Making music is hard. Getting people to listen to it is even harder. But in an ever-changing musical society, more people than ever are branching out to try to tap into absolutely every genre they can. With music being ingrained within social media as early as websites such as MySpace that allowed you to associate a track with your profile page to TikTok where people actively use the search bar to discover new playlists and songs, we are now able to find a community who follow the same musical loves as you do yourself.
Music is a way of forming stories and is at its core, a way of documenting history. It’s a way to convey emotion. For example, mothers humming or singing to their babies to soothe them all the way to Drake singing about how he misses an ex-girlfriend. From going back towards its history, we’ve already mentioned about rap music’s origins from its formulation around the late 70s to early 80s. We saw how rap groups such as N.W.A had had enough of the way the police treated black people, so they voiced their opinions through song. We also have rappers such as A$AP Rocky who most often raps about his extensive jewellery collection, money, cars, women and all the stereotypical gaudy tropes that people like to hear.
According to Billboard, Hip-Hop and R&B is the most listened to genre in the states, and for good reason. With hip-hop originating within the Bronx borough within New York City, DJ Kool herc is credited with being one of the first DJs on the scene in 1973 when he spun the same record on twin turntables and flipped through the most energetic parts of a track. With a whole range of other DJs wanting to follow in Herc’s footsteps in these poorer parts of the neighbourhood, it was rejected by middle-class America but blossoming in the streets. This included a selection of elements that make up Hip-Hop culture such as DJing, Mcing/rapping, breaking, writing, theatre and literature and knowledge of self.
By having this combination of essential characteristics, the beginning of the 1980s saw DJ Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five unveil ‘The Message’ which was a groove-laden account of the hard times that the neighbourhood had been facing. MCs and rappers such as Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Run DMC and Public Enemy burst onto the scene with their larger-than-life characters that were tough as nails.
But we all know that music evolves and changes over time and it introduces us to new sounds and feelings as the years go by. Hip-hop artists have collaborated with artists of different genres that we at one point might have thought was extremely uncanny but through interviews when we get to know these hip-hop artists and rappers, we see that they listen to a range of genres too from rock and pop to metal and techno. As well as having huge collaborations on track beneficial for both artists and their fanbases but it opens up newer sounds that we might not have heard of before.
One major shift that has well been documented was the rise of auto-tune when rapper Ye, formerly Kanye, West released his album 808’s & Heartbreak in 2008 that was recorded entirely with auto-tune. Unsurprisingly it was met with a large amount of negative criticism as people hated the sound his voice was but simply because it was just different. However, 808’s & Heartbreak was one of the first instances of a big rapper expressing his feelings through hip-hip and using sombre melodies to put forward a variety of emotions that people go through in breakups through a male perspective. With the boom of rappers then using auto-tune was so incredibly popular that both Ye and close collaborator Jay-Z created the track ‘D.O.A (Death of Auto-Tune)’ in 2009, it spoke about how using auto-tune was now so overdone by producers and rappers. But auto-tune today is still used heavily with rap artists such as Travis Scott who uses it in the entirety of his discography and so much so that it’s his signature sound. We also have rappers such as Young Thug and Future who do this too and are incredibly successful with it.
On social media apps such as TikTok, music plays a big part within it. With genres such as hyperpop coming into play with songs that we once enjoyed hearing ‘slowed and reverbed’ have now been sped up to lightening speeds reminiscent of the ‘chipmunk version’ of tracks we were forced to endure in the 2010s. Although trends fall back and forth through the years, it doesn’t look like rappers will be dipping into hyperpop any time soon. However, we’ve even seen some artists regress back into the sounds of the 90s such as hip-hop duo Joey Valence & Brae who embrace the classic sounds from the streets. From writing raps in their bedroom to playing Reading and Leeds Festival 2022, they draw influences from the Beastie Boys, Heavy D and Quad City DJs as well as have constant exposure to video games and filming with Nintendo DS’s to evoke that VHS look and feel.
Seeing the seesaw between trends isn’t surprising. Netflix’s Stranger Things had us collectively exploring 80s style and culture with mullets, perms and blowouts back in fashion. Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)’ surpassed 100 million views on YouTube and broke three UK chart records since its resurgence and everyone is resorting back to using polaroid cameras. Well, you know what they say… history always repeats itself.
** Editor's note: this article was published before Kanye came out with recent anti-semitic and anti-Black views. We want to stress that Kindred. does not support any of his recent actions.
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