Alternative Hip Hop: The Gateway Genre

In our generation, seemingly the most popular genre of music around has always been rap. Even since Kindergarten I remember kids on the school bus passing around their iPods, sharing the newest hip hop or rap album craze. We have seen absolutely huge rap artists come along, like Kanye West, Drake, Eminem, and many others. Although just about every person around me has been all over the genre, somehow I was never able to get into it.

Now you're probably wondering why a kid who has absolutely no knowledge in rap whatsoever has the gall to write a post about the entire genre. Just about two weeks ago I got into this one duo named "twenty one pilots". Due to how popular this group is right now, you may just know a few of their songs. I did a bit of research into their musical style and they classify as alternative hip hop. So I'll talk to the differences between alternative hip hop and just regular hip hop, and how twenty one pilots is a clear example of this difference.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Twenty_One_Pilots_logo.jpg

Alternative Hip Hop stays true to many of the conventions of hip hop and rap music, without staying between strict boundaries, but incorporating different themes from all kinds of other genres. So an artist that identifies as alternative hip hop would probably have a lot of rap lines, but also incorporate different melodies, electronic synths, guitars, or all kinds of other things (depending on where the artist wants to go with their music). In this way alternative hip hop can often be a great way for a person who doesn't like the big hits of the rap genre to get involved, and maybe even eventually become a big fan of the hip hop genre at large.

Twenty one pilots is a great example of alternative hip hop, as they clearly align with the style of rap in many ways, but it is obvious that they have many influences in many other genres. "Tear In My Heart" takes on themes of rock, with its prominent electric guitar, electric bass, and full drum set. "The Judge" sounds alternative, with its strumming acoustic guitar chords and soaring vocals. "Doubt" reminds the listener of the electronic genre with its deep bass, high pitched synthesized harmonies, and clearly autotuned melodies. "Hometown" starts itself off with vocals that sound like they belong in an opera house. "Ride" is even officially classified as reggae. And all of these songs are straight off of one album, Blurryface. So it is obvious that twenty one pilots like a lot of music.

Harder than to find the differences between all of their songs would be to try to find their similarities. In all of twenty one pilots' songs (as in much of alternative hip hop), the artist places special emphasis on the unique rhythms in each of their lyric lines. Rap is much about the rhythm of the lines, as well as where the emphasis is placed in each line. Twenty one pilots can definitely be characterized by these rap lines.

Lane Boy starts off with sounds representative of a lot of electronic music, but at around 0:25, the singer gradually moves more and more towards rap. Once we reach 0:50, our lead vocalist is almost indistinguishable from rap. This style is present throughout the rest of the song, juxtaposing the quick paced, fun rap lines with electronic effects (especially at around 2:45), and a very catchy chorus. By mixing the rap with many other elements, it is a lot easier like a non-hip hop fan (like myself) to get into the music, and maybe one day even get into the real genre.