How Hip Hop Changed The World

[jackhammer]

How Hip Hop Changed the World - Channel 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCx0T...has_verified=1

Two links for this 'doc' that aired last week but I have a feeling that it wont be available overseas (someone let me know if it is though please).

I will watch virtually any music related doc even if I am not a huge fan of the music in question. Hip Hop is certainly not my first love but I do like a lot of it and have enough knowledge about it's roots and development to justify a thread.

Firstly, this turned out to be yet another typical countdown of the 'best' 50 moments of the music that Channel 4 spews out on a regular basis regarding many forms of media which was a huge disappointment considering their generally well informed output.

Secondly, the more the programme went on the more it shot itself in the foot and just reinforced the outsiders view of the many faults of Hip Hop musics revolution. The programme didn't seem to worry about the fact that the monetary aspect has obscured the original point of the scene and in fact it seemed to delight in it.

This artist has this clothing line, this artist has this film coming out blah blah blah. EXACTLY. This is why the scene has become a stagnant pile of commercial pap but one that is still seen as revolutionary and groundbreaking to those people involved.

Again, I REPEAT I am a Hip Hop fan. I have just under 200 albums with artists stretching from its humble beginnings to releases from this year but here was a chance to push the positive aspects of the music and culture to those who may not listen to Hip Hop but as music fans want to listen and understand.

There were some really good aspects I won't deny and some great interviews along the way (no mention of Gil Scott Heron though) but Idris Elba as presenter (and Hip Hop DJ) just didn't convince me that Hip Hop changed the world in quite the way other fans interpret it.

If you are completely new to Hip Hop it does explain its origins well from it's street origins against the backlash of social and economic problems in NY in the late 70's but it almost seemed to revel in the commercial beast it has become and lose track of the fact that it is ultimately the music that matters and not how many dollar signs it has generated.

I wish I could explain myself a little more concise and intelligently but unfortunately I don't possess the vocabulary to do so but this was a HUGE disappointment as a music documentary.

[djchameleon]

As Jay-z says in one of his songs "money, cash, hoes". Sure, the documentary probably just attacked it from a list perspective but monetary, commercial aspects is a big part if hip hop nowadays so why do you think it was wrong of them to present that side of it and show the business aspects that hip hop has provided. It evolved way past just the music and I dont see that as a negative.

Even in the roots of hip hop it wasn't just about the music. Tagging, breakin' and clothes were always a big staple. Nowadays they added cars, bling and video vixens. Correction, bling just replaced the big gold chains.

[Ska Lagos Jew Sun Ra]

Hip Hop by far is nowhere near the inventive genre people claim it is. It's just basically a variation of jazz beatnik poetry that's existed since the 50s, and occasionally sound collage which has existed since the 1960s.

However, it's the only genre in the mainstream scope that promotes such a level of experimentation in production as it does, and deserves a nod for changing the mainstream's perspective on 'using production as music'.

Culturally? **** if I know, I'm not a sociologist.

[freakingidol]

It changed USA more than the world.