The Rise Of Hip Hop Music In The 1980s

The rise of hip hop music in the 1970s and 80s has caused people to be more angry and depressed. This change in mood in America resulted in more crime during the peak years. Hip hop music was revolutionary; there had been nothing with similar percussive sounds, rapping, and distinctive (fairly simplistic) bass lines. Many of the sounds used in hip hop music are harsher and more electronic. In 1979 hip hop music was recorded and played on public radio for the first time. In the 1980s hip hop was diversified as its own genre of music and more people began to create and listen to it. Young people loved this new genre of music. It was exciting, emotional, and usually pretty honest. The problem with hip hop then was that people hadn’t been exposed to so many messages presented in hip hop in conjunction with the harsh sounds. Yes, drugs were a topic discussed, but not along with the beats and booms present in rap music. This variety of art was too different and brought on too fast. People were not able to adjust at their own rate to the change in musical taste. This brought on a culture shock in the late 70s, continuing through the 80s where people began to express emotions differently than before. This strange genre of music made people feel both confused, and sad,
Obviously the use of drugs increased: how would this generation learn to cope with so much change and confusion? When you have a generation of angst and confusion mixed with drugs, crime will always be around the corner. Total crime more than doubled from 1960 to 1980. In the 60s between 2 and 3 thousand individuals for every 100 thousand were involved in crime. In the mid to late 70s that increased significantly to above 4 thousand, peaking at over 5 thousand individuals in the year 1980. This rate continued through the “Golden Age” of hip hop in the 80s to the early 90s, where it began to settle