Rock and Roll vs Rap Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Rock and Roll vs Rap - Essay Example Soon the American rock style began to influence other genres. Places like Southern California produced their own varieties of pop music, such as surf. Young adults and teenagers across the country were playing in amateur rock bands, laying the roots for local scenes which would pave the way for garage rock and the so-called San Francisco Sound. Rock has encountered several stages of development since the beginning of the 50s, and the tendencies in modern rock include alternative bands (Radiohead, Muse), so-called pop-rock (Blink-182, Green Day) and others (George-Warren 26). Rap music in its widely recognized form appeared much later than rock and roll. The roots of hip hop music are in West African and African American music. Originally, early rappers of the 70s focused on introducing themselves and others in the audience (the origin of the still common practice of "shouting out" on hip hop records). These early performers often emceed for hours at a time, with some improvisation and a simple four-count beat, along with a basic chorus to allow the performer to gather his thoughts (such as "one, two, three, y'all, to the beat, y'all"). The 1980s saw intense diversification in hip hop, which developed into a more complex form.