Hip-Hop is huge, and it is crazy to think about how much money is generated as a direct result of this music, but a lot of people don’t realize that we have a power shortage to thank for it exploding onto the scene.
The place is New York City and the time is 1977. The city had a number of issues with high crime levels, a major recession was just drawing to an end, and race relations were also pretty poor. Underneath, there was a bubbling level of frustration and, as was the norm, people would turn to music to help.
Hip-Hop was just starting out, but very few of the people who were interested in it and wanted to get involved could afford the equipment. It was a music movement that was struggling to get going, but that would change on July 13, 1977.
In the midst of a hot and sweaty summer, a single lightning bolt managed to hit a power transmitter that left Long Island without power for 25 hours. It led to an explosion of anger and riots with over 1,600 stores being looted in a single day.
So, how does this relate to Hip-Hop exploding onto the scene?
Well, via the looting, a lot of DJ equipment and other musical items made their way into the hands of those that could not afford them before the riots. Suddenly, more people had the equipment to make the music that they wanted, so it’s no surprise that shortly after the riots had come to an end, this new musical genre exploded onto the scene.
Maybe that lightning strike was the best thing to happen to music?