The Connection Between Music and Pop Culture

The Relationship Between Music and Popular Culture in the 20th and 21st Century

Global Connections

Instructor: Gregory Falls

December 8th, 2017

Abstract
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In music and popular culture, there exists a Butterfly Effect that dictates the direction of

both. Without the influence of certain events and movements in music history, the

cultural landscape of the world would not be the same, and without the cultural

landscape, these events and movements would never had existed. The culture of

certain time periods and eras directly inspired musical innovation and excellence that

would go on to define not only decades, but generations. Jazz was only able to come

about and become as dominant as it was because of the cultural environment of the

port city of New Orleans, and if there was no Jazz there would be no Rock n’ Roll. The

Rolling Stones would not have come about if it was not for the way being paved by

Chuck Berry and other Rockstars of the time, and hard Rock would not have come

about if it was not for the Rolling Stones. It is a twisted domino effect where if one of the

dominos is removed, then all of the others fail to fall. This applies to the musical timeline

just as much as it does to the cultural timeline in relation to the music. The culture

inspires the music, which leads to the music impacting the culture. Culture would be

unbearably dull and tragic without music, and music could not exist and progress

without a culture to push it along and inspire new innovations, so therefore, they are

both inseparable.

Table of Contents

Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………..1
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Table of

Contents………………………………………………………………………………..2

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………....3

Limitations………………………………………………………………………………………..5

Literature Review………………………………………………………………………………..7

Discussion………………………………………………………………………………………..9

Jazz…………………....…………..……………………………………………………11

Rock n’ Roll…………………………………….……………………………………....14

Pop and Television…………………………………………………………………….21

Hip-Hop and Grunge…………………………………………………………………..23

Internet, Piracy, and Modern Music………………………………………………….32

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………...37

References……………………………………………………………………………………..38

Introduction
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In life, when people are plagued by strife, and trapped in the darkness, they

make their own light. Human beings in toxic cultures, and spiritually taxing situations,

turn to music to numb the pain, or to fight back. They use music to either forget about

their troubles in favor of more pleasant emotions, or to create music, with the sole

purpose of expressing themselves and exposing the world to a new and unique point of

view. Music affects culture, and culture affects music in a blatant cycle of human

expression. Culture influence music, resulting in culture also being created, in a very

complex, yet sensical exchange. The age old question of whether life imitates art, or art

imitates life has always had a clear answer: It is, has been, and will always be both.

Through art, and more specifically through music, struggles and weaknesses can

become strengths, and how people express themselves today can change how they will

live tomorrow. Ask the people of Harlem during the 1920s. Ask the Jazz musicians that

emerged amidst the Great Depression. Ask the entertainers who made it off the streets

of Compton and Bed-Stuy to be propelled into cultural relevance for decades. More

often than not, their cultural woes and everyday struggles are imprinted into the music

they produce and distribute. They find ways to tell the world of the many ways they were

wronged, and how it helped establish their identities. They use their cultural relevance

and status as icons to take a stand; to make statements, so that their art and expression

can pave the way for new ground to be broken in the future.

Art is expression and emotion in its essence. A person’s artistic display is a

showcase of them as a person, and who they really are at their core. They are their

mistakes, hardships, upbringings, and experiences, which is the basis for the unending

cycle of cultural and musical impact that can be found throughout the 20th and 21st
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Centuries. While the cycle can be traced all the way back to the beginning of human

history, it is most prominent, and most relevant in time period. These two centuries are

filled with events that demonstrate oppression, depression, and pain that were turned

into beautiful pieces of music, and powerful displays of protest. Their lyrical rants of the

injustices of police brutality, and emotional performances against the horrors of the war

in Vietnam showed that their musical expression was a tool for social change.

Through guitars, brass, strings, drums, MPCs, and microphones, individuals

throughout this time period exposed injustice, introduced new, swaggerful attitudes to a

growing youth, and established a recognizable pop culture in America, and most of the

developed world. The musical phenomena of the 20th and 21st Century, and the

cultures that accompany them, interact with each other to create new environments and

dictate the future.

Limitations

Due to the complexity of the study, the author has elected to restrict the focus of

the project to musical and pop cultural correlations occurring within the 20th and 21st
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century. The scope of the research extends from the beginning of the 20th century to

the current year of the project’s conduction, even though occurrences of the sensation

go back much further.

Since the project cannot account for all musical and cultural happenings that

manifested around the world during this time period, it will focus on the trends that

emerge from America, and eventually spread around the world to countries like the U.K,

Australia, and West Africa. It will also focus on how this model of American influence

has shifted in the modern day, resulting in the United States taking cues from other

cultures to determine what is popular in the U.S mainstream.

The project also cannot focus on every influential person or every era, just as it

cannot focus on every location, so it will fixate on the most influential figures of each

pivotal era of significant relevance, as well as have a US to properly analyze the growth,

diffusion, and impact of popular culture on the rest of the world.

It should be noted that the author has an admitted preference for Rock and Hip-

Hop, which should be taken into consideration when looking over the project, and at

which eras and figures they chose to cover. While these are not the only genres

covered when studying the correlation between music and pop culture, it should be

known how important the two genres are to the author.

In a similar vein, when looking at which musicians the author chose to cover

during the Harlem Renaissance, it should be known that the author’s main instrument at

the time of the writing of this piece is the trumpet, and they have acquired an ear for

appreciating excellence and mastery on the instrument in any era or environment. This
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could very well affect their judgement when deciding which musicians to spotlight in

various eras.

