The origin and development of rap

The Chinese and Western factions come to talk about the origin~ 1. Chinese rap music can be traced back to "Xunzi·Chengxiang Pian" during the Warring States Period. In addition, many pre-Qin and Han poems, such as the Han Yuefu poems "Love Mulberry on the Road" and "Peacock Flying Southeast", are also closely related to rap music. In "Mozi" and Liu Xiang's "Biography of Women", there are also descriptions of rap performance forms. The "storytelling figurines" of the Han Dynasty unearthed in Chengdu, Sichuan, further prove that the rap form may have existed at that time.

But the real formative period of rap music with documented history and evidence was the Tang Dynasty. The politics of the early Tang Dynasty were relatively clear, and the government focused on developing production and recuperating to offset the disasters of the Sui Dynasty. A stable social environment coupled with people's increasingly prosperous lives. People's needs for spiritual and cultural life are correspondingly increasing. At this time, the spread of Buddhism in China greatly catered to people's spiritual needs. Therefore, there were many religious activities in the Tang Dynasty, and Buddhist scriptures and Buddhist principles were widely spread among the people. In order to make the difficult Buddhist scriptures and Buddhist principles understandable and acceptable to the general public, the monks created a new performing art form - Wei Bian, that is, singing "Bian Wen". The content of "Bianwen" mostly tells Buddhist stories in common folk idioms, using a style that combines prose and rhyme. The rhymes are mostly seven-character sentences, with wider rhymes, and less stringent requirements for the contrast between oblique and oblique, and "singing" lyrics are used during performances; prose is It is a common vernacular spoken in the market, and is used as a "shuo" word during performances. After the mid-Tang Dynasty, the content of Bianwen shifted to secular stories. The existing ones include "Wu Zixu's Bianwen", "Wang Zhaojun's Bianwen", etc. It is now generally believed in the music industry that Bianwen is a symbol of the emergence of rap music.

In the Song Dynasty, the rulers valued culture and business, and handicraft workshops appeared and increased. The peace and stability of life and the relative prosperity of the economy make people pay more attention to entertainment and enjoyment. During the Song Dynasty, many "tile houses" were set up in major cities as places for play, and "goulan" was set up inside the tile houses as a place for artists to perform their performances. Concentrating artists to perform in the Goulan not only provides a stage for artists to perform, but also creates opportunities for artists to promote, learn from each other and compete with each other. In order to survive, artists must constantly improve their performance skills, innovate performance forms, and enrich performance content. Against this background, rap music in the Song Dynasty developed greatly. During this period, a large number of types of music appeared, some of which, such as "Tao Qing", have been passed down to this day.

In the Yuan Dynasty, the rulers were warlike. Years of war led to an extreme shortage of manpower and material resources. In addition, the rulers practiced racial discrimination in the country. This caused a large number of literati to join the ranks of artists because of their poverty and poverty. Literati with profound knowledge joined in the creation and performance of rap music, which brought rap music to a higher level during this period and produced some specialized theoretical works on rap music, which gradually standardized rap music in our country. However, because people lived in poverty and had no interest in entertainment, and the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty repeatedly banned rap, the development of rap music was hindered and suppressed in the Yuan Dynasty. There were very few types of music produced during this period. Most of the popular music types in the Yuan Dynasty were inherited from the Tang and Song Dynasties. There are types of music.

The Ming Dynasty was politically corrupt and set up Dongchang to monitor and suppress the working people. In addition, the rulers implemented a "literary prison" - "music that blasphemed the emperor and sages was prohibited". At the same time, they promoted "Neo-Confucianism" and implemented cultural Under high pressure, the creation of rap music is greatly restricted. At this time, rap music, as a popular entertainment in the market, was difficult to be valued and developed. Rap music during this period was at a low ebb.

In the Qing Dynasty, there was relative political stability and economic prosperity and recovery, which was the "Kangxi and Qianlong Dynasties". Political stability, economic prosperity, and the Qing government's tolerant attitude toward "marketable entertainment" enabled rap music to develop greatly during this period and reach its peak stage. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, during the Opium War, due to the imperialists' wanton plunder of China's economy and resources, China's small-scale peasant economy began to collapse, while some large cities were abnormally prosperous. Therefore, a large number of landless farmers flocked to cities to make a living by performing arts. These artists adapted to the needs of the new social environment on the basis of traditional repertoire, combined with folk tones and local dialects from various places, and created a large number of new rap music genres that have been passed down to this day.

Nowadays, with the socialization of production and the improvement of productivity, people's pace of life continues to accelerate. Some slow-paced music arts (including rap music) have fallen into a low ebb. In addition, the performance of rap music is now limited to some professional groups, which also affects the popularity and development of rap music. Therefore, we must carry out necessary reform and development of rap music so that it can adapt to the needs of the new situation and new life and become a useful supplement to the spiritual life of our people.

It can be seen from this that our country's rap music originated in the Warring States and Han Dynasties, was born in the Tang Dynasty, matured in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and flourished in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Now it is facing a test - this is a brief history of the development of rap music. We can understand from this that the formation and development of rap music is a reflection of social changes and a portrayal of the development of national folk music. 2. The origin of Western rap music can be traced back to the chanting passages in the roots of black music. In the 1970s, rap music formally established its own style. The most important contribution to hip hop can be attributed to the DJs in the popular discotheques at that time. , they mixed the funk rhythm that was popular among black people at the time into the popular disco rhythm, and repeated the content of the same record on the record player, making their own LOOPS, along with those "DJs" that are now well-known and widely used by DJs. "The law appeared, and rap began to be spread by black street culture. From the beginning of street rap to the present, it has derived many branches and genres. The division of these genres is not simply based on music alone, but based on black culture, the neighborhoods where they live, and many factors other than music. These quite rich branches such as West Coast Rap (WestCoast Rap), Southern Rap (Southern Rap), Pop Rap (Pop Rap), Old School Rap (Old Schold), New School Rap (New School), New School and Old School appear in the transitional period. The Golden Age faction. In addition, there are Midwest Rap, Latin Rap, Hardcore Rap, Gangsta Rap, Foreign Rap, East Coast Rap, and Transitional Rap. CrossoverRap), comedy rap (ComedyRap), Christian rap (ChristianRap), alternative rap (AlternativeRap), etc. If we continue to subdivide it, there may be more hip-hop categories hidden underground. What we now call HIP-HOP is a new vocabulary born from these genres that combine today's popular elements. Although some people thought as early as the early 1990s that this kind of music full of swear words, rebellious words, and lyrics full of extreme issues such as murder, violence, pornography, blood, racial politics, etc. would soon disappear, but in fact he deeply It attracted all the young people at that time. In the late 1990s, with the popularity of a group of new rap musicians and predominantly white rap rock, music that had been abandoned by black people returned to the forefront of popular music. At least in the new century, this trend It won't subside yet. Now looking at Asia, from Japan and South Korea to Hong Kong and Taiwan, and then expanding to mainland China, HIP-HOP is truly everywhere. RAP is an important part of African American music and the main tone of street culture. Now another important music branch, RAPMETAL, has gradually begun to appear and has become popular in world music. From KORN, which is dark and powerful, to LIMPBIZKIT, which represents the new coolness of fashion trends, and now LINKINPARK, which is very popular, RAP began to extend his "black hands" in all directions. In fact, it can be seen from the development of modern American history that whether it is HIP-HOP or RAP, this kind of rap music has become an important part of black culture and a weapon used by black people to defend their dignity. They express their dissatisfaction and vent against the real society through hip-hop music, and at the same time promote the violence and harm of their own existence. But everything has two sides. As far as music is concerned, its emergence has greatly promoted music