How Hip Hop and Pop Music Collided in the ’90s
Contents
How Hip Hop and Pop Music Collided in the ’90s
Introduction
In the 1990s, hip hop and pop music began to collided. This was a decade where two very different genres of music began to influence each other in a very significant way. This is a story of how these two genres clashed, Meshed and ultimately created some of the biggest hits of the decade.
It all started with rap music becoming more mainstream in the early 90s. Rappers like Snoop Doggy Dogg and Dr. Dre were becoming household names. At the same time, Pop music was also going through a major evolution. Artists like Madonna and Michael Jackson were pushing the boundaries of what was considered acceptable in pop music.
This perfect storm of musical collision led to some truly remarkable moments in music history. These are the stories of how hip hop and pop music collided in the ’90s.
The ’90s: A Decade of Change
The ’90s was a decade of change in many ways. One of the most notable changes was the collision of hip hop and pop music. This led to some of the most iconic songs and artists of all time. Let’s take a look at how this happened.
Political and Social Change
In the early ’90s, the world was changing rapidly. Politically, the Soviet Union had collapsed, leading to the end of the Cold War. In South Africa, Nelson Mandela was freed after 27 years in prison, and would go on to lead his country out of apartheid. In the United States, a new president, Bill Clinton, was elected on a platform of “change.”
Social change was happening just as rapidly. In 1992, rioting broke out in Los Angeles after four police officers were acquitted of charges related to the beating of Rodney King. The riots led to 55 deaths and over 2,000 injuries, and highlighted the racial tensions that were still present in America.
The ’90s were also a time of great technological change. The internet became widely available for home use, and cell phones went from being a rarity to being nearly ubiquitous. This new technology would change the way people communicate and access information forever.
All of these changes had an impact on music. Hip hop, which had already been gaining popularity in the ’80s, exploded in the ’90s. At the same time, pop music was evolving as well. Artists like Michael Jackson and Madonna were still hugely successful, but they were being challenged by newer acts like Nirvana and Pearl Jam.
The ’90s was a decade of change in every sense of the word. Music reflected that change, and helped shaped it as well.
The Rise of Hip Hop and Pop Music
The ’90s was a decade of immense change in the music industry. For the first time, hip hop and pop music collided on a mainstream level, resulting in some of the most iconic songs and artists of our time.
In the early ’90s, hip hop was on the rise with artists like Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Tupac Shakur leading the charge. At the same time, pop music was also evolving with artists like Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Whitney Houston topping the charts.
The two genres began to collide in 1991 with Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch’s “Good Vibrations” and Hugh Grant’s “Can’t Touch This”. From there, the trend continued with hits like MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This”, Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back”, and TLC’s “Waterfalls”.
By the mid-’90s, hip hop and pop were absolutely dominating the charts with artists like Puff Daddy, Mariah Carey, Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, and *NSYNC becoming household names. The trend reached its peak in 1997 when Puff Daddy’s “Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down” spent six weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
While the ’90s was a decade of great change for both hip hop and pop music, it was also a time of immense growth for both genres. Hip hop went from being a niche genre to one of the most popular genres in the world, while pop music became even more accessible and mainstream than ever before. The ’90s truly was a game-changing decade for music.
How Hip Hop and Pop Music Collided in the ’90s
Hip hop and pop music have always had a tenuous relationship. On one hand, pop artists have long drawn from hip hop for inspiration, sampling its beats and incorporating its style into their videos and performances. On the other hand, hip hop artists have often gazed longingly at pop’s glittering throne, dreaming of the day when they would be accepted as mainstream stars. In the ’90s, these two worlds collided, as a new generation of hip hop artists found crossover success with pop audiences.
The East Coast-West Coast Rivalry
The early 1990s were a time of great change in the American music industry. Rap music, which had been developing in the urban areas of the East and West coasts for several years, was beginning to gain mainstream popularity. At the same time, the popularity of pop music was beginning to decline. This created a perfect storm for a musical collision between hip hop and pop.
In the early 1990s, two of the most popular rap artists were East Coast-based rapper Tupac Shakur and West Coast-based rapper Dr. Dre. Both artists were signed to major record labels and both had begun to experiment with incorporating pop elements into their music. This experimentation would lead to a fierce rivalry between the two artists that would come to be known as the East Coast-West Coast hip hop feud.
The feud came to a head in September 1996 when Tupac was shot and killed in Las Vegas. The following year, Dr. Dre’s protégé, rapper Snoop Dogg, was shot and killed in Los Angeles. The murders of these two rap legends brought an end to the East Coast-West Coast hip hop feud.
The Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur
The mid-’90s was a tumultuous time for the music industry. As hip hop and pop music collided, the East Coast/West Coast rap feud came to a head. TheNotorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur were two of the biggest stars of their respective coasts, and their beef came to define an era.
The rivalry between Biggie and Tupac began when Tupac was attacked and robbed in Manhattan in 1994. He accused Biggie and his label, Bad Boy Records, of being involved in the robbery, something they denied. From there, the two artists exchanged diss tracks, with each trying to one-up the other.
The beef between Biggie and Tupac came to a head when Tupac was gunned down in Las Vegas in 1996. Six months later, Biggie was also killed in Los Angeles. The murders remain unsolved to this day, but many believe that they were casualties of the East Coast/West Coast rap rivalry.
The Death of Hip Hop
In the ’90s, hip hop and pop music collided in a way that changed both genres forever. This collision led to the death of hip hop as we knew it, and the rise of a new type of pop music that would come to dominate the charts.
The ’90s was a decade of massive change for both hip hop and pop music. Hip hop was growing up, moving from the underground into the mainstream. At the same time, pop music was evolving too, becoming more dance-oriented and influenced by hip hop. This collision of two worlds would change both genres forever.
The death of hip hop can be traced back to two key events: the release of Snoop Dogg’s album Doggystyle in 1993, and Tupac Shakur’s album All Eyez on Me in 1996. Both albums were breakout successes, and they signaled a new era for hip hop. Gone were the days of conscious rap and positive messages; now it was all about sex, drugs, and violence. These albums ushered in a new era of gangsta rap, which would come to dominate the genre for the next decade.
Gangsta rap wasn’t the only change that happened to hip hop in the ’90s; there was also a seismic shift in its sound. The early ’90s saw the rise of West Coast G-funk, which replaced East Coast boom bap with a slower, smoother sound. This new sound would come to dominate hip hop in the ’90s, thanks in large part to Dr. Dre’s groundbreaking album The Chronic.
What all these changes meant was that by the mid-’90s, hip hop was barely recognizable from its early-’90s incarnation. It had become darker, harder, and more aggressive; it had also become significantly more popular, thanks to its embrace by mainstream pop culture. And this is where our story begins…
Conclusion
In conclusion, the ’90s were a decade of great change and experimentation in the world of music. Hip hop and pop music collided and blended together in new and exciting ways, resulting in some truly iconic tracks that are still enjoyed today. Who knows what the next decade will bring?
