AtD Feature: Better Know A Genre - Hyphy

Welcome to our second installment of "Better Know A Genre." Following up on part I, which dealt with shoegaze, we're going to change gears quite a bit and explore an emerging Bay Area trend coined "hyphy."

MTVNews.com has a special report on the movement, wherein they refer to 'hyphy' as:

To paraphrase Humpty Hump from Bay Area legends Digital Underground, these kids are doing what they like, how they like; getting "dumb, stupid and retarded" — and the thing that's getting them so worked up is a jittery, sped-up, synth-powered strain of hip-hop they call "hyphy,"...

MTV goes on to explain some of the customs associated with the movement, including one called "gas-brake dippin'," in which you hop into your car and alternate hitting the gas and hitting the brake in a rapid succession. And to raise the stakes, sometimes all the doors will be opened, and the music blasted to it's most blaring.

But it doesn't nearly end there. The Wiki covers more of the slang and ritual associated with Hyphy:

• "Ghost ride the whip" - Driver walks alongside slow-rolling car with the door open, giving the appearance that the car is driving itself. Passengers ride with all the doors open and sometimes leap out of the moving cars, sometimes dancing on top of the hood.
• "Going or getting dumb/stupid/bananas/silly/ignorant/retarded/hyphy/Ridin' the yellow bus" - is the main concept, which means having a good time while ignoring society's negative opinion of "uncivilized" behavior.

The term started, it seems, as many slang terms do, as a negative. Hyphy could be used to describe picking fights, knocking someone out, or even shooting up a block, but it's meaning quickly evolved to include things like this:

To wit, if you see a hip-hop head doing an insane, nonsensical dance—eyes rolled back, arms akimbo, looking like an epileptic zombie—he’s hyphy. If you see someone so beautiful you stop and do a blatant double take, you’d call her hyphy

But hyphy had to be something more than just behavior or language:

"It's like back in the day with the breakdancing, it's evolved into a culture," says Rick Rock, who is credited as being the king of hyphy like Lil Jon is the king of crunk. "It's like the new generation, the crack-baby era: the dreadlocks shaking, riding with all four doors open. It's how the kids are feeling these days. There was a time when northern California [music] was more mild and slow and laid-back. I came and brought this super-fast hyphy sound. I put the music to the culture."

Hyphy is also notable for originating in and being specifically tied to the "Yay Area." However, hyphy might be ready for prime time across the country. Whether or not that gets hooked up, I'll leave to MSNBC to speculate. One thing is undeniable, though: hyphy is the Bay Area's own breed of lively insanity and it will hopefully put the locale back on the map as an epicenter of hip-hop trend setting. (Tupac and Master P among many others hail from here).

For much more on Hyphy, check these resources:

Alphabetical list of hyphy artists

The Hyphy Show

AllHipHop.com Feature: The Bay's Hip-Hop Revenge

Hood Check: Hyphy: California Crunk

And of course, The Federation featuring E-40 with "Hyphy":

Better Know A Music Genre (or Subgenre) Part I

Blatantly stolen from Stephen Colbert's "Better Know A District" segment from his widely popular Comedy Central late-night satire "The Colbert Report," I proudly introduce a new recurring feature here on AtD. "Better Know A Music Genre" seeks to introduce and educate both casual and dedicated music aficionados about the many, many categories into which the powers that be (namely critics, journalists, historians, etc.) classify every realization of modern music.

Music categorization is a subject that particularly strikes me so I intend to bring it up frequently on this blog. Something that should be noted, however, is the context in which the subject is brought up, because I both embrace and eschew the labeling and sub-labeling and sub-sub-labeling of music. I tend to think that for academic and critical purposes (as well as metrics and measurement), anal-retentively detailed classification is essential because it allows for conventions and language in writing about and analyzing all the many varied forms of music. Sometimes, however, you just want to listen to a song, or album, or artist because it strikes you in a particular way or because it brings about an emotional response. In these instances, it's not necessarily valuable to the listener whether a given song, album, or artist is indie, alternative, or punk. It's just a darn good tune.

With this in consideration, I will follow-up on this post some other time. For right now let's get right to part I of our series: "Better Know a Music Genre, Part I: Shoegaze."

First off, let's start off with a definition. Wikipedia offer the following:

Shoegazing is characterized by a self-deprecating, introspective, non-confrontational feel. Common musical elements are distortion and fuzzbox, droning riffs and a Phil Spector-esque wall of sound from noisy guitars. Typically two distorted rhythm guitars are played together and give an amorphous quality to the sound. Although lead guitar riffs were often present, they were not the central focus of most shoegazing songs.

Vocals are typically subdued in volume and tone, but underneath the layers of guitars is often a strong sense of melody. While the genres which influenced shoegazing often used drum machines, shoegazing more often features live drumming...

Since this explanation feels like it could leave behind some confusion, AllMusic says:

Shoegaze is a genre of late '80s and early '90s British indie rock, named after the bands' motionless performing style, where they stood on stage and stared at the floor while they played. But shoegaze wasn't about visuals -- it was about pure sound. The sound of the music was overwhelmingly loud, with long, droning riffs, waves of distortion, and cascades of feedback. Vocals and melodies disappeared into the walls of guitars, creating a wash of sound where no instrument was distinguishable from the other.

(For further detail, please consult the referenced websites.)

So basically you have an indistinguishable mess of distorted and fuzzy sounds that drowned out everything around as the vocals and typically the lyrics were absorbed. How about notable artists? You've got bands like My Bloody Valentine, The Boo Radleys, Lush, Ride, Slowdive, Loop, and a whole slew more.

Naturally, though, the best way to learn about something is to experience it directly for yourselves. So here are some examples of Shoegazing, with many thanks to YouTube for providing the content:

My Bloody Valentine - Soon

Chapterhouse - Mesmerize

Slowdive - Alison

Ride - Leave Them All Behind

Lush - For Love

That is, of course, just a small sampling of the Shoegazer movement. The Wikipedia and AllMusic resources have more to offer should your curiosity be peaked. In addition, this is an excellent article from 3:AM Magazine which thoroughly outlines the influences, history, and chronology of Shoegazing from its humble beginnings to its abrupt end. Although the style is more or less inactive, the retroactive nature of the industry and of the art certainly does not rule out its return in some fashion, and it's notable impact is certainly cemented in rock history. Bands such as Dinosaur Jr., Sonic Youth, and the Smashing Pumpkins, it can be argued, were influenced by Shoegazing, while very early Blur and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are credited as part of the genre. Even very recent material by bands such as Silversun Pickups, and Umbrellas falls under the purview of Shoegaze. As an example, their July 2006 release, "Illuminare," Status Magazine described as:

The sophomore album from Oklahoma City rockers UMBRELLAS. Ten songs of realistic love, infatuation, satisfaction, disappointment, life-balance and letting go performed with a backdrop of blustery fall-out tunes with strange swirls of sound, echoes, pulses, huge bass hammerings, and chiming bells. “Shoegaze played like pop. Trip hop played like straight-up rock...complex and downright beautiful.”--Status

In these ways and in the hearts of nostalgic 90's indie/britpop fans, Shoegazing wonders on.