It should be taken into consideration that the author is ethnically African

American. An individual is more likely to gravitate towards musicians and people they

identify with, which impacts the author’s judgement when picking influential figures to

focus on during this project.

Literary Review

Music impacts popular culture, and popular culture impacts individuals, so the

best gauge of character for people around the world is to take a look at the culture they

are influenced by. The topic of music’s relationship with pop culture is a popular one

that is unique in the fact that its popularity has not inspired many studies. It has been
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and remains an interesting topic for mere speculation in the academic field, and has not

intrigued enough people to spawn a flood of studies. The few studies that have been

conducted sufficiently examined the impacts of music on culture, but neglected to

address the effects culture had on music. There were studies that focused on how

different cultures affected music, and some that looked at how music impacted culture,

but never strictly both. (Garfias, R. Music: the Cultural Context; Unitarian Universalist

Association. The Cultural Connection) This current project is to study how culture and

music affect each other.

In the Garfias paper, the study of music, for the most part, only goes as far as 50

years from the date of its publication. It focuses on the diffusion aspect of music’s

influence on culture, while also addressing that the inception of various musical styles

and identities is rooted in the cultures they arise from. It also touches on how music is

infused in the individuals of different cultures, acting as a distinctive, cultural delineator.

Another paper from the Unitarian Universalist Association also touches on the

study of relationships between culture and music, dubbing it ethnomusicology. It studies

the musical nuances between more developed and less developed countries. Western

societies may sing, dance, and play instruments for recreation, performance, or

worship, while other societies might attribute more superstitious qualities to these

actions. A blacksmith in West Africa might have a musician sing while a weapon is

being forged to give it strength, using the music as a tool to distribute power. The paper

touched on how different the meaning of music is in different cultures, as well as the

nuance found in different culture’s music, but neglected to focus on many integral things

such as the relationship between music and culture, and history of this relationship.
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This paper will strive to deeply explore the history of this relationship, as well as

its future. It will also cover the individuals that affect and were affected by this unique

connection.

Discussion

The development of the music scene from the start of the 20th century, featured

a lack of connection between music and popular culture, and the biggest reason for this

lack of connection was the limitations of technology, and the impact it had on mass

consumption. Popular culture as it is today did not exist. There were no famous pop

stars. Most popular music was not released, it was published, and the easiest way to

get music to the masses was through live performances, or concerts.

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While it is more than true that electronic playback is not necessary for music to

have a significant impact on culture and individuals, it is undeniable that it helps open

up the music and its impact to a larger audience.

For most of human history, music was localized, and the effect of music on

culture was relegated to the areas they had erupted from. Any diffusion would come

from travelers who elected to take their culture and its music with them to new

audiences and musicians. It was not until the latter half of the 20th century that people

were gifted with the ability to keep an eye on things happening beyond the scope of

their own backyard. The rise of the radio exposed musical trends to people around the

world who never would have heard that type of music without it. Radio, as well as the

later popularization of television, were some of the biggest developments for the

diversification and progression of American pop culture. Cameras and concerts lifted

the veil on the cultural sects in the realm of music and opened the gates of inspiration. It

changed the way the world approached music, but without these marvelous innovations,

the musicians of the 20th century were forced to rely on primitive methods of diffusion

and collaboration. This would in part lead to one of the most explosive and ground-

breaking genres to grace the generation thus far.

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Jazz (1920s-1940s)

The first significant musical and artistic phenomenon to pop out of the 20th

century came from New Orleans, Louisiana. In its essence, it was a hybrid of cultures,

born from the musical camaraderie of very different people. It twisted the rules of

established music to create something new, exciting, and entertaining. It was an

improvisation; an interjection of the musical trajectory of the 20th century. Its creators

and embracers were playing, composing, transposing, and rearranging music in their

heads on the fly, all while keeping up with the beat and staying in time. It was

revolutionary, and a breath of fresh air that helped bring some fire and excitement to a
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new and budding generation. It was made possible in part by the limitations of the era,

and New Orleans status as a port city.

As mentioned before, one of the only ways for musical diffusion to occur before

the popularization of the radio, and the rise television and internet was through travel

and collaboration. Due to the influx of different people and cultures coming into the city

and calling it home, language barriers between musician was often an issue, but it did

not matter; that was not how they spoke to each other. The common language they all

spoke was music, and with it, they created something that change the world as they

knew it.

New Orleans was one of the only cities where the birth of Jazz could have even

come about, as it was the only place in the United States that allowed slaves to have

their own drums before the abolition of slavery. Each Sunday they were allowed into the

now famous Congo Square to keep in touch with the culture they had been ripped away

from; with the significance of the beating of the drum. This was an opportunity afforded

to no other United States slaves.

Every Sunday, they sang, they danced, they played, and they persisted, even

after slavery was abolished. It was the only place in America that, throughout slavery,

allowed for the preservation of African and Afro-Franco culture. This culture continued

until much later, when African Americans could act more freely in regards to music, and

interact with the foreign cultures. The African drums met the European horns, and

classically trained musicians came together with gifted amateurs to create a fusion of

styles with great instrumental variety; the perfect storm.

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This new movement brought swing and electricity to the musical normality, and

revitalized the scene. It caught fire in the early parts of the generation, greatly aided by

the rise of radio, and reached its peak popularity in what is now known as the ‘Roaring

Twenties’. But would this magnificent genre of expression have come about without the

perfect cultural environment to grow in, or the perfect set of circumstances? By 1860,

40% of the population of New Orleans was foreign born due to its status as a port city.

