Music: A Comparison Of Hip-Hop And Rock And Roll

Music is without a doubt the most influential artform man has ever concieved. The music industry rakes in almost $43 billion world wide every year. $15.5 Billion of that is in the United States. At the time of writing this I have "Ave Maria" composed by Schubert playing softly on my speakers in the background. Music is everywhere and is a part of everyone's life. Of all the different genres of music the two most influencial are un-doubtably Hip-Hop and Rock and Roll. Both genres have influenced millions of artists and both are almost garenteed to find themselves or one of their countless sub-genres on almost every I-Pod ever produced. Yet while they do share some simmilarities, both genres have many different atributes that separate them. Rock

It is without a doubt the prefered genre of today's youth. Many of the biggest names in the music industry currently are Hip-Hop and Rap artists such as Drake, Future, Kanye West, and DJ Khaled. The genre exploded into the mainstream in the early 90's and has remained predominant since. Many pop songs have incorperated Hip-Hop inspired instrumentals and Rap verses to cash in on the it's popularity. This fussion with pop only makes Hip-Hop more popular among the masses. "See You Again" by Wiz Khalifa was the fourth best selling song of 2015. Hip-Hop also largely influenced the rise of EDM and House music. And just as "Dark Side of the Moon" t-shirts are an everyday occurance, so are t-shirts displaying artwork from The Notorious B.I.G's album "Ready to Die" or the film "Straight Outta Compton." For all of their differences however, Hip-Hop and Rock do have some simmilar atributes. Both genres are fluent in drums and know how powerful the instrument is. They both use the drums in a loud way to maintain flow and rhythm of a song. While Rock fucusses on band dynamics and how the other instruments can play off the drums, Hip-Hop lets the drums dictate the way the rapper articulates as well as what samples or synths to

However both genres have a heavy reliance on vocals. Even though they both agree on the importance of vocals, both genres carry out very different executions. Rock verses are sang usually in common meter with a standard "ABAB" rhyme scheme. Rappers however have much more room to inovate as there form of delivery is more like reciting poetry than it is singing. Rappers who have mastered their craft will use internal rhymes, complex meter, and clever wordplay in their delivery while still managing to maintain a pleasing flow and tell vivid stories. Great examples of this can be found in "That's That"* by MF Doom "Hypnotize"* by Biggie Smalls and in Eminems Oscar winning song "Lose Yourself."* Just as vocals are important, what they are vocalising is also important. Rock music's lyrical content is steriotypically about love, drugs, and sex. Hip-Hop lyrics are very often steriotyped as being about many of the same things: drugs, money, and sex. Both genres do have their fair share of artistic and poetic songs. Rock songs such as "The Rain Song" by Led Zeppelin and "Mother" by Pink Floyd are often cosidered to be "deeper than the average pop song." Hip-Hop songs with heavy and realistic themes include "Stan"* by Eminem and "Swimming Pools"* by Kendrick