A few years ago 5.1 surround sound DVD video players looked likely to become standard kit in every living room in the technology friendly world.

So now a few years on, what has happened to the original promise of surround sound music? Well the answer to that is ‘lots, but not nearly enough.’

For those that don’t know already, 5.1 surround sound is basically five speakers and a sub-woofer placed around your room allowing you to listen to music or a movie soundtrack literally surrounded by speakers. The film industry pioneered it for theatres and it then became available as a DVD player add-on for home entertainment systems.

Now at least 100,000,000 people world-wide own systems, which can and should be used for all manner of surround sound music DVDs.

I hear you say, ‘but surround sound music on DVD hasn’t really caught on. All that wire in my living room’.

Even though the consumer can buy a DVD player and surround speaker system cheaply enough, surround sound music hasn’t really caught fire yet. Why?

There are reasons why we should all remain confident that surround sound music will become more popular, but at the moment it’s still an infant child.

The amount of different DVD and surround sound formats is confusing and can be offputting.

The consumer desperately wants an end to the confusing compatibility war between different surround sound formats.

Many music artists would start producing DVDs if it wasn’t so complex, just as there are many consumers that would purchase a surround sound DVD system for the same reason. They should be able to buy a DVD player and play any product claiming to play DVDs.

Consumer surround sound formats currently include sound on video DVDs encoded as Dolby 5.1 surround sound or DTS; the competing DVD-Audio (DVD-A) and Super Audio CD (SACD) formats and MP3 Surround.

There are 5.1, 6.1, 7.1 systems, four speaker systems, even one speaker systems and ’simulated surround sound systems.’ Phew! See what I mean?

They all have their uses, but the I feel the music business would be wise to embrace one format. Every time the consumer buys a surround sound music product they have to research whether it will be compatible to their particular system.

The good news here is that slowly, but surely things are improving. As long as there is no ‘new’ new format to rock the boat, the problem of incompatibility could become a thing of the past.

There are many great web sites to visit which do explain (in as much detail as you could possibly imagine) all the different formats and help you decide what to buy.

How about all that wire in my living room though?

There are wireless speaker systems available, but the cheaper ones are for mainly rear-channel wireless amplification. This doesn’t quite get rid of all the wires and limits people who have odd shaped rooms. But they are better than nothing.

It would be great for a ‘let’s make it fun revolution’ to occur with surround sound, like the iPod. Small wireless speakers one could place anywhere. The recommended configuration would still be in a circle, but you’d have a license to have fun by placing them in different locations.

Certain types of music would not really benefit from this unconventional approach, but other types mixed specially for surround sound might not suffer that much and it would release the consumer from the pressure to set their systems up in a way that would please an audio engineer or DVD manufacturer.

Not enough of an improvement on CDs and overall lack of interesting music DVD products.

The amount of compression used for music on DVD video is far greater than CDs. So stereo music on CD is generally of a higher quality than stereo music on DVD. However, add the extra speakers and a properly mixed 5.1 surround sound piece of music and all of a sudden the playback bit ratio seems much less important.

‘What is’ you ask, ‘a properly mixed 5.1 piece of music?’

Recreating real space is what seems to interest some surround sound pioneers. The chance to paint a more precise musical picture by placing you the listener deeper inside a musical ensemble or concert venue.

This approach has got its merits, but it’s reliant on people having their speakers in precise locations, and that they will sit dead centre amongst them. Pluses can turn to minuses at this point. If you don’t have a perfectly set up system it might just sound weird, especially if you are used to the stereo CD mix from the same artist.

Apart from all the technical considerations, I consider a great 5.1mix a strong alternative to the stereo mix. Let’s say the artist already has their stereo mix. Why not make the surround mix something that really explores that extra space and is different from the stereo mix.

Give the consumer a choice of two distinctly different sounding mixes. This might inspire more people to make the effort to set up those surround speakers which are still sitting unused in the attic.

Currently it is almost mandatory to include some type of visual content on a DVD.

In a way, it’s a shame that ‘audio only’ DVDs haven’t caught on…yet.

Depending on the level of production the artist is looking to reach, it can be both very expensive and time consuming producing enough visual material to accompany all the music for a competitive DVD release.

Most musicians have a hard enough time producing their music let alone having to produce hour’s worth of videos as well. So you could say that the need for visual content (as exciting as it can be) is holding back the growth surround sound music.

