Editing Generation X (section)

=== Music ===
{{Listen
| filename     = 
| title        = Cherub Rock
| description  = Sample of "[[Cherub Rock]]" from [[the Smashing Pumpkins]]' 1993 breakthrough album ''[[Siamese Dream]]'', which features layers of guitar overdubs influenced by [[arena rock]] and [[shoegazing]], as well as repeated use of "the Pumpkin chord". The Smashing Pumpkins are synonymous with Generation X; and are one of the most successful [[alternative rock]] bands of the [[1990s]].
}}
Gen Xers were the first cohort to come of age with [[MTV]]. They were the first generation to experience the emergence of [[music videos]] as teenagers and are sometimes called the [[MTV Generation]].<ref name = "MetLife"/><ref name="Isaksen 2002">{{cite encyclopedia|last=Isaksen|first=Judy L.|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g1epc/is_tov/ai_2419100500/|title=Generation X|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041024071508/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g1epc/is_tov/ai_2419100500|archive-date=24 October 2004|year=2002|encyclopedia=St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture}}</ref> Gen Xers were responsible for the [[alternative rock]] movement of the 1990s and 2000s, including the [[grunge]] subgenre.<ref name = "Time2"/><ref name="Alternative Goes Mainstream">{{cite news|title=Alternative Goes Mainstream|url=http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/generation-x/|access-date=19 June 2016|publisher=National Geographic Channel|date=2016|archive-date=16 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160616014050/http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/generation-x/|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Hip hop music|Hip hop]] has also been described as defining music of the generation, particularly artists such as [[Tupac Shakur]], [[N.W.A.]], and [[The Notorious B.I.G.]]<ref name="My So Called Adulthood">{{cite news|last1=Wilson|first1=Carl|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/magazine/the-gen-x-nostalgia-boom.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220102/https://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/magazine/the-gen-x-nostalgia-boom.html |archive-date=2 January 2022 |url-access=limited |url-status=live|title=My So Called Adulthood|date=4 August 2011|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=25 August 2011}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

====Punk rock====
{{main|Punk rock}}
[[File:Offspringlive.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.3|[[The Offspring]] performing in 2008 in Fortaleza, Brazil]]

From 1974 to 1976, a new generation of rock bands arose, including the [[Ramones]], [[Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers]], and [[the Dictators]] in New York City; the [[Sex Pistols]], [[the Clash]], [[The Damned (band)|the Damned]], and [[Buzzcocks]] in the United Kingdom; and [[The Saints (Australian band)|the Saints]] in [[Brisbane]], Australia. By late 1976, these acts were generally recognized as forming the vanguard of "punk rock", and as 1977 approached, punk rock became a major and highly controversial cultural phenomenon in the UK.<ref>{{cite web |title=Punk |website=AllMusic |url=https://www.allmusic.com/style/punk-ma0000002806 |quote=in both the U.K. and the U.S. In America, punk remained an underground sensation, eventually spawning the hardcore and indie-rock scenes of the '80s, but in the UK, it was a full-scale phenomenon. In the U.K., the Sex Pistols were thought of as a serious threat to the well-being of the government and monarchy, but more importantly, they caused countless bands to form. |url-access=subscription |access-date=23 November 2018 |archive-date=1 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181001181553/https://www.allmusic.com/style/punk-ma0000002806 |url-status=live }}</ref> It spawned a [[punk subculture]] which expressed a youthful rebellion, characterized by distinctive [[Punk fashion|styles of clothing and adornment]] (ranging from deliberately offensive T-shirts, leather jackets, studded or spiked bands and jewelry, as well as bondage and S&M clothes) and a variety of [[Punk ideologies|anti-authoritarian ideologies]] that have since been associated with the form.<ref>{{cite web |last=Roderick |first=John |title=Punk Rock Is Bullshit: How a Toxic Social Movement Poisoned Our Culture |work=Seattle Weekly |date=27 February 2013 |url=http://www.seattleweekly.com/music/for-those-of-us-who-grew-up-in-the-shadow-of-the/ |quote=For those of us who grew up in the shadow of the baby boom, force-fed the misremembered vainglory of Woodstock long after most hippies had become coked-out, craven yuppies on their way to becoming paranoid neo-cons, punk rock provided a corrective dose of hard truth. Punk was ugly and ugly was true, no matter how many new choruses the Boomers added to their song of self-praise. It was this perceived honesty that we, the nascent Generation X, feared and worshipped. But over time punk swelled into a Stalinistic doctrine of self-denial that stunted us. The yuppies kept sucking, but by clinging to punk we started to suck too. |access-date=22 July 2021 |archive-date=28 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210728180236/https://www.seattleweekly.com/music/for-those-of-us-who-grew-up-in-the-shadow-of-the/ |url-status=live }}</ref> 

