Can we label Hip Hop as music of release patterns?

 

Photo by genius.com
Reflecting on the history of the Hip Hop genre, which traces back to the 1970s, it has consistently served as a platform to express societal injustices such as racial segregation and individual self-expression. It embodies empowerment, expressing absolute determination to overcome obstacles, and is centered around releasing emotions and feelings. Without forgetting that none of the music genres and elements can be reduced to an absolute fixed definition, can we attribute a large part of the Hip Hop music genre to release patterns?

As Sellnow explains, release patterns represent feelings of relief from tension, while intensity denotes feelings of tension. For instance, in Eminem's "Superman" (2002), the artist releases his feelings of love by expressing his love and dominance to his lover. The lines 'They call me Superman' and 'I'm here to rescue' serve as perfect examples of how the artist expresses the feelings of release from love, power, and dominance to his lover.

In the mentioned example, there are also incongruity patterns due to the comic lyrics about love interacting with the release of musical patterns, as explained by Sellnow. This incongruity pattern is observed in a significant number of contemporary music pieces and tends to attract much attention. Can we reduce the love of a particular number to the preference between congruity and incongruity in the ears of the listeners?  

My case study, 'Superman by Eminem (2002),' presents a clear feminist perspective, as discussed in our previous module. It favors the hegemonic agenda that a man is stronger and a savior, while the woman is portrayed as vulnerable and in need of a Superman to rescue her from her troubles.

 

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