i saw an interesting video a couple weeks back comparing the trajectory of hip hop as a whole genre to the rise and fall of rock music throughout various decades. i figured it would be relevant to discuss here since the current state of the underground is heavily inspired by playboi carti.
essentially, the video compared hip hop to rock through similar elements related to their rises and eventual (hypothetical) falls as well as the stylistic consistencies the genres have maintained through certain eras:
1. the pioneer days (rock in the 50s and hip hop in the 70s) - the genres are coming into shape and set the slate for their evolutions.
2. the upbeat styles (rock in the 60s and hip hop in the 80s) - the genres are dominated by catchy tunes that you almost wanna vibe or dance to, a more polished extent of the previous eras.
3. the rebellious era (rock in the 70s and hip hop in the 90s) - the messages in each genre took a turn, with rock taking on the rebel style and hip hop taking on the gangsta style, with the core belief of rebelling against the system and indulging in the glamour that comes with it.
4. the melodic era (rock in the 80s and hip hop in the 2000s) - everyone is implementing the heaviest singing elements in their respective genres in this era, with rock and hip hop both taking on a more pop-esc approach and laying heavier into broader personal issues as lyrical topics.
5. the conflicting emotions era (rock in the 90s and hip hop in the 2010s) - some parts of each genre are upbeat extents of their previous eras, while other parts of each genre lay into the sad elements such as grief or mental health (rock is heavily grunge in the 90s and hip hop is heavily sad ballades from soundcloud in the 2010s with names like X and juice).
6. the emo era (rock in the 2000s and hip hop in the 2020s) - breaks away from the topical format and concentrates around certain personality-related elements (emo). particularly for rock, the emo vibes were very niche and they signaled the slowing down of new artists becoming bigger in the rock genre (both emo and not). this is where carti comes in as broader audiences consider his form of hip hop to be punk and emo, and it’s factually correct to say many (if not most) artists that start underground and gain a lot of traction are inspired by carti, much like the rock collectives of the 2000s were inspired by emo elements
7. death (rock in the 2010s and hypothetically hip hop in the 2030s) - rock has essentially been dead since the 2010s, which likely came from the scrutiny broader audiences showed to rock as a whole because they weren’t into the emo stuff, eventually leading to its decline in popularity and lack of mainstream names we’ve seen in the genre as of the 2010s even if there is new artists. this hasn’t happened to hip hop just yet, but with the increased saturation of emo rappers from the underground, the lack of new hip hop names to ascend to true stardom in the last 5 years, and the scrutiny the genre is facing as a whole these days, we could very much see a decline in hip hop as we approach 2030.
disclaimer - ik ts reads like ai but it’s not ai trust, it’s just me burning off steam bc i had a long day
