Brice Goodson

Jean Coco
English 1001
April 25, 2016
The music industry has changed a lot over the decades, from jazz swing to electronic
dance music; new forms of music are made from the ashes of dying music and the society that it
comes from. I myself was raised on a multitude of different genres which influenced me to learn
how to play Instruments. My parents music taste is extremely diverse. I still remember riding in
my dads truck with his mix tape playing in the background. Intergalactic by the Beastie Boys
was track number one then right after that was Bulls on Parade by Rage Against the Machine,
then after that was Sitting on the Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding. The diversity of these
different artists had me quite intrigued as a youngster. As I have grown older and discovered the
roots of music that I love, I always questioned what caused these musical styles to be
created. During the 70s there were two main underground music cultures: Punk and Hip-Hop.
Both are now the backbones of most popular music today. The band on my Dads mix CD, Rage
Against the Machine, is described as having elements of Hip-Hop, Punk, and Funk. It seems as
though these two genres were created out of nothing, which is why they have stuck around so
long. I wanted to research anything that could give me a clue as to how these genres emerged and
what influenced them seeing how they influenced other forms of music in todays culture.

One of the main inspirations for this inquiry into the birth of these music styles is a new
show on HBO called Vinyl, which gives an extremely good insight on the music
industry/culture in the 70s. Although it is a show with larger than life qualities, it does give a lot
of true insight that the writers slip in to give a realistic quality. One of the co-writers and
producers of Vinyl is Rolling Stones front man, Mick Jagger. In a Rolling Stone article about
the premier of the show, the input of factual depictions regarding the music culture in the 70s
and even dramatizations of real artists is confirmed through an interview with Jagger himself.
Along with all the period decadence, there's plenty of music in the form of dramatizations of
real-life bands like the Dolls (who we see playing a revelatory gig in the pilot) and, in
flashbacks, various blues and R&B acts that Cannavale's character fell in love with when he was
first getting into the music business (Hermes). Now that the show has ended with its tenth
episode finale, the rise of Punk and Hip Hop were the main genres depicted factually with
dramatizations of real artists. In the third episode we see a young DJ Kool Herc, one of the
forefathers of Hip Hop, using two turntables to switch between the instrumentals of popular funk
hits. This process would then become the backbone of Hip Hop and the person mixing two
records together would become known as a Disk Jockey or DJ. As for the birth of punk, this
is mainly depicted through one of the co main characters; a young musician in a band called the
Nasty Bits. When the main character, a record executive, gets his hands on the bands demo
tape; he is thoroughly moved by the raw, caveman approach to Rock and Roll. Although this is
just another part of the story, early punk and even newer punk derived music is described this
way: Punk rock put the hippie music of the previous decade to bed and woke up the next
generation with a sound that was loud, fast and untamed (Bergeron). Looking into the history of
both genres, I noticed a trend. It seems as though both genres were created by people who had

influence from other forms music but didnt necessarily adhere to the strict quality. Punk music
obviously had Rock and Blues, while Hip Hop was derived from funk. In either case both genres
introduced completely new sounds that sparked a wild fire of new creators and appreciators.
The early history of Punk and Hip Hop is very fascinating and similar. Each genre of
music started as more than just music. The sub-culture came before the music. In an article
published by Los Angeles and New York based preservation museum, Paley Center, author
Claudia Calhoun explains that Hip Hop was born on the streets. Hip-hop was born in the
neighborhood where young people gathered in parks, on playgrounds, and on street corners, to
speak poetry over mechanical sounds and borrowed melodies (Calhoun). Similarly in a CNN
article titled, Punk shocks the world, the culture is emphasized as a huge part of what this
music represents. Author Ryan Bergeron explains a lot about the rise of punk including major
artists that paved the way. He describes that it wasn't just the next thing in music; it was a
cultural shock wave with an impact that would be felt everywhere. In the 70s, both cultures
were primarily underground with a following that consisted of young-adults not too happy with
their place in life. This wave of revolution plowed its way through the ears of young-adults
throughout the world and eventually made way into mainstream music.