Hip-Hop's Influence On Modern Society

What is Hip-Hop, and how has it become the biggest development in popular music ever in such a short period of time? Since its infancy, Hip-Hop has had a pervasive influence on every culture its touched, including fashion, dance, and especially social media, where music videos regularly receive hundreds of millions of views. But the unprecedented speed of Hip-Hop’s spread has left many scratching their heads on what all the fuss is about. In this paper, I will give a complete overview of Hip-Hop from its beginnings to its impact on modern society. Hip-Hop has its roots as most popular music does in African-American music, and eventually became a back and forth of influences from Africa and America. A simplified timeline for now would be the start of the Blues and Ragtime, which eventually evolved into Jazz, but then simplified into R&B, which then became faster and more exciting to eventually morph into Rock & Roll, which is a distinct subgenre of Rock referring to early Rock in the 50s. Jazz is the important part of the history of Hip Hop, as it was carried over to Africa and expanded upon greatly, creating Reggae and all its derivatives, including Funk and Dub.
This fact alone has given rise to an image for young people to strive for, and is a modern day true-to-life rags-to-riches story. The Hip-Hop lifestyle appeals to many, although it’s been shrouded in controversy ever since its introduction to vinyl. Violence, misogyny, and homophobia are prevalent issues for those both in and out of the Hip-Hop culture. Many claims of how widespread these aspects are over exaggerated, such as Hip-Hop breeding violence, but the word ‘bitch’ is a nearly inescapable one in any Hip-Hop song. These links have been scientifically proven (Cundiff), but there never seems to be any acknowledgement of these issues, although many of the richest rappers refrain from any blatant misogyny in their