Music/Hip Hop and The Digital Age

Over the years Hip-Hop has been changing and adapting. One of the things that have changed dramatically is technology.  Technology is more readily available and used more frequently. We live in a digital era. For music especially in Hip-Hop this has been a gift and a curse.

Early in the 70’s and 80’s, Vinyl’s and cassette tapes where the way to get music and then came the Compact Disc. Now it’s all about getting music digitally. Even though officially album releases come out on compact discs the CD industry  has been hit drastically. Most teens prefer not to want to buy a complete CD but buy only a few songs from the Internet, and listen to it on MP3 devices, which have become very popular and support the digital age. The problem with Cd’s and more with digitally getting music is piracy. This has negatively affected the industry and is still a major problem

Some companies though such as Apple have tried to cash in on this problem and created services like iTunes download that it is possible to make money from music downloads over the Internet. In Europe, where Apple now operates in 17 countries, the company reached the landmark of 100 million songs sold legally a mere year and a half after it arrived on that continent.

The digital age has also been a revolutionary way for hip-hop artists to advertise themselves and their music. Through such phenomenon’s as YouTube. One example is the young rapper Soulja Boy, he composed his hit Single Crank that and advertised it on the Internet, and it became a number one hit in the United States for seven non-consecutive weeks. He is the youngest person to write, perform, and produce a number-one song on the hot 100.One of the most common phenomena is the blog, or web log. To date there are millions of blogs on the Internet. Every second, someone somewhere is creating a new web log on cyberspace, experts estimate. Anyone can have his or her own blog because the online publication tools are very easy to use. Some bloggers have managed to attract a loyal public that follows them on a daily basis. This media has allows a lot of up and coming artists to publish their works and gives a wider variety to audiences.