Turntables In Popular Music

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Pages: 4

The history of popular music is one filled with unexpected turns and technological breakthroughs that dramatically shaped the trajectory of music production and consumption. Technologies like the microphone and MP3 files immediately come to mind when thinking about the innovations that revolutionized the music industry. However, there are countless other technologies that were every bit as essential to creating the popular music atmosphere that exists today. Two of these important technologies are musical television, and turntables. While these two technologies appear distinct at first glance, they actually share commonalities through their affect on the music industry. Both turntables and MTV played a role in the spread of hip hop and the racial distribution within the popular music industry.
Turntables are the technology used in the invention of hip hop. In 1971, DJ Kool Herc became the “founding father” of hip hop when he used dual turntables and a technique nicknamed “the merry-go-round.” While playing a song on one turntable, Herc queued a second to create a smooth transition. This technique created “break beats,” which were used by Herc to continue to play instrumental music in between the gaps of a song in order to keep the crowd dancing. Herc’s style of layering songs became an early form of sampling, a key component
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Before being given its formal title and adopting its now standard attributes, hip hop and disco styled music existed in the urban communities of African Americans. In spaces such as private residences and clubs in these communities of the Bronx and Brooklyn, musical taste and style was born out of African American street culture. With the creation and development of hip hop following Herc’s use of dual turntables, “rap music brought African American street culture to the mainstream with unprecedented