Urban pop culture

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Urban pop culture is the pop culture of cities and towns. It is both driven by and drives the popular culture of mainstream media. Urban pop culture tends to be more cosmopolitan and liberal than mainstream culture, but is not without its own complex mores, reflecting, for example, the parent societies' ambivalence to sexuality. [1]

Contents

The impact of traditional popular media is more evident today than it has ever been. Since 1995, the number of nationally aired television commercials and popular sitcoms that use props, references, or slang from Inner cities continues to grow. Big screen movies are also other examples of how urban pop culture is impacting traditional pop culture. The hit movie Tropic Thunder is filled with references, images, and jokes that are common amongst the youth in Brooklyn, New York and Los Angeles California. Urban pop culture has also infiltrated the mainstream world of fashion, music, and even politics. During an interview former president George W. Bush was asked how he felt about a comment rapper Kanye West made about his administration's response efforts to Hurricane Katrina, and the former president included in his response that he was "not a hater"; a term that originated in New York City, and that is used mostly by rappers and youth.

Impact of Hip-Hop

Urban pop culture is now glorified and well-known as hip-hop. The Bronx neighborhood of New York City was the birthplace of early hip-hop music in the 1970s. It began as a cooperative effort by intersecting Black, Latino, and Caribbean American youth groups during block parties, which were neighborhood events where DJs played soul and funk music. Traces back to traditional African American styles of music, motown, and funk.

Impact on fashion

Along with Urban pop culture came the influence on the fashion industry. or a period of time, Hip Hop and urban pop culture were seen as a lower-class lifestyle. With the rise of Hip Hop and other genres came back your clothes, Chunky sneakers, and outward expression of brand logos. Within, the fashion industry Urban pop culture was not recognized as something luxurious. Throughout the years we see artists and figures within the community become recognized. For example, ASAP Rocky with Dior. Streetwear was the Gateway for marginalized communities to have a space Within luxury and fashion.

International Influence

Korea

In recent years, the rise of Korean pop culture has increased drastically. formerly known as K-pop, is influenced by mainstream hip-hop culture, reggae, and soul styles of music. K-pop artists are seen collaborating with large hip-hop influencers such as Nicki Minaj and SNOOP DOGG. The K-pop identity intersects with the American Urban identity. There is a rise in fashion trends that are commonly found in urban areas within the United States. Hairstyles and dancing are included as well.

Latin America

Within Latin America, the use of Afrobeats and Hip Hop styles that are found commonly within urban areas of the United States and inner cities are becoming more popularized. With modern reggaeton intersecting with modern rap and hip hop. the embracing of traditional features within oneself is also something that has become more popularized within Latin America.

Related Research Articles

French hip hop or commonly French rap, is the hip hop music style developed in French-speaking countries. France is the second largest hip-hop market in the world after the United States.

German hip hop refers to hip hop music produced in Germany. Elements of American hip hop culture, such as graffiti art and breakdancing, diffused into Western Europe in the early 1980s.

Turkish hip hop refers to hip hop music produced by members of the Turkish minority in Germany, and to a lesser degree by hip hop artists in Turkey. The Turkish minority, called the Turks, first drew inspiration from the discrimination and racism they received while living as migrant workers in Germany in the 1960s. Turkish hip hop uses Arabesk music, a folk style that finds its roots in Turkey during the 1960s, and is influenced by the hip hop music of America and Germany. Album artwork, lyrical content, and the Turkish language are used by hip hop artists to express their uniquely Turkish identity.

Japanese hip hop is hip hop music from Japan. It is said to have begun when Hiroshi Fujiwara returned to Japan and started playing hip hop records in the early 1980s. Japanese hip hop tends to be most directly influenced by old school hip hop, taking from the era's catchy beats, dance culture and overall fun and carefree nature and incorporating it into their music. As a result, hip hop stands as one of the most commercially viable mainstream music genres in Japan and the line between it and pop music is frequently blurred.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Music of the United States</span>

The United States' multi-ethnic population is reflected through a diverse array of styles of music. It is a mixture of music influenced by the music of Europe, Indigenous peoples, West Africa, Latin America, Middle East, North Africa, amongst many other places. The country's most internationally renowned genres are traditional pop, jazz, blues, country, bluegrass, rock, rock and roll, R&B, pop, hip-hop/rap, soul, funk, religious, disco, house, techno, ragtime, doo-wop, folk, americana, boogaloo, tejano, reggaeton, surf, and salsa, amongst many others. American music is heard around the world. Since the beginning of the 20th century, some forms of American popular music have gained a near global audience.

West Coast hip hop is a regional genre of hip hop music that encompasses any artists or music that originated in the West Coast of the United States. West Coast hip hop began to dominate from a radio play and sales standpoint during the early to-mid 1990s with the birth of G-funk and the emergence of record labels such as Suge Knight and Dr. Dre's Death Row Records, Ice Cube's Lench Mob Records, the continued success of Eazy-E's Ruthless Records, Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment, and others.

