Music Genre Research - Hip Hop

Hip hop is one of the music genres that is widely known all throughout

the world, and is very current in the 21^st century. It is a musical genre that has become a culture and evolved so much it has subculture which consists of different stylistic music. Such as MCng/Rapping; this is where the artist says the lyrics commonly in a fast pace in time to a beat. Other styles include DJing/Scratching, Breakdancing and graffiti wall writing. It was culturally originated from the 1970’s in New York City when block parties became popular with African Americans and Latinos living within the Bronx. Not only Hip Hop but other music genres such as R&B (Rhythm and Blues), Reggae, Funk, Disco and Dub have all created the buzz around the Hip Hop subculture and made it emerge within the music scene.

DJ Clive Campbell also known as ‘DJ Kool Herc’ is known as being the father of Hip Hop. He is highly influential in the hip hop music and culture, as he moved to New York as the age of thirteen from living in Jamaica where he was born, he witnessed toasting, spoken work poetry which led to rapping and MCing and many other different music styles which he observed as a youth in Jamaica. He brought with him to New York his roots, skills and various techniques that have blueprinted the Hip Hop culture today.

For our music video the song we are focusing on is from the English singer and song writer Ed Sheeran. He is a diverse singer so the four genres which he typically focuses on are Hip Hop, Grime, Acoustic and Folk Rock. In some of his songs he mixes some of these four genres in one song to get more of a mass audience and appeal to other audiences of other genres.

In a hip hop music video, we see some typical codes and conventions. We notice codes such as non verbal communication like, sex appeal from every member of the video; particularly the females who are usually exploited.  We see the portrayal of money and wealth as a main and big factor, we see this in artist in the video throwing money around as if it’s nothing and they have so much its insignificant and not a worry. Flashy cars, diamond encrusted jewellery and half naked girls denote that the artists have all the things in life that they want and they couldn’t ask for more. This is all shown through fast pace cuts, extreme close up and high angle shots to make them look superior. 

(Click to PLAY video)