When these people came to New Orleans, their brought with them their musical

cultures, which resulted with the creation a new genre. Circumstance setup the perfect

environment for the eruption and proliferation of Jazz in the United States, somewhat

due to the radio, but largely because of the culture of New Orleans.

As history would show, the radio was more than a trendy, flavor of the month,

technological fad, it was revolutionary; Your own personal sound factory bringing in

concerts and recordings from musicians across the country. In the 1920s, the biggest

thing to play as a musician, or blast as the runner of a nightclub was Jazz. No longer

were the days of symphonies and concerti. Jazz was the dominant genre in the hearts

of the American populace, all thanks to the cultural makeup of a port city in Louisiana.

It showed no signs of stopping, even when faced with the national struggles of

the Great Depression. It thrived in the lows of the Depression, acting as an escape from

the strife experienced during the country’s economic lows. It was blasted in stores, in

homes, in speakeasies for people to dance to, and survived the entire decade of the

30s, quickly becoming a sound that would define an era. Jazz and swing dancing was

cathartic, and made its mark on the American public during the 1920s and 30s. The

music was influencing the culture that had spawned it.

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With the creation and commercial success of Jazz, the foundation was laid for

popular culture in America. It, with the power of the radio, created the biggest and

quickest growing sensation the world had ever seen. America’s entire pop culture was

born out of the preservation of culture on the part of the Afro-Franco and African slaves,

their cultural collaboration and intermingling with the European immigrants, and the

contributions of millions of tiny antennaed boxes.

Rock n’ Roll (1950s-1980s)

What came next, was yet another fusion, not of cultures, but of two genres that

shared some of the same origins. Blues and Jazz when combined with the shredding of

guitars and frontmen with colorful personalities led to the cultural experience that was

Rock N’ Roll. Before anyone can talk about Rock n’ Roll, they have to talk about where

it came from.

The birth of the Blues is the epitome of how culture affects, and even creates

music. It came from slaves on southern plantations, who sang songs as they toiled

cotton and vegetables fields. It was the late-blooming, older brother of Jazz. They both

came out of the same area in America: Louisiana. The difference was, it started popping
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up in the 30s and 40s, much later than the peak of Jazz. Their fusion was genius, and in

a way, inevitable.

This new movement was led by the late Chuck Berry; often thought to have been

the father of Rock N’ Roll, and very much responsible for much of what came after.

When he arrived on the scene, he brought aggression and attitude in his

performances and recordings. His guitar shredding was heard by impressionable

teenagers around the world, captivated by his extraordinary persona, and disregard for

the cultural norms. He, in his own words, “found no happiness in any association that

[had] been linked with regulations and custom,” and clearly displayed this belief in his

music. He injected personality into music, and helped bring about a new era of musical

stardom. People did not just come for his music, they came for what he had to say, and

what he did during performances. There was no mistaking the fact that he was the star

of the show. It could be seen in the Beatles, and David Bowie, and even a star of today

such as Kanye West. Berry’s music and lyrics oozed expression, and he was the first

true instance of selling an image as opposed to selling just the music.

In the words of John Lennon, who Chuck Berry significantly inspired, he “was

writing good and intelligent lyrics in the 1950s when people were singing ‘Oh baby, I

love you so,’...It was people like him that influenced our generation to try and make

sense of out of songs rather than just sing ‘Do wah diddy.’” (Lennon, 1972). His words

showed just how music was influencing generations with the help of television and the

newly created pop culture scene.

His influence transcended music. He instilled rebelliousness in teenagers around

the world, from 18 year old Mick Jagger, to a young John Lennon in Liverpool. Rock n’
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Roll was an open rebellion against the musical era and dominance of Jazz, and against

the older generations of adults. This was when the cultural impact of music on culture

started to expand to a global scale.

As legendary as Louis Armstrong was, people did not flock to him because of his

personality, they did it because he possessed extraordinary trumpet playing skills. While

Chuck Berry was a fantastic guitar player, he was also an incredible exhibitionist. He

brought, along with his musical skills, an unmistakable swagger that influenced the

coming generations of pop stars and icons.

He was not the first pop star, but he was most definitely the one with the most

fire. Those that came before him did not have the sound of Rock n’ Roll. Their hits took

off, but never achieved worldwide appeal or reach. Rock n’ Roll, with its worldwide

appeal is still influencing cultures today. It can be heard in West Africa, which is

embracing distorted riffs and bends combined with drums and vocals to channel the

spirit of Rock n’ Roll combined with their own unique culture in the 21s century. All of

this ties back into television, and the idea that technological innovation eased the

diffusion of different sounds and attitudes in the 20th century. It inspired a culture of

imitation and teaching that spanned across much of the developed world.

It has been said that an artist that teaches other artists nothing teaches no one,

because artistry and musicianship really is all about teaching, mainly teaching through

action and imitation. It is evident that the introduction of radio and television affected the

development of the musical scene in the 20th century.

“He can do that? I can do that too,” was the phrase that defined the pop culture

of the television age. If there was a camera, the world was watching, and there existed
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a chance to change the world. The Rolling Stones would never have become a group

had they not been inspired by the legendary performances and recordings of Chuck

Berry.

An 18-year-old Mick Jagger was waiting for a train in Dartford station after buying

a Chuck Berry record when his future bandmate, and childhood friend Keith Richards

saw him and struck up a conversation about it. It ultimately led to them rehearsing

Chuck Berry songs a year later, under the name The Rolling Stones. From Chuck Berry,

they adopted their infamous bad boy personas that drove the girls in the 1960s crazy.

