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Music Genre Research
History
Hip Hop obtained mass popularity during the late 1900's, and originated from the South Bronx part of New York City. The culture formed when block parties began to rise in popularity amongst African-American Youth. Vocal styles such as rapping started to appear which developed into artists speaking to the rhythm of synthesised or instruments beats. Hip hop slowly began to diversify with unknown emerging regional techniques, for example Southern rap.
Iconography
In terms of the music videos and images of “Hip Hop”, an iconographic part of the mise-en-scene is they are usually set in an urban location. An example of this is in a lot of hip hop music videos, there is usually graffiti surrounding the artist. They are styled to look like stereotypical hip hop artists, which involves wearing hoodies and hats, and the majority of popular hip hop videos will include clubs, drinking and smoking. The main artist is usually featured a lot whether there is a strong narrative or not. Lastly, the artists are shown to be intimidating, powerful and asserting their authority due to the large amount of shots that are at a low angle.
The most popular hip hop artists include Jay Z, Eminem, Drake, Nicki Minaj, Kanye West and Lil Wayne. Other artists who are less well known (usually referred to as underground hip hop artists) include The Left, Dylan Cooper and Celph Titled.
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