Live concerts are the most successful type of music DVDs, mainly because they are relatively cheap to produce.

For ‘audio only’ DVDs to catch on, consumer expectation will have to be ‘re-trained’ to expect what they might consider as less. I feel that the days of distributing film or music products on any type of disk is going to disappear fast.

What does the future looks like for surround sound?

The real turning point will come when the Internet becomes surround sound friendly. A new MP3 surround streaming module has just been announced that allows manufacturers to build web radios featuring true 5.1 surround sound.

Many people surf the Internet sitting at their desk, listening to music for hours at a time. Soon they will be able to surf and listen in surround sound. Small near-field computer monitors would work perfectly.(especially wireless ones).

It’s inevitable that 5.1 radio and TV broadcasts will soon become the norm. Even without the music business, embracing surround sound as anything more than a small niche, the amount of people with a 5.1 system is steadily increasing.

At this point, surround sound music becomes a viable ‘audio only’ product. If the surround sound community can simplify the production process even more allowing the average project studio to easily create surround sound content, we should all benefit.

I predict there will be a tipping point where all of a sudden the ‘need’ for surround sound music will exceed the amount of available products.

Live surround sound music can be amazing. I went to Berlin and mixed a gig by the experimental Electronic band ‘Warren Suicide’. Instruments and vocals flying around the room in surround sound mayhem. It was great, and opened my eyes to what I hope is ‘the future’ for certain styles of music.

Dance music is an area I really hope starts to explore surround sound. The drum/synth based repetition is perfect fodder to trigger a quantum leap in 5.1 music production. All the technology is now available to present surround sound mixes in smaller clubs or ’surround rooms’ in larger clubs.

I have to quickly point out that the 1 in 5.1 stands for sub-woofer (a dedicated speaker designed to carry just low frequencies). This on its own is a major step forward for dance music fans.

DJ producers in particular can take control of the ‘low end’ of their tracks and shake the furniture more than ever before. Because one doesn’t have to squeeze all that low end into the same speakers as everything else it allows for a more overall dynamic mix.

Music mixed in 5.1 surround sound gives us the opportunity to produce and listen to music in a completely new way.

Both as a composer and as a engineer, I personally feel liberated, set free from the confines of stereo. In this case more really is better. The extra speakers/channels give you more ‘room’ to put your music.

My hope is for ‘audio only’ surround sound music to take off. Music is, after all, the world of the invisible – it seems a shame to connect it at the hip to pictures. Your mind processes visual images first, then sound. So pictures can distract people who might listen more carefully without them.

There is room for both music videos and surround sound music without the videos.

‘What kind of gear do you need to start mixing in surround sound?’:

a) A reasonably fast computer

b) Music software package that supports 5.1 mixing (Logic Audio, Pro-Tools etc.)

c) Minimum 8 channel audio interface (Motu, Digidesign )

d) Five matched self powered speakers, and a sub-woofer

Mixing In Surround Sound:

When I first started mixing something in surround sound, I went out and purchased three sets of Sony Mega Bass self powered computer speakers. After connecting them directly to my audio interface outputs, I then assigned the surround sound out-puts in Logic Audio. I opened a song I was working on and spread the instruments out around the channels and hit play… Wow! The five mini speakers sounded great. Mixing in a tiny bit of subs from my Genelec sub-woofer, it sounded even better.

I know… I can hear engineers crying out.. ‘But what about…?’ Well, it’s unconventional but as a starting point this system does work. Now I own a full set of Genelecs, but I still use this approach.

The normal way to mix in surround sound is to have a matched system where the sub-woofer is driven from the speakers. A roll-off decides that everything below a certain frequency is sent on to the sub-woofer. I favour rooting the signal directly to the sub-woofer from a send on either my main out-put fadder’s or occasionally individual instrument fadder’s. This way I can choose which instruments to place in the sub-woofer and which not to.

I say to music mixers; ‘Approach the surround mix with a fresh concept, understanding that it can reflect a different side of the song/composition.’

I don’t recommend the approach of mixing both the stereo and surround mixes at the same time. It seems that one or the other will be compromised. You’re still ‘thinking in stereo’.

The effects needed and levels will be different in a surround mix. I find I use less processing overall especially compression, again it comes down to having more space to place the instruments.

