Music has an overwhelming effect on the society. It can influence how people behave, dress, and even how they relate with each other. Moreover, music can be effectively used as a channel for airing societal issues, and that is precisely how hip-hop genre started.
Hip-hop is more than just a genre of music. In fact, many people, especially the blacks in America, consider it a culture. Over the many years since its inception, Hip-hop has influenced the world by providing a platform for delivering important messages to the masses. While many critics of the hip-hop genre cite its aggressive lyrics to support their claim that it promotes rebellion in the society, the provocative libretto does not nullify its potential as an effective vocal platform for airing views, be it on politics, social norms, and other issues that impacting the world in general.
Hip-hop is a crucial outlet for inspiring the world and it would be even better if the critics tried to at least embrace it as a culture rather than attack it.
Hip-hop music has influenced the world in the following ways:
Hip-hop is a powerful social medium for engendering awareness
Since its inception in the streets of South Bronx in New York, the influence of Hip-hop has been felt widely all over the world. It has been applied effectively as a channel of social mobility, especially for the marginalised communities such as the Blacks in America.
Hip-hop is more than just entertainment, even though its elements include MCing, graffiti, Deejaying, and break dancing; it forms a significant part of modern identity networks in terms of principles that are based on poverty, power resistance, and violence.
Hip-Hop has been a powerful social medium for engendering awareness throughout its history, considering that it tends to reflect the ideals, societal conditions, uplifts behavioural progression, and influences social change. Therefore, Hip-Hop is taken as a response designated to addressing the state of joblessness, government control, and poverty in society today.
If you look at how Hip-hop became extremely popular during the nineties, when the blacks in America were experiencing high rates of unemployment and felt disempowered by their government, and how Hip-Hop was applied to express these conditions to the masses, it could be considered a crucial social revolution for the marginalized group, since it was the only effective vocal platform for airing their condition and expressing how they felt during that period.
Even today, the communities that feel oppressed are able to use music to express their circumstances, and somehow rebel against the oppressive systems within those communities.
Hip-Hop is a significant force governing urban culture
Hip-Hop has developed to the extent that it contributes significantly to modern culture. The power of hip-hop music has continued to increase in the contemporary society, and its influence continues to rise through the expansion of markets and consumer base.
In today’s world, the major force that transmits culture in most societies is music, and none has been so powerful compared to the effect that Hip-Hop has in the world. In fact, Hip-Hop has the power of a formidable force of culture that significantly influences both communal and personal identity constructs.
Hip-hop artists have played the role of national icons in the scene of pop culture, which demonstrates the influence the genre has on culture. Artists such as Tupac Amaru Shakur (RIP) and Kendrick Lamar have taken the role of spokesperson for the millennial generation that needs guidance in terms of having a strong voice and identity.
While back in the sixties, when the Blacks in America sought racial solidarity through intensively pursuing their civil rights, and formed several Black-oriented unions for fighting civil injustices such as the Black Panthers, this approach has been echoed in recent years through the contemporary Hip-Hop culture.
However, while unions such as the Black Panthers fought for the recognition of the civil rights of the minorities, particularly the Blacks, and recommended resistant actions through which the marginalized communities could influence both political and societal changes, the same cannot be said of the modern era Hip-Hop artists as spokespersons of the marginalised communities. This is particularly because, while they tend to voice the existing oppression within the society, they do not provide precise lines of action for the contemporary societies to take in fighting for their civil rights.
Despite this, their presence in most organised protests plays a crucial role in influencing the people to come together to fight for a just cause. Artists such as T.I have prominently featured in the Black Lives Matter Movement that sought to address the oppression Blacks in America are subjected to by the police, who tend to treat the minorities differently unlike how they treat the Whites.
Hip-hop is a driving force in today’s fashion industry
The influence of Hip-Hop has extended well beyond civil rights representation. Its influences can be felt in the fashion industry and it has been setting trends with regards to what is considered fashionable or outdated clothing.
Hip-Hop is synonymous with today’s fashion, especially with the millennial generation. People want to dress up like their favourite artists. Artist such as Notorious B.I.G (RIP) and JayZ influenced many people to dress in designer clothes, particularly Coogi and Versace. Artist Diddy, on the other hand, encouraged people to get tailor-made designer Sean John clothing. Today, it is not unusual to hear artists promoting designer clothes with their music, and masses of people will line up in stores to purchase these labels as encouraged by their favourite artists.
Major fashion stakeholders such as Nike, Gucci, Adidas; they all have acknowledged the power of Hip-Hop in setting trends in fashion. That is why most Hip-Hop artists are paid a significant amount, totalling millions of dollars, to endorse a certain brand, be it shoes, belts, or bags. This is because, once an artist endorses a particular brand, its products will fly off the shelf considering that people will want to associate themselves with that fashion.
Merchandising is an important income stream for these artists. When they endorse a particular brand, they are either paid a percentage of the profits made on each product or sign a contract earning them a tonne of money to advertise the brand’s products. For instance, artist Drake signed a major deal with the Jordan Brand to endorse a new set of shoes back in 2013.
The executives of Jordan brand understood that the millions of fans that artist Drake commands translates to potential customers for the shoe brand being endorsed by their favourite artist. Therefore, not only will the fans purchase tickets such as the forthcoming Drake UK tour, they will also buy merchandising products associated with the artist.
Hip-hop’s impact on the world
Hip-hop has played a major part in how the world is transforming today. Since its inception in the South Bronx, New York, Hip-Hop has transformed to being more than just a genre of music. Hip-Hop is a powerful social medium for engendering awareness considering that it has provided a platform that has proven effective in expressing societal conditions and circumstances of the Blacks in America and other marginalized communities across the world. Hip-Hip is a major driving force governing urban culture.
Even though the unions such as the Black Panthers played a practical role in organizing racial solidarity of the Black Americans to fight against social and civil injustices in America, the contemporary artists involved in Hip-Hop music have contributed the same by airing these injustices in their songs and spreading a message of racial solidarity to millions of their fans across America and all over the world.
Hip-hop has had a great impact on modern fashion and trends. Millions of people all over the world want to emulate their favourite hip-hop artists by dressing in the same style and fashion as their favourite artists, and this has impacted the fashion industry in a huge way. Therefore, Hip-Hop has greatly influenced the world we live in today.
