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Punk And Hip Hop Music

Decent Essays

Punk rock music has been used for decades to express dissatisfaction with society, government, or any idea common in mainstream media. Yet punk rock is not simply a tangent of the mainstream, it is a dynamic and fluid genre with many distinct songs. Don Letts, a mainstay in the London punk scene during the 70’s and 80’s, went as far to say that hip-hop was essentially “black” punk. While punk and hip-hop music are stylistically different, the fundamental tone of the two genres is the same. Even throughout the decades, hip-hop has sang the same issues as punk, including the plight of the lower class, police brutality, and gang violence. No matter how the economy changes, for better or worse, there will always be a lower class that is struggling, and an upper class that doesn’t realize the troubles of the lower classes. In an aggressive attack at the upper class and even the government, The Sex Pistols wrote “God Save the Queen;” a song which would shock the entire nation. “God Save the Queen” attacked the monarch of the United Kingdom and her motives. The Sex Pistols wanted to emphasize how the government mistreated the lower/working class. The song claimed the people were slaves to the government and therefore made decisions based on how the government wanted them to behave. When The Pistols said “don’t be told what you want, don’t be told what you need” they were urging the lower class to make their own decisions, without influence from the government. Hip-hop about the

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