So start fresh without any of your stereo effects haunting you. It’s one of those things that will save you time in the end, plus you will probably mix more creatively.

After a little guess work and experimentation I managed to figure out the right level to print my mixes. Again the sub-woofer channel was tricky, but after burning a few trial DVDs trying different levels I got the hang of it.

I played some mixes I had done in my studio at Real World and Metropolis Studios and they sounded right. It shows you can produce your own surround sound music at a reasonable cost, even in a project studio.

There are hours worth of surround sound production tutorials available from all the major music software companies. Just visit your software makers web site to get started.

Of course the absolutely best way to mix music in surround sound is to go to a top recording studio. If you’re just starting out with surround sound, mix a track with the guidance of a highly trained professional engineer, who has experience with surround sound mixing.

There are great audio engineers who would (for a smallish fee) come to your project studio and ‘consult’ with you on the technical elements of your mix.

If you are producing a DVD for commercial release, it’s still best to get your project professionally mastered. Any decent music mastering facility can (to a point) rebalance your surround mix, so if you are a little heavy or light on the subs they can deal with it then.

Tips on ways to create your own visual content:

The quality you want to achieve is normally connected to the expectations of your audience.

With enough time and energy you can make videos using a consumer DV camera and Final Cut Pro (or PC equivalent). DV cameras are generally just not quite good enough for any ’serious filming’, but if used creatively for certain situations it’s possible to pull it off. HD camera’s are much higher quality but still do cost a lot more to buy.

Live concerts and gigs can work well though. If you are doing a gig, ask around all the people you know and see how many DV cameras you could borrow. If you have four cameras set up around the club, one camera to roam around and some decent lighting on stage, you’re in business. Make sure the people operating the fixed cameras don’t mess around during the filming. No zooming and out or trying to track the movements on stage. Perfectly still videos are much better to edit. Then in your film editing software, you can cut between different angles and add zooms, even simulate camera movement.

There’s no guarantee, but if the actual performance is strong enough, some of the production values will be overlooked.

Done well enough, you can produce a DVD using still images, like a slide show – again a good film editing program allows you to animate still photos way beyond what one might think is possible.

There are some fantastic animation programs like Bryce 3D, and Cinema 4D that are worth looking into. Start producing convincing 3D text an logos.

Warren Suicide are a great ad-sample of a band who are embracing the audio – visual age. Their DVD was produced by them, and although they worked really hard on it, the finished DVD was not expensive to make, but is just as imaginative and entertaining as any big budget music DVD I’ve seen.

How do I get my mix on to a DVD?:

There are, as you can imagine, quite a few ways available.

The huge majority of DVD players in circulation use the DVD video format. So I recommend choosing Dolby 5.1 or DTS encoding, don’t worry too much about all the others. DTS sounds just as good to me, but I found more options were available with Dolby 5.1.

All you really need is Final Cut Pro and DVD studio Pro or the PC equivalents. DVD Studio Pro comes with a audio compression program called Apac. Apac allows you to compress your six channel mix into a single 5.1 file, ready to place on a DVD.

These programs are not cheap, but they are worth every penny if you’re considering commercially releasing your DVD. Between them you can edit and effect your video footage/audio content, add text, export the outcome in a format which is ready to be authored and finally burned on to a DVD. WOW! All in you back room – not bad.



By: Merv de Peyer

About the Author:

RNB vinyl records are far more preferable in my mind to any other form of media, and the same can be said for hip hop music -  vinyl is always going to represent a truer form of the music. Why do I say this? Simply because if you look back at the way RNB developed, and gave rise to hip hop music, the whole method of performance required the use of vinyl to allow DJs and performers to be more creative with the music. Hip hop can be played, or recited, certainly, but it’s the kind of music which reminds me of those cans of paint.

You know the aerosols used for graffiti? Let’s not forget that hip hop refers to far more than just music; in fact, hip hop music is simply that branch of RNB which grew out of the hip hop youth culture of New York. The culture itself is far more diverse and incorporates far more than just music, despite the importance and significance of RNB and hip hop to the whole culture. Hip hop culture included a wide range of traditional symbols, activities and ways of making statements felt and messages heard, including graffiti for one thing.

