History Of Electronic Music

In the following paragraphs, I will be talking about hip hop from a performance aspect, mainly focusing on break beats & it's role in the early scenes of hip-hop and DJing, as well as focusing on the start of MCing.

Firstly, breakbeats is one of the things that kick started the DJing culture. Initially, DJs would play popular records that got radio time (this occurred around the mid 70s), then DJ Kool Herc entered the scene but would stick out from his habitat by only playing the break beat part of a record rather than the parts everyone would recognize (i.e. chorus).

Breakbeats is the part of the record that emphasizes rhythm and everyone would let loose of themselves and start dancing. However, since the breaks within the records don't last for very long, DJs such as Herc and those that came after him would prolong it for as long as they can so everyone can dance for as long as they can. So essentially, the breakbeat part of a record would practically be known as a "drop" in the modern DJing and dance culture.

Through the hip-hop DJs gave birth to the MCs but they started out hosting the sets rather than rhyming over it. For an MC to even MC during the set, they would need permissions from the DJ who is on the turntables because if someone just goes up to the mic and starts, chances are that they would be kicked out. Ironically, as time flew by, the role of MC started to get more recognition and respect over the next few years whilst simultaneously, the DJs would be getting pushed back and appreciated less. Due to DJs getting less recognition & focus compared to the MC, it really brought the genre to the forefront of modern music in recent times, especially the 90s.

This also forced some DJs to branch out into producing to get more recognition, as well as money seeing as the DJ wasn't the main attraction anymore (examples: DJ Premier, DJ Pete Rock) & without too much surprise, breakbeats were sampled in most hip-hop songs and was heavily predominant during the 80s & 90s. Good examples would be: Public Enemy - Bring The Noise, LL Cool J - Mama Said Knock You Out, Wu-Tang Clan - Bring Da Ruckus, N.W.A - Straight Outta Compton, among many others.

If Kool Herc didn't do what he did, then most of these things wouldn't of happened since we can trace these things back to his DJing approach/attitude in the clubs during his tenure in the 70s. If he didn't take on his abstract approach, we may not even have hip-hop.