OPINION: Is Hip-Hop the New Rock and Roll?

The youth-led cultural rebellion behind the rock and roll music of the 1960s and ‘70s was a phenomenon largely driven by disaffection and disillusionment in a rapidly evolving society. From the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement to the tailwinds emanating from the war in Vietnam and Watergate, a blossoming socio-political consciousness swept the nation in droves. An eclectic mix of artists ranging from Patti Smith to Marvin Gaye tapped into this newfound energy in America, transforming the nuanced emotions held by young people into a tangible art-form to soundtrack the times.

Popular music is generally reflective of the environment in which it was created. Whether a hit song or album is explicitly topical in nature, it will typically evoke the masses with atmospheric content relative to the period. However, controversy is an inevitable characteristic to these works as they often challenge social constructs and push the boundaries for what is “acceptable” to listen to. People satisfied with the status quo are naturally resistant to any sort of change, especially when it comes to products of great influence, such as music; this is one of those undeniable truths about the make-up of the human condition. So when Elvis Presley began gyrating his hips on national television, conservative activists were not exactly amused with the sexual freedom emanating from a seemingly innocent (by 2021 standards) dance move. The swift condemnation of Presley by certain sects of the country became all-the-more prevalent when, decades later, African-American acts like N.W.A. and 2Pac rapped about the horrors of police brutality and racial inequality.

Elvis Presley performs on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ in 1956, earning the vitriol of social conservatives.

Furthermore, music provides solace for people of all ages and institutes a medium in which to better understand life. For youths in particular, it can be instrumental in identity development. With the advent of social media being a disruptive platform for people to engage and disseminate information, the global citizenry is more disillusioned than ever. In the wake of Black Lives Matter protests, a once-in-a-generation pandemic, and four years of an incredibly divisive occupant of The White House, the psyche of younger generations can surely be elusive and hard to grasp. Keeping with the old saying that “life imitates art”, it would make sense that some of the biggest songs of the previous decade, like Travis Scott’s “Sicko Mode” and Kanye West’s “New Slaves”, are characterized by erratic beat changes, elastic vocals, harsh lyrics, and wavy production.

Travis Scott performing live in Orlando during the ASTROWORLD tour in 2019.

In recent years, hip-hop music has overwhelmingly dominated the mainstream Billboard charts, deeming it the most popular genre in the United States. Therefore, it should come as no surprise when songs like Lil Baby’s “The Bigger Picture” and Childish Gambino’s “This Is America” usher in a new wave of protest music or hits like Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP” and City Girls’s “Pussy Talk” generate a counterpoint to the misogynistic tropes in pop culture. They are all artists capturing the complexities of the moment in their own unique ways. In this respect, hip-hop has largely manifested the void rock music left behind. 

This brings me back to the fundamental question of the piece: is rock and roll dead, or has it just changed shape? In my personal opinion, it is more alive than ever. Propelled by mosh-pit inducing beat drops and intricate flow patterns, the many different sub-genres of hip-hop have shifted the cultural paradigm of the country, calling for us to examine our own biases and pushing the envelope further in terms of music production and artistry. Much like how traditional rock music provided a voice to previous generations, rap has contributed much for millennials and Gen Zers to cling on to. To put it in more emphatic terms, hip-hop is the new rock and roll.

Harrison Kramer | IG @Harrison_Kramer | Twitter @HarrisonKramer1

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