Hip Hop and Electronic Music History Flashcards
Grade 10 · Music · Flashcards
Key figures, genres, techniques, and cultural milestones in the history of hip hop and electronic music.
Flashcards
- DJ Kool Herc
- Jamaican-American DJ (Clive Campbell) credited as the founding father of hip hop; invented the breakbeat looping technique at South Bronx parties in 1973.
- Grandmaster Flash
- South Bronx DJ who refined turntablism with 'clock theory' and precise cutting; 'The Message' (1982) with the Furious Five is a landmark of socially conscious hip hop.
- Afrika Bambaataa
- South Bronx DJ and founder of the Universal Zulu Nation; 'Planet Rock' (1982) fused hip hop and Kraftwerk's electronic music, creating an important bridge between genres.
- Breakbeat
- The isolated percussion break section of a funk or soul record, looped on turntables to create continuous rhythm; the sonic and structural foundation of hip hop.
- Sampling
- Recording and reusing portions of existing tracks in new compositions; integral to hip hop production and became the subject of major copyright litigation (Grand Upright Music v. Warner, 1991).
- House Music
- Electronic dance genre born in Chicago clubs (The Warehouse, The Music Box) in the early 1980s; four-on-the-floor kick, synthesized bass, and soulful vocals define the sound.
- Techno
- Electronic genre created in Detroit in the mid-1980s by the Belleville Three (Juan Atkins, Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson); mechanical rhythms, futuristic aesthetic, minimal vocals.
- Kraftwerk
- Influential German electronic group (formed 1970) whose use of synthesizers and drum machines directly inspired Detroit techno, hip hop, and virtually all electronic dance music.
- Moog Synthesizer
- Voltage-controlled synthesizer developed by Robert Moog in 1964; democratized electronic sound creation and transformed popular music production through the 1970s and beyond.
- Roland TR-808
- Analog drum machine released in 1980; initially a commercial failure, it became foundational to hip hop, trap, house, and techno due to its distinctive bass drum and synthesized snare.
- Public Enemy
- Politically charged hip hop group formed 1985 (Chuck D, Flavor Flav); their Bomb Squad production team created dense, confrontational soundscapes addressing systemic racism.
- Musique Concrète
- Avant-garde technique developed by Pierre Schaeffer (1948) using recorded real-world sounds manipulated and assembled as musical material; an early ancestor of sampling.
- EDM (Electronic Dance Music)
- Broad term for commercially produced electronic music genres (house, techno, dubstep, trance, drum and bass) that became a global mainstream phenomenon from the 2000s onward.
- Turntablism
- The art of using turntables and vinyl records as musical instruments — through scratching, cutting, and beat juggling — rather than merely as playback devices.
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