I’ve always been fascinated with the origins of music genres. Hip Hop has been the genre I knew least about before this class, save a few throwback songs such as F*ck the Police and The Body Rock.I grew up listening to 70s music – so learning more about the intersections between Rock, Jazz, and Hip Hop culture and how hip hop evolved from these genres was intriguing to me. I realized that most people have no idea how hip-hop originated, and how absolutely talented and genius the producers/performers/rappers/artists of these early days were. Reading the Dimitriadis article describing Grandmaster Flash’s group Rappers Delight and the “arts entrance into the public sphere of cultural discourse” after the group was formed, I felt a longing inside myself to return to these undocumented and uncorrupted days of hip hop culture. A longing to return to the simple performance art of self expression, cultural expression, community empowerment… hip hop music is so far from these days with the over-commodified approach to art. Yet on the other hand, I think it’s amazing and pretty phenomenal that Hip Hop has become such a powerful portal of expression for people of color in this western world. This is part of a larger conversation that I’ve realized is significant and synonymous with the space/place conversation, leading me to a question of– What is the place of art, in this modern world, without consumerism and without money as the goal? Why would someone perform simply for joy and self expression these days, when we live in a capitalist world? Is it ignorant and naive of me to long for the days where music wasn’t just about making money and selling- selling sex, selling a certain type of “lifestyle”, selling a culture…? These are a few questions on my mind that I’ve been trying to lean into answering and unpacking for myself. I would like to look deeper into them this semester, too.
*I found a song by Funky 4+1, one of the first groups formed in 1976 that had a female MC- It’s a real bop, I suggest listening if you have a chance!* it also mentions SugarHill, a group that Dimitriadis mentions in the beginning of his article.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVxk9PW62Vk
~Emma
