I didn't know where to put this, so I'll put it here (I'm not entirely sure that it's worthy of its own thread):
I just started watching Ken Burns' "Jazz" again, and I watched the "Freestyle" documentary a couple weeks ago, and I noticed that Jazz and Hip-Hop have REALLY similar backstories.
Initial note: the "Jazz" documentary is really narrow (mostly just focuses on louis armstrong, duke ellington, swing, etc., and then glosses over 1960-present), and the "Freestyle" documentary also has it's drawbacks (again, focuses too much on Supernatural, Craig G, etc.), but they are both very well-made, and I recommend them for what they are.
Anyway:
• Both Jazz and Hip Hop are an attempt to turn a negative situation into a positive release through song, and for the most part, this "negative situation" was a socioeconomic one.
• Both Jazz and Hip Hop are highly improvisational and much more connected to using song as an emoting agent, rather than a craft. The horn lines in Jazz were improvisational by nature and used a melody as a foundation to build a personal statement (rather than just "playing what's written on the page" like classical music). The idea of DJing and MCing in Hip Hop is played out in the same way: you've got a theme or a sample, and you riff on that verbally or thru scratches.
• Both Jazz and Hip Hop were vilified through racially-tinged attacks (rock and roll was vilified too, but more because it was a youth rebellion, not because of its source). The intelligentsia around the turn of the century dismissed Jazz for a while as a plebe pastime, and the PMRC whipped everyone into a frenzy about "rap" when 2 Live Crew, gangsta rap, and Body Count (which wasn't even rap... it was rock!!!) came out.
• Both Jazz and Hip Hop were eventually absorbed back into the mainstream through a process of "crossover" (in the case of jazz, the whites ran with it and made "big band" music; in the case of hip hop, the suburban youth took "gangsta rap" and eventually created the radio rap we hear today... not the same appeal, but still similar).
I'm sure there are a lot of other parallels, but it was just tripping me out to see all the similarities.