With the British invasion that Berry inspired, the era of Rock n’ Roll was full

underway, and the passing of torch from Jazz as the dominant genre was completed.

Just as Jazz had been a youthful rebellion against conventional classical symphonies

and concerti, Rock n’ Roll was the response of the world’s fatigue of Jazz. For 25-30

years Jazz dominated the radio in America, and a change was greatly needed to push

pop culture forward. It came in the form of wailing guitars and musicians that went

above and beyond to put on an entertaining show.

The Rock n’ Roll culture was a disease; a parasite that found itself at home in the

minds, bodies, and souls of teenagers around the world. While parents scoffed at the

idea of how this new, revolutionary genre was any better than the Jazzy hits they had

grown up with, the kids went crazy, feeling a strong connection to the new pop culture.

Rockstars were icons for a budding generation. The 1st world teenager found a voice in

the music, and the culture dug its claws into them and their lifestyles.

From then on, with the introduction of pop culture stardom in the music industry,

combined with the new and infectious genre of Rock n’ Roll, the world would never be
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the same. Rockstars became something society looked up to, and everybody wanted in

on it. Whether it was the Beatles spawned British bands that came to America in hopes

of blowing up similarly, or the products of the beat generation who found themselves

being the leaders of the counterculture of America; the same kind of counterculture that

started with the introduction of Rock n’ Roll.

The early 60s in regards to American culture was a time of stagnation, formality,

and traditional values that the country had thrived on. To the youth, this less than

progressive rut America had found itself in with relation to music and culture just would

not cut it. The youth was bored, and looking for something new.

Eventually the counterculture found themselves in societal revolt, spearheaded

by young, small time musicians. These were musicians who were not drowning in the

screams of hundreds of teenage girls, but in the support of their followers.

The youth in the late 60s began to question authority, and it showed in their

chosen poets, musicians, and role models. They did not want traditional, jazzy

American culture, they wanted the future. They wanted Rock n’ Roll, sex, drugs,

freedom, and political efficacy. They took ahold of the reigns of the pop culture, and

steered it in a completely new direction. The music made during this pivotal period was

reflective of that.

The world began to see Bob Dylans and Neil Youngs pop up in the musical

scene, singing about what they believed was true about the world. There was more

infusion of personality, beliefs, and meaning in popular music than ever before. Music

was being used as a tool for Social commentary, and eventual social change. These

musicians recognized just how powerful their music, and music in general was in the
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grand cultural scheme. They knew they had the power to do something with their music,

so they pulled no punches.

Artists that were popular with this new, maturing youth talked about murder,

racism, and fascism in their songs, trying their best to bring these issues to the forefront.

Along with this form of musical muckraking, they used their music to spread messages

of peace, love, and brotherhood to the world. In his socially conscious songs, Bob Dylan

lamented the shooting of Civil Rights Activist Medgar Evers, and at the legendary

Woodstock Festival, Jimi Hendrix performed the national anthem with an injection of

bomb sound effects, using his Fender guitar to protest the war in Vietnam. They made

their messages and mantras infectious to the impressionable public in hopes of making

a difference. The culture inspired the music, which then went on to affect the culture, in

a fascinating loop of influence.

The culture grew and snowballed until the products of the beat generation

collided and merged with the young embracers of drug culture, and they became a blob

of hippie influence on pop culture of the world. This again found a way of manifesting

itself into the music. The affect their drug centered music had on the culture of America

and the world was startlingly blatant. Tim Stoddart of Sober Nation reported in 2013

that, the “popularity for ‘acid’ rose proportionally with the canonization of luminaries,

including Rockstars Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Who, The Beatles, The Rolling

Stones, The Grateful Dead and The Jefferson Airplane, to name the most notorious

artists to incorporate heavy drug use with their persona, mesmerizing youth during the

70s.” (Stoddart, 2013). This wild journey of youthful rebellion and musical innovation
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had took a turn away from activism, and towards psychedelics in the late 60s and early

70s.

The cause for this rise in drug use were extremely unsuccessful anti-drug tactics

in the 60s, as well as the attitude of the American teenager at the time. Adults like the

parents and teachers of the kids that would eventually end up doing drugs in the 70s

used scare tactics to keep their children drug free. They were told that marijuana gave

them blindness, acne, and sterility, which the children were smart enough to recognize

was factually inaccurate, and they began to dismiss the warnings. This combined with

the fact that they were about to go through a rebellious stage in American culture led to

their eventual decision to turn to drugs. If the establishment was against drugs, and

telling them not to do it, that is exactly what they were going to do. In this untraditional,

rebellious culture that was drummed up in the late 60s, drugs and psychedelics were all

the rage.

The youth did drugs. They built lifestyles around it...made music about it, which

eventually led to the youth and general public embracing more drugs. The phenomenon

between music and culture had turned into a toxic cycle of drug use in the 1970s.

This ultimately ended up being the end of the reign of the rebellious teenagers,

with most of their musical idols and music either fading from relevancy or losing

popularity by the end of the 70s. They were forced to grow up, and in doing so lost the

war against conformity. They faltered a bit with the death of Jimi Hendrix, but halted

completely the day John Lennon was assassinated. In four shots, the cultural revolution

of the 60s and 70s was silenced.

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What did the world do when confronted with the death of such a influential man

for the music and the culture of the 20th century? They returned back to where he got

his biggest break: Television.

