It was August 1979. One month before, music fans and consumers had staged what turned into a violent protest against, "Disco," The fans had spoken and the recording industry responded. The "Disco," moniker was quickly dropped as radio stations and night clubs around the world moved to distance themselves from the whole fiasco. As the labels groped for something to replace "Disco," what seemed like a lost for them was actually a victory. "Disco," was gone, but with it went the creative and artistic freedom which artists had fought so hard for.
The major labels had been successful in pressuring some of the top artist of that time into adding at least one "Disco," track to their latest releases. By doing so, they set a new standard for what the market would bare. New, up and coming artists essentially lost any small amount of power that they might have had to say what their music should sound like. For several months after the incident in Chicago's Comisky Park, all "Disco," music was labeled as "Dance," music and would be so from then on. If you wanted to get signed, this is what you played. R&B and Funk artist were most profoundly effected, because, "Disco," made use of many of the qualities of those genres.
December of that year, a Rap artist named Kurtis Blow arrived on the scene. The release of Christmas Rappin' made him the first Rapper to be signed to a major label. The song was pure novelty. It had sketchy, but original music, while the words were spoken in rhythm over it. It was a hit, selling more than 500,000 copies and it marked the beginning of what would go on to be Rap's dominance over the global music scene. Later in 1980 he released, "The Breaks," which also sold 500,000 copies and fueled the next trend that the music industry had been looking for.
Hot on the heels of Kurtis Blow's success, came the Sugar Hill Gang in 1980. The band was produced by Sylvia Robinson and the single release of, "Rapper's Delight," went platinum selling a million copies. This must have been most pleasing to the labels, who were still releasing "Disco," left overs, passed off as, "dance," music. The track featured an extra long loop of Chic's hit, "Good Times," with the words spoken with a rhythmic flare.
The next several years of the 80s saw Rap slowly become Hip Hop. Early artists included, Whodini, Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, The Fat Boys and Run DMC. These acts used their own music, however sparse the arrangement. The songs were mostly about partying and having a good time, but often, songs like Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five's, "The Message," actually decried the state of life in the ghetto. But, the sound of Hip Hop would be most notably defined by the much sparer and harder edge sound of Run DMC.
Run DMC have been considered the originators of the, "New School." They wore black denim pants and black leather jackets, along with unlaced Adidas and bowler hats. With them, the ghetto, a place of misery and despair, would become, "The Hood," the place where you were proud to be from. Their hard edge style and choice of fashion would set the trend for those Hip Hop artists that followed them.
Meanwhile, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Prince, Madonna, and Phil Collins were all hugely successful, both as pop artists and within their own genres, going into and through to the mid 80s. However, some artists such as the Eagles, the Doobie Brothers, Parliament/Funkadelic, and the Average White Band disbanded for a while. Apparently, the sound of the market, seemingly had no place for what they had to offer. "Disco," had become "dance," Rock went toward power chord ballads, while Jazz became , "smooth." R&B/Funk became a muddle of sythn/dance/slow jams, or what ever it took to sell.
Rap and Hip Hop was on the rise, but wouldn't really break through until 1987, when word spread that a local area Rap artist had made $750,000 selling home made Rap tapes from the trunk of his car. When this news reached industry bigwigs, one thing was very clear, they had of get a piece of that action.
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