"Hip hop", the gangster rap culture, ghetto fabulous,.....there are alot of words to describe this kind of culture. How exactly has it gained so much popularity in 10 years? Going from virtually zero to a multi billion dollar industry. If you go by the US census, around 13% of people are African American. Of those, say 6.5% are males. Of that percentage, you're talking about perhaps 3% of males under the age of 40. Of those males, you're talking about maybe less than 1% who live in the inner city, hip hop world. How has 1% of the country had such a large impact? That is mind boggling. Granted, its not all african american guys (i.e. Eminem's recent successful movie). But the vast majority certaintly are. I guess it is unprecedented to have such a small part of the country, from a relatively low socio-economic background, to have such influence in the media. It's cool that these guys got out of the inner city, but you have to wonder about the message they are sending to young kids. That it's ok to pimp, and call women ho's, party, spending all your money on your cars and stuff?
It got popular due to good marketing according to someone that did some graduate work (papers) on the history of music. Also, in the same paper by that grad student...history repeats itself. Rock-n-Roll and many others started from a small group of so-call rebellious teens or at least made popular by such teens. Hip hop is simply a reflection of an aspect of life as is with Heavy Metal, Rock-n-Roll, Country, Jazz, Blues or the Janis Joplin/Doors/Jim Hendrix culture...you name it. It's only popular if there are those willing to buy it or buy into it. Also...if I remember some of the other parts of those grad articles...Hip Hop culture was formed from the culture of breakdancers (advance breakdancers) and inner city grafitti writers (poets). Many movies popularize Breakdancing and grafitti writers in inner city during the 80's. Thus, the media and entertainment business helped greatly in setting the stage for Rap music. A similar style was occuring in Europe about the same time with the U.S. Remember Blondie? Many occassions she referred to herself as a 'rapper" during the beginnings of rap in the 80's. Late 80's...the white culture wanted to profit from the growing rap industry...all over the world. To keep up the radio ratings...radios stations had to play what teens (the money spenders) wanted to hear....regardless of race. Remember MTV (white owned)...exploiting Run-DMC? Run-DMC was one of the first rap groups to be feature on MTV...regurly...then came the Beastie Boys. Rap Music was a new style of writing (poetry) from the Hip Hop culture after many inner city politicians and police crack down hard on american grafitti. Thus, it's not unprecedented for such a small group to become so big...within the music world...history clearly has repeated itself over and over. Is TECHNO still hot? P.S. Most hip hop stars still live in the inner city or within several miles of it. I had dated that grad student who's know a teacher of classical music...I would stay up late with her listening to her read her grad papers out loud. NihabaAshi