Pop and Television (1980s)

After years of embracing the music spawned ultimately from the exposure of

television, the world returned back to it to embrace a new concept of the 80s that

experimented with the idea of an entire channel committed to showing music videos all

day. MTV head Mark Goodman said in an introduction to the network that “[MTV] would

be doing for TV what FM did for radio.” (Goodman, 1981)

MTV amplified the effect of the radio that made the listener feel like there was a

concert in their homes. It made them feel like the artist was right there singing to them.

It revolutionized the music video and gave the much needed shock to popular culture

that it needed after the death of disco. Music started to embrace a very poppy, flashy

look and sound. It also amplified the need to be a performance artist along with being a

musician. Before with Chuck Berry and The Beatles, selling your image was optional,

but in the 80s with the rise of music videos, it was necessary for large scale success.

This has been described as “a marriage between the visual artist and the musician.”
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MTV began the age of commercialism in music. Everything was being sold in the

music industry, from the artist, to the music, to the image. The bulk of the 80s was pop,

and there were many people itching to get in on this popstar culture that was amassing

in the 80s.

This new format of musical presentation and cultural revitalization was missing

diversity. The world had found a new and popular outlet to express themselves, and to

get ingrained in the popular culture, and black artists were not allowed. “[black artists]

are being sat in the back of the bus television style.” (R. James, 1983). There was

outrage and frustration in the black community. MTV was married to the genre of Rock

n’ Roll and refused to move away from it until pressured by no other than the King of

Pop Michael Jackson.

The people of the 80s witnessed the reinvention and rise of Michael Jackson,

and at the point in time when MTV was not allowing the videos of black acts onto the

air, he was very much the embodiment of Pop music. What he was missing was a more

prominent pop culture presence, and he wanted to obtain this through a relationship

with MTV. MTV refused up until CBS, Jackson’s label, essentially blackmailed them into

playing his videos by threatening to remove all of their other artists from MTV

completely. In a snowball effect, he opened the floodgates for the labels of other black

artists like Prince, and Rick James to do the same, and get their videos on MTV. He

helped Break down the race barriers of this new pop culture. (Nittle, 2017)

Jackson’s videos went on to define MTV and pop culture, and by the end of the

decade, he had ascended to superstardom rivaling only that of The Beatles. The 80s

became an era of comfy family values that mirrored what was seen in the early 50s. The
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baby boomers had settled down and were raising their kids, and watching wholesome

films about flying aliens and dueling Jedis. The world really started to embrace

commercialism, media, and entertainment. Middle-class America was tying the knot and

relaxing to the tunes of Prince, Duran Duran, Madonna and Michael Jackson,

surrendering themselves to sound and relishing as a culture that loved the soothing

sounds of music. It was greatly needed and cathartic.

Hip-Hop and Grunge (1990s)

The other side of the aisle was drenched in conflict and turmoil. Life outside of

the screen for those in poverty was a nightmare, and they could not be soothed by

flashing images of pop and Rock n’ Roll. They were being hit by the drug wave and its

biggest hitter: Crack Cocaine. The effects the drug had on these neighborhoods and

people below the poverty line in general, more specifically in the black community, were

devastating.

Crack caused crime. It tore apart families and severed friendships, which can be

seen in statistics of the decade. African Americans were disproportionately represented

as both the victims and the offenders. As the decade went on, their homicide rate more

than doubled. There was a significant increase in the African American fetal death rate,

the number low birth-weight babies, the amount of weapons arrests, and the number

children in foster care (Roland, 2006). The community was ravaged, and naturally, the

culture fought for an opportunity to respond in music.

Different musical phenomena can brew or occur simultaneously, only emerging

at different times. Hip-Hop was a sleeping giant, only awoken by the injustices of the
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80s committed against the African American community. It was a perfect agglomeration

of different phenomena spread across the century that resulted from less than stellar

circumstances. It ultimately all led up to this explosion of dissatisfaction in the late 80s.

It goes back as far as the 40s when Jazz was in its heyday, and the nation was

oblivious. Welfare was introduced to help out poor communities following the Great

Depression, and it did for a while, but it soon began to do damage to the social

constructs of American families. It had unintentional and unforeseen consequences that

diminished the need for the father figure. As time went on, moving from the 1950s,

African American marriage rates decreased, and the divorce rates increased, which left

many young black children without fathers. It created a culture of parental disparity in

the black community that, combined with the damaging effects of crack cocaine, created

a truly toxic environment for the children that had to grow up in it. (nationalcenter.org,

2017). This led to hardship, and ultimately to Hip-Hop.

Hip-Hop was the fourth phase of musical and cultural phenomena after pop, and

it was born in the Bronx of New York. It was around 1960 when the middle class of the

Bronx began disappear along with its businesses. They were replaced with

impoverished African-American and Hispanic families. Turntables and breakdancing

had been around for decades before the emergence of Hip-Hop in the 80s, and the art

of DJing really started to develop in the 70s at block parties, with the likes of DJ Kool

Herc and Grandmaster Flash experimenting with combining break beats and funky

melodies on old records. It was not until a while after DJing came about that

wordsmiths, what the world knows as rappers today, began to pop up on the scene and

really start to define the genre.

The Connection Between Music and Popular Culture
24

It became an underground society that festered and grew while the rest of

America swooned over The Beatles and their songs of peace and love. A society

devastated by drugs within one that embraces them for recreational use and

enlightenment.

