias mention hip-hop started in the Bronx i in 1970s, now here´s a different version:



Well, that was the fun part, now if you want to hear people talking about hip-hop in an informal way, watch the next video; I would suggest, though, that you should read and understand the vocabulary I used above. That will help you to follow the comments, I hope!



And to put an end to the subject, here´s a video about hip-hop in Senegal. There are a couple of reasons why I have decided to include it; on the one hand, most of it is subtitled so you have the chance to pause the video and make sure you understand what they are saying and, on the other hand, I found it very interesting to hear how these young people have adapted the hip-hop culture from the US to their lives and beliefs.



I can´t say that hip-hop or rap is all around but it is a very important part of some people´s jobs and lives. Judge for yourselves: this is flight attendant David Holmes, for instance. Do you know any other examples? Let me know and I´ll include them in here



I´d love to read your comments -both about the videos and my comments!

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous28 May, 2009

    well not all of us like hip-hop too much but it is interesting and funny and we maybe learn something

    pablo alvarez

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for your comment, Pablo. It´s nice to hear from you, at last!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous08 June, 2009

    Thank you very much for all those funny videos, you choose them very well!

    Belén gato.

    ReplyDelete

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