Run DMC was the first hip hop act to successfully make headway in the mainstream market. Their manager, Russell Simmons, was a visionary when it came to marketing a hard nosed, gritty sound to the masses. Run DMC's sound was a very influential rap group within the genre itself. Before Run DMC, most of the releases by hip hop artists were based on 1 or 2 singles combined with a bunch of filler. When Run DMC came along, they were the first to create a full album.
However, many southern states found ways around the laws to disenfranchise the black populations. They did this by introducing a ‘Grandfather Clause’, which is that only people whose grandfather voted, gave them the ability to vote. Also literacy test was another method used, which in most ways wasn’t made fairly and even well educated people were disenfranchised and not allowed to vote. However, in 1946 President Truman established The President’s Committee on ‘Civil rights’, producing a report examining the experiences of racial minorities in America. The report was called ‘To Secure These Rights’, this report highlighted the problems facing African Americans and proposed radical changes to make American society better.
President Roosevelt, former governor of New York, did not believe in racial segregation of African-Americans and when African-Americans were hired to drive buses in Philadelphia during the war, some residents refused to ride the buses others threatened to burn the buses. Roosevelt sent troops to ride on the buses, eventually everyone realized that you need to catch the bus or else you would end up walking a long way so it was change even though it wasn’t much. No black pilots had ever been used before by the United States, one of the reasons is since in order to become a pilot, blacks had to achieve high-test scores and be college educated. However, in 1944 President Eisenhower supported integrated combat units and the air force began to let black Americans fly planes and even though they were only allowed to fly in segregated units it was a turning point. Overall, the Second World War was a turning point in the growth of the civil Rights of black Americans as it was a catalyst for change as it made black Americans more politically aware and feel that they had the right to demand change.
History Practice Controlled Assessment: ‘To what extent has the contribution of Martin Luther King to the advancement of black Americans between 1954 and 1968 been exaggerated?’ On 6th December 1865, the 13th amendment to the American Constitution was passes, leading to the abolition of slavery. However whilst slavery was abolished, the black people of America still faced harsh racism and had very little rights. During the period of 1954-1968, many people were campaigning for an advancement of black Americans. These people wanted equal civil rights for blacks as white Americans had. One such person was Martin Luther King.
The term “selling out” plays a big role in the dichotomy of underground and mainstream music across all genres and I will explain more about this term further on in the essay. Consumption and commerce interface with rebellion and expression in many ways according to Wahl (1999). Historically, hip hop didn’t gain much commercial success in the mainstream until the influential act ‘Run-DMC’ made their way onto the scene. Their album ‘Raising Hell’ in 1986 was the first hip hop product to go gold in the US. As Wahl (1999) points out, this was largely due to their hit single and cover of Aerosmith’s 1975 song, ‘Walk This Way’.
Hip Hop was conceived in the late 1970’s with artist such as The Sugar Hill Gang and the Fabulous Five. Back then, the idea behind creating this music was to express the struggles and culture of the urban individual, particularly African Americans. In addition, the music was about having a good time and this idea was clearly expressed in the lyrics of the day. Nevertheless by the late 1980’s as the popularity of Hip Hop approached its height, artists began to earn income that was unprecedented in the music industry. Many African Americans and people of color were not privy to such high incomes at the time.
Rock ‘n’ Roll became more popular among the younger audience. Allen Freed, a disc jockey in Cleveland, Ohio, introduced traditional African American music to the white population. Freed wanted to expand the audience range with this type of music. When the music aired, teens regardless of their race or color, requested the rhythm and blues music written and sung by black artists. Once the white teenagers discovered this “new”
Other people and groups who credit for their dedication Malcom x , black panthers,president kennedy president Johnson Sclc – ‘’the sclc’s original aim of spreading the Montgomery example by supporting similar bus boycotts in other cities met with little success’’ - and other civil rights organisations. Black panthers had a different approach ‘’the black panthers believed that the non violent campaign of martin had failed’’ source from text book from the history learning site. All organisations had a different approach but had one aim, equality in the society. In 1955, he became heavily involved in the Montgomery ‘/@:, Alabama boycott of the city buses, which was because the bus company’s insistence that African Americans only ride in the back seats. King’s support drew much attention to the cause and rallied many supporters even outside of the Montgomery area, which put pressure on bus companies all over the South to examine their own rules, and eventually, to change them.
Many of my friends and acquaintances have also taken a liking to hip hop. How has hip hop transformed from a genre of music almost exclusively enjoyed by African Americans to a genre that has now permeated into white America? The transformation is the direct response to the commodification of African American leisure in urban areas. Recognizing this transformation is an example of displaying a sociological imagination. Let us first explore what brought me to question the transformation of hip hop.
Social and economic class being at the heart of the Motown enterprise from the inception of the company through the mid-1980s, is vivid through their upbringing of the lower-income African American people, their devotion to making music the younger social class, and their The Motown enterprise aimed to please the African American people who were at the bottom of the social and economic class. Motown associated their music with the black struggle by being the first record label ever owned by an African-American. It became a vehicle of black pride and self-expression. During Motown’s beginning period, their strength was their accessibility to the black community (41). Many black people were seeking new ways to make money because they were sick and tired of being employed by Ford Motors where there was little pay.