Hip hop genre

History • It was founded in the 1970s in the US. • It is a very stylistic and rhythmic genre of music. • The genre was extremely popular with the African American

population of the US at the time of its creation. • One of the first rappers to use this genre of music was DJ Kool

Herc, a Jamaican immigrant in the 1970s.

Sub genres• Rap• Rnb • Grime • Trap• Turntablism• Experimental hip hop• Country rap• Electro music

Conventions of hip hopMany hip hop songs are heavily centred around the idea of money and wealth. Artists such as 50 Cent, Drake and Jay Z all use this idea of wealth to portray themselves in a certain way in their videos.

This is a convention which is commonly linked with power and is mostly used to make the artists look more powerful than the audience. This is also shown by a lot of close ups and low angle shots to make the artist look bigger and to show them almost looking down at the audience.

Another key convention of hip hop is dancing and scenes that take place in nightclubs or at parties. This is used in most videos of this genre.

Clothing used in hip hop videos are usually designer clothes with lots of jewellery and ‘bling’. These are normally very expensive outfits which show off the artists’ success. However, some artists tend to wear baseball caps and tank tops, for example Jay Z commonly wears baseball caps in his videos and songs. Expensive cars, mansions and any other example of luxurious lifestyles are also major features of a hip hop video to portray their success even further.

The sexualisation of women is also a predominant feature in hip hop. In many hip hop videos the women that feature are predominantly there as ‘eye candy’. More attention is turned towards their physical features and attractions by little or no costumes at all, sexual facial expressions and body language as well as even exotic dancing. In addition to this, most males in hip hop videos are made to look powerful and strong, whereas the women are made to look subordinate and like they are purely there to be sexual objects. The male gaze is heavily used in hip hop videos.

Costumes are mostly made up of designer clothes and jewellery. This shows off wealth and makes the artist look flashy and arrogant, which a lot of artists these days are.