A can of aerosol paint might look quite pretty. But once you’ve seen one you’ve pretty well seen them all, and they cease to have much appeal. Although this is taking the analogy a little far, one might almost draw the comparison with hip hop music. A track of hip hop is great, and immensely enjoyable. But one of the great things about RNB vinyl records and hip hop vinyl records is that they can be mixed, scratched, spun, sampled and played about with in creative ways. Let’s not forget – that’s largely how hip hop music developed in the first place, with DJs mixing, scratching and spinning whilst MCing or rapping. Of course, that’s when the breakdancers came in as well – another creative outlet generated by the whole hip hop movement.

This is the whole essence of hip hop and RNB – the ability to play with the music, be creative with the music, and do your own thing. When it comes to hip hop music, vinyl is the truest and most dynamic way of enjoying the music. Don’t get me wrong – I realize the benefits and advantages of being able to carry your music around with you on compact disks or even as MP3s on your iPod. But these methods of storing and playing music tend to be too static, and too limiting. You can’t really experiment or play about with the music much, except to shuffle your playlist about from time to time.

I know that there are plenty of whizz kids who’ll argue that computer technology does now allow for scratching, mixing and playing about with MP3 files in much the same way, and having tried such software myself, I can see where they’re coming from. But this is again the difference between grabbing a few cans of paint and creating a one-off masterpiece on a derelict wall, and using the computer to generate a pixel perfect vector graphic which can be scaled, transmitted, saved, printed or emailed around the world.

Certainly there are advantages, but do these really make up for the losses? Where is the tangible creation, the physical product which you created with your own hands? On a computer, it’s all virtual, but grab your hip hop vinyl records and sling on your RNB vinyl records – get your hands on the turntable and actually touch and feel the music, creating something unique and original.

For me, as with most RNB and hip hop fans, the best of both worlds is usually a good place to be, enjoying being able to take your music with you wherever you go, as MP3s or CDs, but at the same time, having a cherished collection of RNB vinyl records at home to experiment with, and play with. Hip hop is a culture which thrived on creativity as a means of personal expression, from the music to the dance, from the art to the language – almost every aspect of the Bronx cultural movement was geared towards expression of some kind.

Of course, it’s true that the artists creating the music were experimental and creative, not to mention original for the most part, but their performance, once recorded, almost ends up like that vector drawing – duplicated, pixel perfect. Now what are you going to do with it? Remember, when it comes to hip hop vinyl is the way to channel your creativity.



By: T. Barnaby Milne

About the Author:

Music is a thing that makes you happy, that makes you dance, that makes you feel excited. When you can’t keep control over your emotions, music plays the role of the perfect dozzier by bringing emotional balance to your soul. Music knows no boundaries – penetrating race, religion, location, music has long played the role of a spiritual healer all over the globe. Nokia, the numero uno mobile phone maker is the successful introducer of music feature in their mobile handsets.

Nokia has released several mobile handsets with music capabilities in the last few years. After the huge success of the N-Series mobile phones, Nokia shift a focus a bit and concentrated primarily on manufacturing Xpress Music mobile phones like Nokia 5310, Nokia 5610, Nokia 5700 and Nokia 5300. These phones are high on music capabilities and produce very impressive sound effect.

Here we will see the features of the recently launched music phones – the Nokia 5310 Xpress Music and the Nokia 5610 Xpress Music. The Nokia 5310 Xpress Music is a stylish candybar phone measuring 103.8 x 44.7 x 9.9 mm and weighing 71 grams. The Nokia 5310 Xpress Music phone has a 16 million colour TFT screen with a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels. The music player supports a variety of formats like MP3/MP4/AAC/eAAc/WMA. Other noticeable features include 2 megapixel camera with 1600×1200 pixels, stereo FM radio with RDS, WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML (Opera mini), 30MB internal memory, microSD (TransFlash) card etc.

Now we come to the features of the slider designed Nokia 5610 Xpress Music. The Nokia 5610 Xpress Music measures 98.5 x 48.5 x 17 mm and has got a weight of 111 grams. Display is big and clear – it’s a 2.2 inch 16 million colour TFT screen with a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels. The music player is smart enough to support formats like MP3/MP4/AAC/eAAc/WMA. Among other noticeable features mention may especially be made of 3.15 megapixel camera, secondary QVGA videocall camera, Bluetooth with A2DP, WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML (Opera mini), stereo FM radio with RDS, built-in handsfree, 20MB internal memory, microSD (TransFlash), memory card support etc.



