African American Culture Research Paper

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African American culture is continuously evolving. Throughout the 20th century, the role of African Americans in American society grew through great cultural movements. After the American Civil War and the termination of slavery, African Americans struggled to gain a foothold in American society; as time went on, they slowly found ways to become integrated and accepted in society. One of the biggest influences on African American assimilation was the growth of the music industry. With big music moguls – like James Brown –, African Americans found a name for themselves in society and they were being accepted by their white counterparts. As their music gained popularity, certain groups of African Americans began to form their own distinctive…show more content…
Originating in California, the main staples of West Coast hip hop were known as funk styles. As the name implies, the funk styles are normally performed with funk music, such as James Brown. The funk styles comprised of two different styles of hip hop dance: popping and locking. Locking is a dance style created by Don “Campbellock” Campbell. Locking consists of freezing, or locking – hence the name –, in place while dancing in time with the pauses in funk music. Locking would pave the path for the dancing phenomenon known as the Robot. Popping is a dance style created by Sam “Boogaloo Sam” Solomon. Popping involves snapping one’s legs and flexing one’s body in time with the beat of a song, creating a popping effect. Popping also gained its name due to Sam saying “pop, pop, pop” every time he flexed while dancing. While popping and locking themselves do not have any historic background, certain dance moves that fall underneath the umbrellas of popping and locking have historic reason. For example, tutting, a style of popping, is a style that mimics ancient hieroglyphics. With tutting, the dancer mainly uses his or her upper body – hands, arms, shoulders – to create geometric shapes. The shapes created reminded watchers of Egyptian hieroglyphics and led to the style of dance being named after Egyptian ruler King

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