Southern hip hop, also known as Southern rap, South Coast hip hop, or dirty south, is a blanket term for a regional genre of American hip hop music that emerged in the Southern United States, especially in Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston, Memphis, and Miami—five cities which constitute the "Southern Network" in rap music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">African-American music</span> Musical traditions of African American people

African-American music is a broad term covering a diverse range of musical genres largely developed by African Americans and their culture. Its origins are in musical forms that developed as a result of the enslavement of African Americans prior to the American Civil War. It has been said that "every genre that is born from America has black roots."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hip hop fashion</span> Various styles of dress that originiated in the United States

Hip-hop fashion refers to various styles of dress that originated from Urban Black America and inner city youth in cities like New York City, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. Being a major part of hip hop culture, it further developed in other cities across the United States, with each contributing different elements to the overall style that is now recognized worldwide.

Korean hip-hop, also known as K-hip-hop or K-rap, is a subgenre of the South Korean popular music.

Tanzanian Hip-hop, which is sometimes referred to Bongo Flava by many outside of Tanzania's hip hop community, encompasses a large variety of different sounds, but it is particularly known for heavy synth riffs and an incorporation of Tanzanian pop.

New Zealand hip hop derives from the wider hip hop cultural movement originating amongst African Americans in the United States. Like the parent movement, New Zealand hip hop consists of four parts: rapping, DJing, graffiti art and breakdancing. The first element of hip hop to reach New Zealand was breakdancing, which gained notoriety after the release of the 1979 movie The Warriors. The first hip hop hit single, "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang, became a hit in New Zealand when it was released there in 1980, a year after it was released in the United States. By the middle of the 1980s, breakdancing and graffiti art were established in urban areas like Wellington and Christchurch. By the early 1990s, hip hop became a part of mainstream New Zealand culture.

Hip hop soul is a subgenre of contemporary R&B music, most popular during the early and mid 1990s, which fuses R&B or soul singing with hip hop musical production. The subgenre had evolved from a previous R&B subgenre, new jack swing, which had incorporated hip-hop influences into R&B music. By contrast, hip hop soul is, as described in The Encyclopedia of African American Music, "quite literally soul singing over hip hop grooves".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hip hop (culture)</span> Subculture including music, dance and graffiti

Hip hop or hip-hop is a culture and art movement that was created by African Americans pioneered from Black American street culture, also known as hip hop African American culture, that had been around for years prior to its more mainstream discovery while later reaching other groups such as Latino Americans and Caribbean Americans, starting in the Bronx, New York City. Hip Hop is one of cultural movements that has been shaped and dominated by African American males though female hip hop artists have contributed to the art form and culture as well. Hip hop culture is characterized by the key elements of rapping, DJing and turntablism, and breakdancing. Other elements include historical knowledge of the movement, graffiti, beatboxing, street entrepreneurship, hip hop language, and hip hop fashion.

Japanese street fashion refers to a number of styles of contemporary modern clothing in Japan. Created from a mix of both local and foreign fashion brands, Japanese street fashions tend to have their own distinctive style, with some considered to be extreme and avant-garde, with similarities to the haute couture styles seen on European catwalks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Video vixen</span> Female models who appear in hip hop music videos and performances

A video vixen is a woman who models and appears in hip hop-oriented music videos. From the 1990s to the early 2010s, the video vixen image was a staple in popular music, particularly within the genre of hip hop. The video vixen first came around in the late 1980s when the hip-hop culture began to emerge into its own lifestyle, although was most popular in American popular culture during the 1990s and 2000s. Many video vixens are aspiring actors, singers, dancers, or professional models. Artists and vixens have been criticized for allegedly contributing to the social degradation of black women. Latinas are also degraded and hyper-sexualized in hip hop music videos because they are seen as objects of sexual desire in rap music videos.

Pakistani hip hop is a music genre in Pakistan, influenced heavily from merging American hip hop style beats with Pakistani poetry. The genre was initially dominated in English and Punjabi, but in recent years has expanded to Urdu, Sindhi, Pashto, and Balochi.

Merenhouse, merenrap or electronic merengue,Mambo o Mambo de Calle is a style of Dominican merengue music formed by blending with dancehall reggae and hip hop. The mix of Latin music, house music and dancehall started in NYC in the late 1980s.

Progressive rap is a broad subgenre of hip hop music that aims to progress the genre thematically with socially transformative ideas and musically with stylistic experimentation. Developing through the works of innovative US hip hop acts during the 1980s and 1990s, it has also been known at various points as conscious, underground, and alternative hip hop.

Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms popular music and pop music are often used interchangeably, although the former describes all music that is popular and includes many disparate styles. During the 1950s and 1960s, pop music encompassed rock and roll and the youth-oriented styles it influenced. Rock and pop music remained roughly synonymous until the late 1960s, after which pop became associated with music that was more commercial, ephemeral, and accessible.

References

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Durman, Chris. “Cultural Codes: Makings of a Black Music Philosophy: An Interpretive History from Spirituals to Hip Hop by William C. Banfield.” Music Reference Services Quarterly, vol. 14, no. 1/2, Mar. 2011, pp. 68–70. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.eznvcc.vccs.edu/10.1080/10588167.2011.570207.

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