By: susan hargreaves

About the Author:

Music cds and rap music were not heard of during that period, it was all about the vinyl records and rhythm and blues soul. Their music became universal music. If it weren’t for the music and the movement known as hip hop, an entire generations feeling and beliefs would have passed by without being heard. No matter if you like the hip-hop form of music or not, two things are obvious: It sells well and caters to a violent, depraved way of life.

As soon as a new artist hits the airwaves all fans start to imitate their favorite rap artists and start to dress just like them by wearing bling jewelry and clothing accessories. The prolific rise of the rap industry as a mainstay in our cultural landscape is undeniable. The hip hop and rap culture had been promoting this for decades prior and now it suddenly is main stream. A theory on urban fashion jewelry would be that Hollywood has been embracing the urban culture more and more over the years and upon rap becoming more and more mainstream to the extent of when you turn on MTV you no longer have a daily hour segment to rap videos after the hours of rock n’ roll or alternative music, but rather a total reversal where you’d be hard pressed to find any rock videos or anything besides hip hop or rap.

The biggest change is when the hip-hop stated using remixed tracks, this became all the rage and it crossed racial divides which earned the artists recognition. Hip Hop artists need to create a certain type of persona that establishes their masculinity to be accepted by the communities that listen to Hip Hop. In today’s world poets and Hip-Hop artists show their love stories in a way that allows them to maintain there respect.

Even though our culture is forever evolving, we cannot forget how we got where we are. Culture and in depth coverage of the hip hop you want is what they offer. Hip Hop has started in the late ‘70s but become much more popular in the ‘80s, Hip Hop is a mix of rapping and DJing which is mixing and scratching albums on a turntable.

Because everything in the hip hop world is out of this world, it just makes sense that it has its own clothing line. Since Hip Hop has become so popular many celebrities started their own clothing line to fill in the gap of the Hip Hop generation.

When you think of the word hip-hop most everyone associates it with music. In fact, this term has become so widely used, that the Oxford Dictionary has included it, along with “jiggy” and “phat”.



By: David Marc Fishman

About the Author:

From time to time I have heard this argument over and over again. The argument that I have heard is people arguing about what is Hip Hop. Some may say it’s a genre of music and other say it’s a culture. I say Hip Hop is both and more. There is a reason why I come to this conclusion, and that reason is a word in the English language may have two or more completely different meanings.

An example of this is the word Republican. If you ask most people “What is a Republican?” most will say someone who is in or supports the Republican Party. If you ask others a few will say someone who believes in a Republic form of government. Is one group wrong and the other right, the answer is no. It is both of these definitions, well it is the same thing with the respects to Hip Hop. It has many meanings.

For some Hip Hop is a culture, for others Hip Hop is any music with a rapper, and another group may see Hip Hop as a rap song with a positive message. It is every thing that is stated above, every single thing and more. I think it is counter productive to have an argument about what is Hip Hop. Hip Hop means different things to many people. There is no one meaning that is the absolute meaning of Hip Hop. The questions we should ask is, not what is Hip Hop but what Hip Hop is not.

You can find more information like this at Hip Hop Facts.

Thank you and enjoy.



By: Kevin Cox

About the Author:

This article will tell you more about how to make your own rap tune using Hip Hop Music Beats and how you can get started easily. Unless you are a professional music producer with lots of expensive equipment it can be quite hard to get started making your own hip hop beats.

Well there is a way around this and all you need to do is find some good royalty free Hip Hop Music Beats and then all you need is a good rap artist and this is normally yourself if you are making the rap tune! As long as you make sure that you get royalty free beats which basically means that there is no rights on the music so you can use them freely and if you do make a good tune and want to take it to a producer you can still use these Hip Hop Music Beats as long as they are royalty free.

Another thing to make sure is that you get good quality hip hop beats and make sure that any website that offers to sell you them has a free preview because if you don’t get a free preview then you might be downloading some low quality sounds and this will not be a good idea as your tune will just sound bad if the hip hop beats are low quality.

Also make sure that you get a wide range of hip hop beats as if you think about any rap artist there albums are just not all one type of rap sometimes they go slow and more love songs and sometimes you want hard gangster rap.

If you take note of the above when you are looking for Hip Hop Music Beats you can’t go wrong as you will get to preview the samples before you use them in your rap tunes!

If you also make sure that any package comes with a compete guarantee then this can help out as you have nothing to lose!

