Voice Of The Voiceless

Hip-Hop culture originated in Brooklyn and South Bronx of New York in 1960 s and 1970 s.The origin of hip hop culture is closely related to the social changes and political conditions experienced in the United States in the late 20 th century.In the early stage of its development,hip-hop culture had four main forms of expression: Hip-Hop Music,DJ,Breaking and Graffiti,and it shows strong resistance,catharsis,identity and other characteristics.In the 21 st century,as the most commercial element,hip-hop music has become the core of American hip-hop culture.DJ,graffiti and breaking have become less active and develop independently.Nowadays,people basically equate hip-hop culture with hip-hop music.Since the 21 st century,American hip-hop culture has experienced a revolutionary development.It has changed from a comprehensive art type compatible with hip-hop music,DJ,breaking and graffiti to an art type with hip-hop music as the core,comprehensive clothing,fashion and language as its accessories and packaging;it evolved from a black street art to a widely commercialized youth subculture that broke racial and ethnic boundaries.The weakening,popularity and self-expression of resistance have become concentrated characteristics of American hip-hop culture in the new century.Globalization,consumerism and the commercialization of hip-hop,the weakening of the sense of racial confrontation brought by the change of subject,and the core and self-purification to meet the needs of the development of popular culture all play an important role in the reasons for this remarkable change.In the sense of cultural theory,American hip-hop culture in the new century is not a kind of “new identity politics” or cultural struggle.In fact,it is not as strong as the “new identity politics”,nor as one-sided as the cultural struggle.The representativeness of the youth group has become its core feature,and hip-hop culture has evolved into a weak form of “resistance” expression of young people as “the voiceless”.It may be the social significance of American hip-hop culture since the new century.