Global Innovations: #1 Essay basis for Test
Though created in the United States by African Americans, hip hop culture and music is now global in scope. Youth culture and opinion is meted out in both Israeli hip hop and Palestinian hip hop, while Canada, France, Germany, the U.K.,
Poland, Brazil, Japan, Africa, Australia and the Caribbean have long-established hip hop followings. According to the U.S. Department of State, hip hop is "now the center of a mega music and fashion industry around the world," that crosses social barriers and cuts across racial lines. National Geographic recognizes hip hop as
"the world's favorite youth culture" in which "just about every country on the planet seems to have developed its own local rap scene." Through its international travels, hip hop is now considered a “global musical epidemic,” and has diverged from its ethnic roots by way of globalization and localization.
Although some non-American rappers may still relate with young black Americans, hip hop now transcends its original culture, and is appealing because it is “custommade to combat the anomie that preys on adolescents wherever nobody knows their name.” Hip hop is attractive in its ability to give a voice to disenfranchised youth in any country, and as music with a message it is a form available to all societies worldwide.
From its early spread to Europe and Japan to an almost worldwide acceptance through Asia and South American countries such as Brazil, the musical influence has been global. Hip hop sounds and styles differ from region to region, but there is also a lot of crossbreeding. In each separate hip hop scene there is also constant struggle between "old school" hip hop and more localized, newer sounds.Regardless of where it is found, the music often targets local disaffected youth. Hip hop has given people a voice to express themselves,