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comment by JakobVirgil

Erykah Badu

Coltrane

Thelonious Monk u

Morton Feldman

Benjamin Britain

John Adams

Pere Ubu

NWA

Nas

RZA

Jay-z

Miles Davis

Albert Ayler

Ike Turner

Buddy Holly

Billie Holiday

Elizabeth Cotton

Maybelle Carter

John Fahey

And a few others.





mk  ·  3564 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Out with thenewgreen and ecib recently, we had a lively discussion with a few others about "What has been the most influential band from the US?". Of course, there is no correct answer. However, once NWA was suggested, we couldn't think of a band that could top them.

JakobVirgil  ·  3564 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Some artists contain universes.

In 1984 hip hop was kinda silly break dance music then it wasn't.

Maphen  ·  3564 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Exactly, when LL Cool J and Run-DMC broke open the New School, everything changed.

But it wasn't all silly, don't forget The Message!

cgod  ·  3564 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Or Kurtis Blow's "Hard Times."

I think Hip Hop was saying more before it started playing everywhere.

Maphen  ·  3563 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  

Well it did start as party music. But to discredit party music as mindless is too hurtful to the genre. Basically, Hip-Hop's instrumental origins come from DJs taking the "break" or the instrumental rhythm part, and repeating them, crossfading them with other song's breaks, and adding turntable tricks along the way. The lyrics in this case came from the DJ announcing moves to the breakdancers.

This had a lot of importance because breakdancing was seen as a way of expressing and getting rid of aggression, rather than through violent means. These blockparties were an important part of the culture and of breaking down tension.

This was eventually mixed with Hip-Hop's vocal influence: poets like Gil-Scott Heron and America's take on the Jamaican art of "toasting" as popularized by Bootsy Collins and Bob Dylan. When these two forms combined, that's when the New School Of Hip-Hop really formed, where artists like Run-DMC and LL Cool J took both aspects and combined them into a completely new sound.

If you haven't seen it, I'd recommend the doc Rhyme & Reason. It's on Netflix, and follows Hip-Hop from its inception in 1975 up until 1997 when the doc was made. They interview a bunch of legends like Ice-T, KRS-One, Pharcyde, Run-DMC, Dr. Dre, Heavy D, Notorious BIG, Ice Cube, Ras Kass, Q-Tip, Arrested Development, Da Brat, Salt & Pepa, Wu-Tang, Redman, and so many more.

user-inactivated  ·  3563 days ago  ·  link  ·  

i, uh

i think i love you

Maphen  ·  3563 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Whatchu doin' later? ;)

cgod  ·  3563 days ago  ·  link  ·  

The Message wouldn't have been written if Gill Scott or The Last Poets hadn't plowed the field ahead of time. "The New Sound" had a lot of socially conscious stuff that came before it. Afrika Bambaataa, Kurtis Blow and The Furious Five are all good examples.

And surly the whole political consciousness stuff didn't hit it's full blossom until, I'd say, Public Enemy hit the the scene but it was foundational right from the start.

Maphen  ·  3563 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Oh don't get me wrong, I know it was there from the beginning, but it was still largely a "party" scene. Afrika Bambaataa's politically conscious songs were still very party-oriented, and Grandmaster Flash actually wasn't comfortable with The Message being on the album because he considered it too different from the style. The synthesis was definitely there from the beginning, but it really gained prevelance in the early 80's when there was more importance put upon the lyricism.

This is part of why I always considered Hip-Hop and Punk to be sibling genres. They didn't arise out of political reasons, but they gravitated to them so easily.

Hubi  ·  3564 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I'm going to be completely honest here: I haven't heard of most of these artists. Pretty sure that I've listened to many songs from them, but their names didn't really stick to me. I wonder why that is? Maybe today's artists are mainly defined by the Hits that they've produced and not by their oeuvre?

JakobVirgil  ·  3564 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Hits by definition are short lived events.

The pieces by which Bach et. al. Are best known today are often not the things they were famous for in their day.

NewlyLostAgain  ·  3564 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Notable artists here, any reason why you chose them? (over others)

JakobVirgil  ·  3564 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I think all of them mark actual Milestones in the evolution of music forms. I.e. the Crickets line-up defined the roles of the members of the rock four piece.

The members of the list not only are innovators the have catalogs to back it up.