Introduction to my Playlist

Throughout American Musical History, music has developed and progressed through the intermingling of different genres and ethnic styles. Music serves as an opportunity to not only express ethnic identities and political opinions, but also as a form of expression where different cultures and styles can interact and be unified. Modern day hip-hop exemplifies this intermixing of cultures in that the music came from a distinct minority group; however, it has grown into the popular music of our era. Through the playlist I have posted on this site, I aim to not only demonstrate the intermingling of cultures through music but also to discuss the affect that various genres of music have had on the emergence of rap as a popular form of music.

The songs that I have chosen can all be catagorized in the "mash-up" genre; however, the songs are significant in that they all link rap music with separate genres. A mash-up is a genre of music that combines two songs by superimposing the vocal track of one song over the musical track of another. In my playlist, I have chosen songs that superimpose rap vocals with music tracks from various different forms of music. Each of these songs vividly displays cultural interaction at work, and the collection as a whole paints a portrait of the numerous influences that have affected rap music.

With this in mind, it is important to note that the hip hop mash-ups that I am discussing are merely the latest example of an ongoing cycle of cultural recombination. The hip-hop artists and DJs involved in making these tracks are not only creating interesting and sonically pleasing music, but they are also trying to unite many different forms of music into one piece. These tracks represent the cultural unity that Walt Whitman expressed in his influential poem Song of Myself in that they represent a universal bond between all who inhabit the earth. These hip-hop songs provide a context for cultural acceptance and communication, and represent the most recent attempt at cultural equality and unity.