Musicology Commons^™

Closing The Gap: An Analysis Of The Musical Elements Contributing To Hip-Hop’S Emergence Into Popular Culture, Grant Knox

Scholars Week

This paper explores the musical evolution of hip-hop and the techniques that have influenced such growth. Hip-hop music’s pioneers established a genre that would not only prove to be self-sustaining, but allow for a diverse array of influences to contribute to its growth. An art form that was once preserved for minorities and often considered a lower form of intellectual art is growing closer to mainstream music. Topics such as the orchestration and production of music, influence of other genres, harmonic analysis, and the diversity within the genre itself are discussed with an emphasis on hip-hop artists of the previous …