I hope this article has told you more about Hip Hop Music Beats and what you should look for in any package before you get started.

For the best Hip Hop Music Beats and to get over 10,000 beats with a free preview click the link to the left and get started today!



By: Dan Jennings

About the Author:

Up until a few years ago, making music meant a massive investment in time and money- either you had to buy expensive equipment and learn how to use it, or rent a studio for $100 per hour or even more. Those days are fortunately gone now, you can use your computer to record and edit your vocals or instruments, arrange everything and burn a CD of your work afterwards, ready to be played on your CD player.

In order to make music with your computer, the minimum you need is a soundcard and good software. Modern computers usually ship with a built-in soundcard already, which is sufficient to start with – just connect an amplifier or headphones to it. Nearly all soundcards have Mic In/Line in connectors as well, so if you wish to record vocals or instruments, you only need to purchase a microphone and connect that. Although some soundcards come bundled with a microphone already, those are usually of poor quality and not suitable for decent music production. Thus a good idea here is to seek advice in your local music store.

Next you need to find good music software. Fortunately there is a lot of applications available for all common computer platforms, no matter if you are using Windows, Linux or Mac OS X. To find good applications for your platform, type something like “Music Software for PC” into your favourite search engine.

A good idea is to start with free software, then move on to commercial software once you got the hang of it and your requirements grow. You might also want to look at the applications that are given away for free on cover CDs of music magazines, or those that come bundled with your soundcard. Some music software developers give away older, discontinued or feature-limited versions of their software for free. Often such software is a lot more capable than software which has always been distributed freely.



By: Robert Fischer

About the Author:

Recently I’ve been hearing some bad things from artists who download hip hop beats online. I myself have even been a victim to a scam.

So what is the deal?

Well recently there have been a lot of reports of people stealing hip hop beats from producers and selling them on their own web page. In some instances, these “crooks” download hip hop beats that are “free downloads” from the producer’s page, and make profit from them. In other cases, the beats are purchased from the producer and re-sold on another web page.

I myself, as a producer, have been the victim of this scam. I was notified by another artist who had seen one of my beats for sale on another producer’s web page. This thief was selling one of my beats, and about 50 other stolen beats on his own page.

So what can you do to protect yourself from buying stolen hip hop beats? Here are a few tips:

1. Analyze the producer’s page. Is it professional looking? Does it have contact information including a telephone number and email address? These things can say a lot about the legitimacy of a producer and rule out scammers.

2. Before you download hip hop beats or make any purchases, contact the producer. Call or email him/her and ask them questions regarding their terms of agreement and licensing information. If they do not offer any licensing contracts upon purchase, you should be skeptical of doing any business with them.

3. If you are still skeptical about buying from amateur web pages, look to other more professional production companies to download hip hop beats from. Find a production company who is a registered business and has a good reputation.

Now that you are aware of this growing scam you will be better prepared to make safer, more secure purchases when you download hip hop beats online.



By: Tim Adamek

About the Author:

n’t know anything else, you probably already know that hip hop has the beat that makes you want to get up and dance. But what do you really know about hip hop dance? Did you know that this energetic dancing evolved with hip hop music and street jazz? It’s true. Today, hip hop has taken its place alongside ballet, tap, jazz and ballroom dancing; to name a few.

The first notice of hip hop dance dates back to the 70’s when some new moves were introduced to the dance world to accompany the funky sounds of hip hop music that was also being discovered. Most popular among African Americans and Latin Americans at first, there are many races who now lay claim to defining this diverse dance phenomenon.

Across the United States from the ‘Boogie Down’ Bronx, New York to the ‘Beat Street’ corners of Compton, California, young people everywhere took to this new style of dancing that included such feats as breaking, popping, locking, gliding, ticking, vibrating and krumping. In the earlier days, some hip hop dance moves such as the Humpty Dance were made popular by hip hop artists who had created the songs from which these dances were derived.

Early on, dance competitions on sidewalks included beat boxing, a form of music-making that included raps and special sound effects made with the hands and mouth. Artists like The Fat Boys rose to fame and fortune with Buffy’s beat boxing talents.

After the outbreak of interest in hip hop dance, there were even several movies highlighting this new form of dancing that combined beats, sounds, and gravity-defying moves. Crush Groove and other movies saw their day in the spotlight as hip hop dance continued to expand to different cultures and races and locations around the globe.

