why is hip hop in the mainstreams?

Question

I was just reading at wikipedia, an article about the billboard hot 100. When I saw the list of number one hits, and I compare the hist from the 70's and 80's, and the hits from the 2000's... Damn, pop music has changed a lot, now most of the hits are hip hop

Answer 1

Because Hip Hop is the top selling music out there today, you can't argue with the numbers...and who's buying most of the records,...white kids...go figure.

Answer 2

The record buying audience has been kind of narrow since--oh maybe---1964 when the music business began focusing primarily on the youth market. It's gotten even narrower since the mid-1990s when the music business began to be completely dominated by about five corporations. Almost all product is now focus-grouped and market-tested for a hysterically narrow band of teenagers. What do those teenagers like? Hip hop! After three years the teenagers age out of that demographic, but a new crop comes to take their place. With turnover that rapid record companies don't need to come up with anything fresh or new, just put new faces on the same over-produced beats and lyrics about shallow materialism. Then put the new faces---almost always vulgar, ugly "thugs"--and film them rapping into the camera while scantily clad women who don't talk to these thugs in real life gyrate in slow motion. Show this on MTV.Rehash and repeat.

Not all hip hop is bad, and if something is good and gets noticed the public will buy it (Outkast is a very good example). But the record companies don't push the good product. That said, it appears even the youth market is wearying of the booties-and-blingbling formula. The top three selling albums of 2006 weren't even hip hop albums--Carrie Underwood, the High School Musical soundtrack, and Nickelback. It's time for something new. What that something will be, who knows? Hip hop won't go away, but if hip hop is going to recycle in as the most popular form of music, it won't be about pimps and hookers.

Answer 3

because it is currently popular. If you checked the charts from the past, you would see that things are cyclical. In the 70's, there was a period where rock was king, then Disco was popular, then it was back to rock, in the 90's grunge was big (grunge was still Rock (just a new style), then pop got big (ie. boy bands, brittney spears etc), then rock made a bit of a comeback for a while, then it was back to hip hop. Hip Hop is big right now, but a year or two from now, who knows what will be big.

Answer 4

times and trends change. hip-hop gained mass popularity in the mid to late 90s and continues to dominate. however, recent trends show that hip-hop albums are selling much less than in the past... radio is the primary driver of pop culture, so if that trend continues, the airwaves will react and start playing more melodic music. so much hip-hop music sounds the same these days... there is little innovation and even less sincerity, so it's only a matter of time before a new trend takes hold, whether it's a new breed of alternative music or another pop revolution. god knows, we're ready for a new trend.

Answer 5

It is beyond me why rap and hip hop (which fans claim there is a difference but there isn't) are so popular. I just wish it would disappear from the universe.

Answer 6

cause it's so d@mn catchy! I am not really the rap/hip-hop kind of girl but ocassionally there is an OK song that I can't help but listen to.

Answer 7

what the problem with that? What do you have against hip hop? If they are topping the charts then oh well!