They progressed beneath the mainstream. They went commercial, they added

elements, and they upped production. It seemed like all the musical developments in

the 20th century ultimately led to this. It was a beast spawned from both the toxic and

fruitful sides of American culture, It brewed in poverty, but borrowed from the pop

culture explosions of Jazz and Rock n’ Roll.

The ideas and new concepts grew to frustration, all in the pursuit of happiness in

an unfortunate situation all the way up to the 80s when they burst through the seams.

Public Enemy was the first to step out and release politically charged Hip Hop to

talk about social issues. Their album, ‘It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back,’

addressed the crack epidemic directly, along with a plethora of other touchy subjects.

They opened the floodgates for rap music that talked about important topics politicians

and the media did not want to touch with a 10 foot pole.

After this, there was the emergence of NWA and their songs protesting police

brutality, which showed the world the side of America they were not seeing on the news

or MTV. They talked about life on the streets of Compton, and a lifestyle of crack

slinging, gangbanging, and general discontent that American Culture had ultimately

created.

They got the attention of the entire world with their vulgar lyrical descriptions of

their everyday lives in Compton. They launched gangsta rap and drummed up
The Connection Between Music and Popular Culture
25

controversy in the media, the police force, and middle class parents. Just as what

happens with the changing of the guard in the cultural scene, the adults in the

mainstream strongly disapproved of the explicit lyrics and foreign perspectives.

They had something to say, and the world was listening and watching. They did

not follow most of the rules established in the 80s that were necessary for achieving

stardom such as creating music videos, and focus on the visual arts, they just had

strong personas that attracted people to them and their music. What mattered was their

image, and what they had to say. Even without the rules laid out from the 80s, they

reached the top of the charts just by telling the world about themselves..

Hip-Hop dug itself up from the pits of society to a point where they had an

audience. Somebody somewhere was listening, either through fascination or true love

of their work. They did not get mainstream media attention or an MTV show until 1988

after years of neglection. In the 80s, Hip-Hop was the new counterculture.

Gangsta rap telling the world about where it came from and venting about their

frustration through Hip-Hop is one of the rare cases in the cultural and musical timeline

where the problem did not get solved by bringing light to it. Mentioning it, or venting

about it did not change what had been done to the black community, and ultimately did

not fix it.

NWA shed light on the toxic lifestyle of African Americans in low-income

neighborhoods but there was nobody that was running to help them in their struggles.

Nobody could stop the influx of drugs going into these places, and nobody could make

these people’s lives easier. There was not a soul who could bring back a dead or

absent father, or return the lives that were lost due to gang violence, but they could live
The Connection Between Music and Popular Culture
26

on in these stories; these raps from their friends who made it out of those

neighborhoods to tell their tale to the rest of the world. That is what gangsta rap was in

the late 80s to early 90s: The reporting of the truth to those who would listen in the most

entertaining way possible.

As Hip-Hop got deeper and deeper into the 90s, it began to take its spot in the

cultural scene, shoving down the fairly new Pop sect. The entire genre diversified and

evolved with different types of rappers, production styles, and topics popping up. The

idea of the solo rapper was popularized in the early 90s with artists like Snoop Dogg

and Tupac springing onto the scene with the support and promotion of Dr. Dre’s record

label, Death Row Records.

Tupac joined the newly established gangsta rap subgenre, and became an icon

in the eyes of the African American youth. He gave hope to all the disenfranchised black

males in America hoping to make a difference while also embodying all the virtues of

the life of a thug. While Snoop Dogg also continued gangsta rap, he also played a big

part in popularizing drug culture in Hip-Hop.

Hip-Hop was not the only genre using music as a way to release angst. Along

with the rise of Hip Hop came the rise of Grunge, a new genre that was a fusion of

Metal and Punk combined with a unique attitude of aggressiveness and angst. They

were independent, raw, and relatable. These were Rock Stars that looked like someone

that could seen in real life, which allowed for connection and relatability for audience

members. It was the death of the established, larger-than-life Rockstar.

This subgenre of Rock n’ Roll was created just like the genre itself; a fusion of

two existing, similar genres to make something revolutionary and new that the public
The Connection Between Music and Popular Culture
27

went crazy for. Like Rock n’ Roll Grunge was in response to cultural trend. Its existence

was a reaction to another subgenre that had begun to define Rock culture in the mid to

late 80s. They strived to remind the world what real Rock n’ Roll was supposed to be

like.

Grunge was in direct response to the bloated and over the top Glam bands that

took over Rock in the 80s with their long, flowing hair and pop influenced sound.

Through their music they were telling the world that Rock was supposed to be raw and

raunchy, not musically airbrushed.

Both Rock and Rap existed as a response to the commercialized corporate-like

music industry of the 80s. They did not need the system of labels and MTV’s structure

to get popular. They disregarded this approach entirely. Both of their music was raw and

genuine, and they were both largely independent when it came to how they handled

business. Most rap artists had a distrust of record labels, so they started their own, and

made their money that way. Most bands in the Grunge scenes came from independent

beginnings and strived to return Rock to its original state of freedom, innocence, and

expression. These two adjacent genres helped define a generation, and would come to

have unbelievable influence on the new millenium.

As Grunge and Hip-Hop progressed and matured, the scenes began to become

more pronounced and defined. Every single artist could fit in their own little

microgenres. Biggie Smalls, Tupac, Snoop, and Ice Cube made music by gangsters, for

gangsters, while Mos Def, Outkast, Gang Starr, and The Roots were more featured

rapping that was more skillful, and technically impressive.

