The modern wonders of technology have brought the world of music many new and exciting gifts. One of the biggest things this technology has created is the ability to create beats using software. This breakthrough is important because it gave us the ability to create new styles of music, including southern rap.
What is southern rap?
Wikipedia defines it as “a form of American hip hop music that grew out of a club-oriented environment of the late 1980s in the cities of the American South.” He goes on to proclaim that it is “a third major genre of American hip hop, after East Coast hip hop and West Coast hip hop.”
With this description, it’s easy to see that southern rap is a very powerful influence in the modern music industry.
How technology created southern rap
With programs like Fruity Loops, budding rap artists had a new tool for creating rap beats and remixes. With a small amount of technical knowledge, recording artists could create and mix their own beats from the comfort of their home recording studio. By adding voices and sound effects through editing software, the new rapper was able to create popular music that was already preserved in a digital format that could be easily shared.
A long hard road
Unfortunately, the road to fame was not easy. The big record executives weren’t about to jump on the bandwagon. For much of the 1990s, the southern rap artist simply couldn’t find a foothold in the music industry.
This rejection by the major record labels brought us another important aspect of the world of modern music. Many talented rappers were able to break into the music industry by producing and marketing their own recordings through their own independent labels or on mix tapes. This move created a movement towards independent record labels that is still going strong today.