There has been much leading up to this of course. People have grown weary of the main sounds that make up Hip Hop. They're tired of the negativism of Hip Hop and the glorification of anti-social behavior found particularly in the lyrics of Rap. Perhaps the shock value that the genre used to deliver no longer shocks Yes, there are still going to be Hip Hop and Rap songs out there but the massive hits that defined the early part of this century are now few and far between.
What's happening is that music is evolving and just like Disco evolved, most successful Hip Hop artists are now putting out songs with the much-faster beats-per-minute that define Electronic Dance Music. Hip Hop group Black Eyed Peas' unprecedented string of more than a year at the top of the charts with I Gotta Feeling and Boom Boom Pow showed others how EDM sounds could lead to huge sales. Conversely, DJ David Guetta reached new levels of fame with back-to-back Dance hits by teaming up with Hip Hop artists Kelly Rowland for When Love Takes Over and then Akon for Sexy Bitch. He's subsequently teamed-up with Hip Hop greats Chris Willis and Fergie in Gettin' Over You, with Flo Rida for last year's Club Can't Handle Me and Whose That Chick? featuring Rihanna. His latest album this year features hits with vocals by Hip Hop artists Chris Brown, Usher and Taio Cruz.
Many others have teamed-up with House DJ's to produce incredible new sounds that meld the best of both House and Hip Hop. Top 40 is increasingly EDM where just a few years ago it was mostly Hip Hop. Time after time we keep seeing today's music fans out in massive numbers for electronic music events ranging from club nights at various bars to massive events like Ultra and EDC. Whether it's House, Dubstep, Drum & Base, Trance, Dance, Breaks, Techno, Electro, etc., it's all about electronic dance music!
EDM is where the money is now. So let this Blog be the first to officially declare: HIP HOP IS DEAD!!
(My analysis of the rise of EDM was covered in this Blog story last February.)
5 comments:
It's not just the music either. The fashion of hip hop is dying too. It's still popular among a segment of the population but not considered mainstream
dead....D.E.D dead
the round black things are still around! some DJ's will never stop using them!
Hahahahahahahaha
Maaaaaaaanaquins.....
I rarely encounter any DJ's playing records....Heather Collins comes to mind. But even those playing CD's has gotten increasingly rare. I do appreciate their efforts because it does require skill!
I know there's a lot of controversy about the use of laptops as the music source. Beat matching is too easy and let's face it, the entire performance can be pre-programmed by the DJ and then just hit PLAY. And the audience would never know.
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