The Connection Between Music and Popular Culture
28

On the Grunge side of things, almost every Rock band from then on out wanted

to be apart of the Grunge movement. Nirvana was the closest thing Grunge had to a

commercial band, and even then they were still personable and relatable. Other bands

like Pearl Jam were more down to the earth and connected to their fans, but they lacked

the cult of personality that really made Nirvana huge. People went to Nirvana for the

abrasiveness and ferocity. They went to bands like Pearl Jam for the emotion of the

Grunge scene. Nirvana just always seemed distant given how iconic Kurt Cobain was,

and how popular the band was itself. Nirvana was in a class of their own in the Grunge

scene.

These two genres together affected two major, very different demographics of

the 90s in extremely similar ways. Both of them impacted the mindset of the teenager. It

was like an unplanned tag team that inspired confidence, well being, strong character,

and good times going into the new generation. The underlying theme for the music and

culture of the 90s was the truth. It stripped life down to the bare minimum to allow the

world to see the scandals, atrocities, marvels, and beauty of life in its natural state.

Grunge bands did not need long flowing hair and expensive, elaborate productions to

get popular, they just needed instruments and themselves. Hip-Hop artists did not sugar

coat America, and told their stories how it really was, exposing the poor state of low

income neighborhoods in the 90s. These people were not manifestations of ideals, they

were human too. The world could see themselves in them and appreciate their music,

as well as their words like one would appreciate a story from a close friend.

The veil on entertainment and society was being lifted by the artists themselves

for everyone to see. They ushered the world into a new one of scandals and truth where
The Connection Between Music and Popular Culture
29

the President was not perfect, the black community was not in good shape, and Rock

stars did not have to put on a flashy show to elevate to popularity. It became a huge

part of what made the coming millenium special. The obstructions of reality in the

decade of the 1990s came tumbling down just like the Berlin Wall the year before it

began. These artists combined with the birth of the World Wide Web helped make

planet earth explicit.

The 2000s saw a very similar structure to the way the world entered the 80s, with

many of the prominent and influential stars of the previous decade passing away or

getting murdered, except this time was not as devastating. Their legacies seemed to

burn harder than the idols of music past. Kurt Cobain popularity and icon status seemed

to reach new heights after he took his own life on the 5th of April in 1994, and Tupac

and Biggie, two of the most influential rap artists seemed to live on through the decade

after their unfortunate demises as well.

As music got closer to the modern age with all the advancements in technology

developing alongside it, the music industry began to become more personal and

intimate than ever. If listening to an artist in the 90s was synonymous with hearing a

story from a friend, then the death of an artist was just like losing that friend. Their

legacies were connected to the public through pop culture. With the invasiveness of

television, and the rise of chat boxes and messaging boards on a primitive version of

the internet, the relationship between an artist’s life grew to be strong and healthy.

The impact of these musical celebrities was substantially amplified by the

technological advancements of the digital age. With the aid of the holy trinity of radio,

television, and the internet, as well as the occasional boost from movies, these
The Connection Between Music and Popular Culture
30

individuals were ingrained in the minds of the public, and pop culture itself. When one of

these artists die, they get immortalized. Their lives and accolades get talked about on

message boards, their music gets played on the radio for remembrance, and the news

talks nonstop about their legacies, and the circumstances of their deaths. The

technological innovations of the late 20th and early 21st century changed what it meant

to die in the eyes of society. The artist dies, but their legacy lives on. One of the many

things that the culture had actually given back to the music.

Tupac Shakur once said, “I’m not saying I’m going to rule the world or I’m going

to change the world. But I guarantee that I will spark the brain that will change the

world.” (Shakur, 1992). The entire interviewed showcased his insight and reflection; that

even he knew of his cultural staying power.

Internet, Piracy, and Modern Music

The early 2000s saw the effects that the legacies of artists like Tupac, Cobain,

and Biggie had with their prolonged relevance. Gangsta rap lived on in the form of 50

Cent, and an entire subgenre, dubbed ‘Post Grunge’ emerged, bringing the values of
The Connection Between Music and Popular Culture
31

Grunge into the new millenium. The icons of the past were influencing the living from

the grave, and there were stillmore superstars with appeal amplified by the internet and

television on the way.

The big thing in the 2000s was not a new musical trend or style that popped up

and changed the world, but an innovation that changed how music, influence, and

culture worked. Maybe the world was too preoccupied with the new digital age to be

upset at music hitting a standstill, or maybe they were left too satisfied by the

combination of the relationship between music and technology to care. That did not

matter. What mattered was the new era the digital era was ushering in. The internet

changed culture, which ended up changing the entire music industry.

The accessibility of the music industry was increased by the internet tenfold

thanks to the infamous music sharing website, Napster, and the growing culture of

digital piracy. The illegal downloading of music was, and still is a nightmare for music

labels and artists, but there is no doubt that the accessibility and impact of artists and

their music was positively impacted by its popularity. It presented less of a commitment,

and opened the door for new listening opportunities for the listener at no charge. Why

would they go to the store and buy a record they might not even like when they could

just download it on their computers for free, and delete it if they did not like it?

The music piracy problem was ultimately a double edged sword for music labels.

They lost money through it, but they gained fans and exposure, something that was

very important to have when operating in this new era, when popular culture was

maximizing itself.
The Connection Between Music and Popular Culture
32

David Bowie back in 2002 predicted the fall of the old business model before it

even had a chance to happen. “The absolute transformation of everything that we ever

thought about music will take place within 10 years and nothing is going to be able to

stop it...Music is going to be like running water or electricity.” He predicted in an

interview. He foresaw music downloads, and more amazingly music streaming, years

before they came to be.

