Modern Music Industry
MEDIA 103 ASSIGNMENT 3
RESEARCH ESSAY
Band: Wu-Tang Clan
The Wu-Tang Clan is one of the most influential hip hop groups of all time. With its unique production style, intense and vivid lyrics and mainstream consumer appeal, Wu-Tang was one of the artists that revolutionalised soul and transformed it into the modern rap that we hear today. Without their influence a significant part of both African American culture, and American music would simply not exist. The Wu-Tang are pioneers in their own right, and in this essay I intend to discuss the emergence of hip hop into modern mainstream culture using the Wu-Tang as a case study.
Hip hop is a cultural way of life divided into four main parts; rapping, deejaying, breakdancing and graffiti. It usually features two elements, the producer’s backtrack which encompasses all instrumentation within the piece, and the rapper’s lyrics. The backtrack usually consists of a simple rhythmic pattern and melody, composed to accentuate the rapper. While the production is very important in a track, the rapper is without a doubt the more important of the two, providing a unique form of vocals fitting into multisyllabic rhyme patterns within varying bar-length verses. It originated in Southern Bronx, New York City in the mid 1970’s, taking its influences from funk, groove and African soul music to create essentially a fusion of genres. It is believed that Kool Herc, a Jamaican DJ living in the Bronx at the time, was the original creator of the concept, employing break beat into his shows. Breakbeating involves mixing between two songs instrumentals to extend them for as long as possible, while performing over the top of the track; a primitive form of modern rap. Other DJ’s expanded on this and developed “scratching”, a technique still commonly used today. Hip hop continued to develop into a relatively simple genre: usually a 4/4 beat with many samples rhymed over by a lyricist. It can be said, however that hip hop did not reach its
RESEARCH ESSAY
Band: Wu-Tang Clan
The Wu-Tang Clan is one of the most influential hip hop groups of all time. With its unique production style, intense and vivid lyrics and mainstream consumer appeal, Wu-Tang was one of the artists that revolutionalised soul and transformed it into the modern rap that we hear today. Without their influence a significant part of both African American culture, and American music would simply not exist. The Wu-Tang are pioneers in their own right, and in this essay I intend to discuss the emergence of hip hop into modern mainstream culture using the Wu-Tang as a case study.
Hip hop is a cultural way of life divided into four main parts; rapping, deejaying, breakdancing and graffiti. It usually features two elements, the producer’s backtrack which encompasses all instrumentation within the piece, and the rapper’s lyrics. The backtrack usually consists of a simple rhythmic pattern and melody, composed to accentuate the rapper. While the production is very important in a track, the rapper is without a doubt the more important of the two, providing a unique form of vocals fitting into multisyllabic rhyme patterns within varying bar-length verses. It originated in Southern Bronx, New York City in the mid 1970’s, taking its influences from funk, groove and African soul music to create essentially a fusion of genres. It is believed that Kool Herc, a Jamaican DJ living in the Bronx at the time, was the original creator of the concept, employing break beat into his shows. Breakbeating involves mixing between two songs instrumentals to extend them for as long as possible, while performing over the top of the track; a primitive form of modern rap. Other DJ’s expanded on this and developed “scratching”, a technique still commonly used today. Hip hop continued to develop into a relatively simple genre: usually a 4/4 beat with many samples rhymed over by a lyricist. It can be said, however that hip hop did not reach its