The days of renown music artists having million seller albums are fast becoming history. Traditional music programmes which highlighted an assortment of music styles such as  Top Of The Pops are long since gone, satellite T.V. channels struggle to attract large audiences possibly down to showcasing benign rubbish most of the day with too many distracting adverts interrupting programmes too frequently.

The recorded music industry is struggling in the early stages of a transition to digital formats, such as MP3, from the dominant CD format. CD sales are declining faster than industry executives and analysts have expected.
Digital music sales are currently dominated by Apple’s iTunes Store, which by some estimates has more than 70 percent of the market.

But what is the future of music?

Amongst all this uncertainty one music format remains popular, new bands have started releasing one off singles and promotional collectors releases on 7″ 45 rpm vinyl. The dance music industry still uses vinyl as a reliable format and the current trend in funk 45 reissues help to keep turntable manufacturers from the bread line but even this is a tiny fraction of even 15 years ago.

Although record sales may be down the interest in new music is as strong as ever, there are more music festivals in the UK than ever before with more and  more sell out gigs across UK cities. Myspace attracts thousands of music fans hunting down their favourite band with new musicians finding fame purely through the site.
A new movement called “Space Disco” or “Cosmic House” is being spearheaded by New York-based label ‘Whatever We Want Records’. Funk music is reinventing itself with new bands finding cult followings and strange new music genres such as fidget (a form of house) are emerging.

So why are people reporting the death of music?

Possibly the main reason that there is talk of the music scene dieing is because the major record labels who previously controlled the ebb and flow of music streams across the world have finally lost control of these fast mutating music genres, they simply do not know what is going on, how to control it but more importantly… how to make money from it! Bands have always found it hard to make money from record deals, the advances in music technology now means that if a band can record their tracks in a rehearsal studio, they can then self produce their songs on a computer with relative ease, it then costs around £500 to release 500 7″ records or they can just create their own art work and burn off CD’s from their p.c. to sell on Myspace or at gigs.

DIY currently seems to be the future for music…

The early days

The seeds of Hip Hop were first sown during the early 70’s by DJs such as ‘Cool Herc’ in the Bronx, U.S.A.

DJs would play parties with twin turntables and soon realised that by using two copies of the same record they could prolong their favorite breakdowns to the further enjoyment of the crowd.

Over these extended breakdowns MCs could tell or ‘rap’ stories along to the beat, whether it be about a woman they liked or about what they had for breakfast, it all added to the effect of the records and sometimes added a touch of light hearted entertainment in an otherwise difficult ghetto life.

Eventually the DJs started making their own records to rap over. By using Roland drum machines and electronic synthesizers that could be synchronized together, a new sound called ‘Electro Hip Hop’ was formed.

Breakdance & Graffiti

This music craze was accompanied by another new art form.. Spraycan Art or “Graffiti Art” which also originated in the Bronx but quickly spread across America and eventually Europe and the world.

Gradually a new way of dancing accompanied Hip Hop and Electro, it took wild moves from Jazz and other street dance forms and became known as ‘break dancing’. Breakers would form crews and use linoleum sheets or card to battle each other, sometimes in front of passers by.
The fashion was also important, b-boys would wear designer sports labels such as Nike, Puma, Adidas, Fila and Elise.. from head bands to trainers and caps to shell tracksuits.

The popularity of the sampler allowed hip hop producers to sample old funk and soul records to further experiment with break beats. By the late 90’s Hip Hop was reaching it’s zenith and artists such as BDP, Mantronix, Eric B & Rakim and De La Soul were finding great popularity.

Evolution

Even white punk and rock bands tried getting in on the act with artists such as Aerosmith and The Beastie Boys getting “DEF” and kids normally into heavy metal started wearing lace-less shell toe adidas trainers.
Hip Hop has since remained popular in two forms, on a commercial level which is more commonly associated with R&B and MTV but also it carries on in a more underground fashion with sub genres like grime, garage and bhangra.

Hip Hop will always be around thanks to a rich heritage laid down by such luminaries as Afrika Bambaataa and The Soul Sonic Force, hip hop continues to evolve.