This opened different kinds of music up to wider audiences. People that would

never buy a Jay Z or 50 Cent albums were downloading their songs and being

pleasantly surprised by their partiality. The same could be said about people that would

never buy a Linkin Park or Arctic Monkeys album. It diversified tastes and audiences,

increasing the impact and influence of the music artist.

The lack of evolution present in the music industry during the 2000s was

concerning, as there was a lot of carry over from the 90s, and most of the world was

wondering when a new sound would come in to shake up the culture.

This sound came in the form of Kanye West, the rapper and producer

provocateur that took the genre of rap right out of the hands of 50 Cent, and away from

the era of Gangsta Rap. The Chi-city kid grew up influenced by the legends of the past

like Tupac, James Brown, Michael Jackson, Prince, and just about anyone who made

good music. He hijacked the scene with his unconventionally produced tracks that

featured samples of records that were sped and pitched up to create a Chipmunk sing-

songy effect that acted, along with the instruments, as the basis of his tracks. He did not

dress like a gangster, he did not grow up in the streets gangbanging, and he definitely
The Connection Between Music and Popular Culture
33

did not rap about it, so how did he end up taking the street-cred obsessed rap game

away from 50 Cent, the ultimate gangster? The answer lied in popular culture.

West thought the best way to beat and dethrone the commercially successful 50

Cent as the king of the rap game was to outsell him, and he believed the answer to

outselling him, was selling to the masses; Making music for the mainstream and the

world.

Music has a huge effect on other music, and this could be seen in what

influenced Kanye West to make his decision to sell to the masses in order to outsell 50

Cent with his Graduation album. He had been the opening act for bands like U2 and

The Rolling Stones, and was inspired by the culture of the Rockstar. He saw that they

were selling out arenas and stadiums while most rappers could only fill up venues, and

he decided to take cues from the songs and performances of Mick Jagger and Bono. He

wanted to bring the production value and icon creating culture of Rock n’ Roll to the rap

industry to outsell 50 Cent, while also transforming himself into a generation-defining

artist.

This desire to bring Rock into Hip-Hop combined with West’s previous knowledge

of the music industry led to him coming up with the perfect way to make his songs so

that they would be memorable and relatable. The production value sounded huge

enough to be played for stadiums. The creation of songs like “Stronger”, “Good Life,”

and “Can’t tell me Nothing,” came from the idea of creating mantras that people

identified with and putting them in the form of catchy, sonically pleasing songs that the

world could get behind.

The Connection Between Music and Popular Culture
34

Prior to when 50 Cent’s album, Curtis, and West’s album, “Graduation” released

on the same day, 50 Cent had sold twice as many albums as him, and in that first week,

he sold 300,000 more copies of Graduation than 50 Cent. (Billboard, 2007). By the end

of the year “Graduation” had been sold over 2 million times.

This was the album that ended up propelling Kanye West into superstardom, and

the reason it was so successful was due to the influence of legendary Rockstars of

bygone eras, and the ability of West to analyze the cultures of the past to recognize

patterns and exploit them. To see the brilliance of the whole scenario, it must be viewed

abstractly.

Two European men found themselves inadvertently teaching the culture of an

artform they had ultimately picked up from a black man back in the 1950s to an

impressionable and creative 29 year old rapper looking to change Hip-Hop culture in the

21st century. The black man they had learned the bulk of Rock n’ Roll from got it from

the musical and geographical culture of a port city in Louisiana, and this rapper had

inherited rap culture from the late 80s.

If Chuck Berry never popularized Rock n’ Roll with his breakthrough sound, there

would be no Rolling Stones, no larger-than-life Beatles, no Beach Boys, and no

Ramones. Who is to say after subtracting all of them from the musical landscape that

U2 would even form, and if it did, if they would even sound the same? Without U2 and

the Rolling Stones, there would be no one to teach Kanye West how to recreate this

larger than life feeling of Rock n’ Roll for Hip-Hop, and subsequently no change in the

direction of both Hip-Hop and Electronic music in the late 2000s. Graduation allowed for

the funds that allowed Kanye West to create 808s & Heartbreak, which is widely hailed
The Connection Between Music and Popular Culture
35

as being the blueprint for the modern Hip-Hop song. With that album alone, which was

influenced by the T-Pain’s use of autotune, completed the transformation of rap culture

and Hip-Hop, and defined the sound and culture for years to come.

Graduation is a big part of what made Kanye Rap’s most influential star, and

arguably the biggest artist to come out of the decade. With two albums, he defined the

sound of the better part of the 10s, which includes auto tuned vocals, sing-songy lyrics,

intimate topics, and melodic tracks. He made a way for the Drakes, Travis Scotts, and

Young Thugs of the world, the current dominators of popular culture in 10s. None of it

could have happened without all the cultural and musical happenings that led up to it.

Conclusion

The relationship between music and culture today is stronger than it has ever

been, to the point where it is difficult to distinguish which had the bigger impact on which

as time progressed. It, along with the how intimate the relationship between artists and

listeners has been strengthened by the internet. Artists can tell their thoughts and

promote themselves to the world in 300 characters or less at the press of a button. They

could even abandon the traditional physical release of their music in favor of digital

streaming as the primary distribution method; a trend predicted by David Bowie. None

of this exchange between technology and the music industry would have come about if

it was not for the society that created it. Music cannot exist in a vacuum, therefore,

music and culture are inseparable.

The Connection Between Music and Popular Culture
36

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