The Influence Of The Boom Box On African American Culture

Artifacts come in so many shapes and sizes, different aspects of life and they also remind different cultures what happened in the past and how to learn for the future. The boom box is one of those artifacts that are present in history, since there are so many developments that occurred after this development of the boom box. It holds a strong memory of where African Americans have come from and what they have done to created expressions for every culture to express the feelings that they are having.
The African American culture has so many different artifacts that represent its culture and the one the stands out the most is hip hop music. I consider this to be an artifact because it has the power of knowing how a person is feeling. You can
always find the perfect song to go along with your emotions.
The best way to listen to hip hop music was through the boom box which transformed over time into the stereo, cassette player, cd player, mp3, player and now even your phone can play music but the boom box was the start of all this. The Boom box was invented in 1975 by The Woelfel brothers (When was it invented.org). The actual date of hip hop cannot be fully determined but it can be narrowed down to the early 1980’s. Many African Americans so that the only way to be heard by others was through music, since music was heard by all through radio, cassette tapes, cd’s and live performances. The boom box is an artifact because it could be carried around transporting the musical expressions wherever a person went even if other people did not want to hear the music they had no choice. With the creation of the boom box one is also to think about hip hop since the two go hand in hand. Hip hop was the
first genre of music that was played through the boom box because hip hop was seems as a type of music for blacks with no money or education. The boom box was an extraordinary sight it had an am/FM tuner, two cassette tape players, equalizers, toner and balance adjusters. As they boom box also came with noise and bass controls, it was basically a compact version of the stereo systems at home. The boom box was definitely could get loud enough for the neighborhood to hear what was being played. With this portable device dancers were starting to come out of the dance studios and on to the streets thus came street dance which was another way for African Americans to release their expressions on life. The boom box became such a staple and a new way of opening so many doors so that individuals can express the feelings that they have built up inside of them. With the invention of the boom box came all possibilities for people that lived in poor neighborhoods to be heard about what was going on in the places that they lived and the troubles that they had about getting out into the world, it was also a way to let others know that they are not lazy but are not given the chances that people that don’t live in poor places receive. African American’s have music and rhythm built into their souls because they originated from Africa where poetry, deep complex melodies and dancing originated from. Those were also the ways to express their feelings, emotions and ways of celebration be it life or death. A group from West Africa the Griots, were storytellers. When presenting the history of their people it was done through song, poetry and dance. They presented the history of their ancestors by putting on performances not by what was written because in all cases it is best to see what happened to best understand the feelings and emotions that have gone into what the people have done. For all African American’s the civil rights movement was the greatest change in their culture. Between the 1960’s and the 1970’s hip hop was born because it was the way for people to express what they were feeling since talking about what was going on was not a real option because nobody wants to talk about the negative accounts only the positive. As blacks gained more rights they began to come together to have celebrations and with the celebrations came music and dance. To have a large celebration at one time people in neighborhoods had block parties so that everyone could participate by bringing food, games music, dance and just a plan good time. In different sections of the blocks people would have their boom boxes outside letting their favorite songs play. The simple boom box developed the art of creating music with more complex rhythms and instruments. It was had the chance for dance to evolve and create more style of dance instead of the traditional ballet. As long as they are of hip hop is around the future of music will always continue to grow and produce more beautiful sounds and tones. With the first boom box which was made to be portable came the Walkman a very compact version of the boom box that could fit on your hip, the development of the CD player which was added to the boom box and eventually was created to be portable. The iPods and MP3 players were created. Without the creation of the boom box all of the other inventions may not have been development to make music more convenient to listen to on the go. The future plans are for portable music can go very far because there have been so many new developments in the past 40 to 50 years. Anything can happen over the next 40 years to have better ways of carrying and listening to music. The boom box had much significance to the hip hop community because it helped it grow, develop and created new and better ways of expression. With the advancement of the boom box it created different types of dance and expressions. It was brought about new inventions that made music more accessible and easy to carry and take along so that nothing will be missed. Hip hop music also have songs for the majority of feelings that a person had at the time. When listening to the music you know that you are not alone in the emotions and experiences that a person is going through, which also helps a person get through the tough times.