From freestyle forms that were often the spotlight of informal battles both indoors and outdoors to formally trained dancers who began to incorporate hip hop dance as a means of dance and physical exercise, hip hop dance has continued to evolve. Today, hip hop dance has earned a recognized place in dance studios and is practiced as regularly as other styles.

Whether hip hop dance was the brain child of some who were simply looking for another form of expression or the intentional genius of creative souls who were looking to put another dance expression into the mix of music is not clear. What is clear is that hip hop music has survived challenge and change and fought its way into the dance scene around the world.

In 2005, the popular television show “So You Think You Can Dance” presented yet another platform for hip hop dance artists to display their talents while competing for fame and fortune against other recognized dance forms such as ballet, tap, jazz and ballroom.

By: Gen Wright

About the Author:

 

Era of Hip Hop Jewelry.

Hip-hop jewelry has gone through a tremendous increase in popularity over the last few years, so much as it is diffecult to realize that the phrase hip hop originated from the blacks music scene rather than from the fashion or jewelry indusrty.

Hip Hop Iced out jewelry is distinctive in its extravagant use of diamonds and Gold, and hip hop jewelry is sometimes referred to as bling bling jewelry or even Iced out jewelry. Its one distinctive feature is the impression of sheer extravagance and success that emanates from the ‘iced up’ appearance of diamond encrusted pieces, and the sparkle and sheer lavishness of it.

The reason that hip hop jewelry or bling jewelry has become so popular in recent years is as a direct result of the many well known celebrities that have adorned themselves with this hip hop jewelry, most of whom come from either the rap music. Some of the most well-known hip-hop and rap musicians or celebrities are 50 Cent and Eminem, both of whom are instantly recognizable if for no other reason than the fact that they are adorned in a tremendous amount of large, chunky jewelry which takes on the appearance of being encrusted with a wealth of diamonds.

Children and young people are always keen to emulate the styles and fashions of their idols, particularly from the world of music. With hip-hop and rap musicians helping to celebrate the bling style of jewelry, many children and young people are keen to emulate this style and fashion. Of course it isn’t that cheap to be able to replicate the style of a pop star, when a pop star can afford contemporary or bling jewelry costing many thousands of dollars.

However, the fashion industry has responded by being able to produce a wide range of hip hop jewelry and bling jewelry at a nominal range of prices that involve smaller and fewer diamonds and other stones. This has resulted in the enormous range of fashionable jewelry items for young people that are extremely affordable. For those who can afford more elitist jewelry, then there are plenty of bling bling jewelry items and accessories available which are every bit as expensive as they seem.

Some of the most popular hip hop jewelry items include rings, necklaces and bracelets. Typically many of these items are referred to as iced out, which effectively means that the jewelry is designed to give the impression of many dozens or even hundreds of very small diamonds paving large sections of the jewelry. At the top end of the hip-hop jewelry market these diamonds become increasingly larger, and as prices drop they become smaller, but more numerous. That is because a single two carat diamond is far more valuable than twenty small diamonds of .1 carat each.

The main appeal of bling Fashion and hip-hop jewelry is the fact that it gives a very clear, distinctive and unmissable message to anyone who happens to see, or even glance at, the individual wearing the items. No one can fail to notice somebody who is wearing such jewelry. Many of the rap and hip-hop celebrities, such as P. Diddy or Sean Combs wear such amount of hip hop jewelry that it would be hard to imagine how they could adorn themselves with any more, and many young people are keen to achieve the same effect, whilst not spending vast amounts of money.

It really does seem today that there is hardly a square inch of the body that cannot be adorned by an item of hip hop jewelry. From earrings and nose studs, to bracelets and rings, from watches to necklaces and even to teeth! Some celebrities have either had their teeth permanently decorated, or wear a highly fashionable tooth cap which can be slid over the tooth covering it in bling.

Ordinary people are able to emulate their idols by purchasing real diamond hip hop jewelry at discount or cheap prices online if they are lucky enough to come across the right hip hop fashion websites. Otherwise the price of a diamond encrusted watch can be prohibitive to young people who do not have the spending power of those they want to be like.

Check out the hip hop jewelry at Blinginice.com where you will find a wide range of jewelry that Bring you in stlye. Also avail the free offers on Blinginice.com

 



By: Moosahemani

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