By 1977 the influence of punk rock music and its subculture became more pervasive, spreading throughout various countries worldwide.<ref>{{cite web |title=The History and Evolution of Punk Rock Music |date=10 April 2018 |work=liveabout.com |url=https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-punk-rock-2803345 |quote=By the late '70s, punk had finished its beginning and had emerged as a solid musical force. With its rise in popularity, punk began to split into numerous sub-genres. New musicians embraced the DIY movement and began to create their own individual scenes with specific sounds. |access-date=22 July 2021 |archive-date=13 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190513205707/https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-punk-rock-2803345 |url-status=dead }}</ref> It generally took root in local scenes that tended to reject affiliation with the mainstream.<ref>{{cite web |work=Handbook of Texas Online |first=John H. |last=Slate |title=Punk Rock |access-date=23 November 2018 |url=http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/xbp02 |publisher=Texas State Historical Association |archive-date=24 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181124055121/https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/xbp02 |url-status=live }}</ref> In the late 1970s, punk experienced its second wave. Acts that were not active during its formative years adopted the style. While at first punk musicians were not Gen Xers themselves (many of them were late Boomers, or [[Generation Jones]]),<ref name="Danton">{{cite web |last=Danton |first=Eric R. |title=The Conflicted Musical Legacy of Generation X |work=Hartford Courant |date=6 November 2005 |url=https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-xpm-2005-11-06-0511040334-story.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181123201659/https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-xpm-2005-11-06-0511040334-story.html |archive-date=23 November 2018 |quote=Punk was the first musical reaction to the classic-rock ethos of the Woodstock generation. The original punk rockers were late-period Boomers eager to distance themselves from the supercilious upper end of their demographic, and their music, reflecting the dour economics of the late 1970s, became a template for Generation X and the ensuing "post-punk" movement that eventually birthed grunge. |access-date=22 July 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref> the fanbase for punk became increasingly Gen X-oriented as the earliest Xers entered their adolescence, and it therefore made a significant imprint on the cohort.<ref>{{cite web |last=Guzman |first=Richard |title=Grunge, rap music movements of the early 1990s became Gen X's soundtrack |work=Press Telegram |date=28 December 2015 |url=https://www.presstelegram.com/2015/12/28/grunge-rap-music-movements-of-the-early-1990s-became-gen-xs-soundtrack/ |quote=The Gen X soundtrack was more of a mixtape that ranged from feel-good dance and pop music, to punk, glam rock, new wave, alternative and rap. |access-date=22 July 2021 |archive-date=6 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210806145610/https://www.presstelegram.com/2015/12/28/grunge-rap-music-movements-of-the-early-1990s-became-gen-xs-soundtrack/ |url-status=live }}</ref> 

By the 1980s, faster and more aggressive subgenres such as [[hardcore punk]] (e.g., [[Minor Threat]]), [[street punk]] (e.g., [[the Exploited]], [[NOFX]]) and [[anarcho-punk]] (e.g., [[Subhumans (British band)|Subhumans]]) became the predominant modes of punk rock. Musicians identifying with or inspired by punk often later pursued other musical directions, resulting in a broad range of spinoffs. This development gave rise to genres such as [[post-punk]], [[new wave music|new wave]] and later [[indie pop]], [[alternative rock]], and [[noise rock]]. Gen Xers were no longer simply the consumers of punk, they became the creators as well.<ref name="Danton"/> By the 1990s, punk rock re-emerged into the mainstream. Punk rock and [[pop punk]] bands with Gen X members such as [[Green Day]], [[Rancid (band)|Rancid]], [[The Offspring]], and [[Blink-182]] brought widespread popularity to the genre .<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Punk |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |first=Jon |last=Savage |url=https://www.britannica.com/art/punk |quote=Punk's full impact came only after the success of Nirvana in 1991, coinciding with the ascendance of Generation X—a new, disaffected generation born in the 1960s, many members of which identified with punk’s charged, often contradictory mix of intelligence, simplicity, anger, and powerlessness. |access-date=22 July 2021 |archive-date=14 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210114105315/https://www.britannica.com/art/punk |url-status=live }}</ref>

====Hard rock====
{{main|Hard rock}}

Arguably in a similar way to punk, a sense of disillusionment, angst and anger catalysed [[hard rock]] and [[Heavy metal music|heavy metal]] to grow from the earlier influence of rock.

====Post-punk====
{{main|Post-punk}}

The energy generated by the punk movement launched a subsequent proliferation of weird and eclectic post-punk sub cultures, spanning [[New wave music|new wave]], [[Gothic rock|goth]], etc., and influencing the [[New Romantic]]s.

====Grunge====
{{Main|Grunge}}
[[File:Nirvana around 1992.jpg|thumb|right|[[Nirvana (band)|Nirvana]] singer [[Kurt Cobain]] (pictured here in 1992) was called the "voice of Generation X" in the 1990s, playing the same role for this demographic as [[Bob Dylan]] and [[John Lennon]] played for [[Baby Boomers]] in the 1960s.<ref name="Felix-Jager, Steven 2017. p. 134">Felix-Jager, Steven (2017). ''With God on Our Side: Towards a Transformational Theology of Rock and Roll''. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 134.</ref>]]

A notable example of [[alternative rock]] is [[grunge]] and the associated subculture that developed in the [[Pacific Northwest]] of the U.S. Grunge lyrics have been called the "product of Generation X malaise".<ref name="United States 2005. p. 359">''Music Cultures in the United States: An Introduction''. Ed. Ellen Koskoff. Routledge, 2005. p. 359</ref> [[Vulture.com|Vulture]] wrote, "the best bands arose from the boredom of [[latchkey kids]]". Producer [[Jack Endino]] said, "People made records entirely to please themselves because there was nobody else to please".<ref>{{cite news|last1=Jenkins|first1=Craig|title=Pearl Jam Might Not Be Cool, But That Doesn't Mean They Aren't Great|url=https://www.vulture.com/2017/04/despite-what-you-may-think-pearl-jam-is-still-great.html|access-date=29 June 2017|work=Vulture|date=11 April 2017|archive-date=16 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170616230520/http://www.vulture.com/2017/04/despite-what-you-may-think-pearl-jam-is-still-great.html|url-status=live}}</ref> 

Grunge lyrics are typically dark, [[nihilism|nihilistic]],<ref name="DiBlasi, Alex 2013. p. 520">DiBlasi, Alex (2013). "Grunge" in ''Music in American Life: An Encyclopedia of the Songs, Styles, Stars and Stories that Shaped Our Culture'', pp. 520–524 [520]. Edited by Jacqueline Edmondson. ABC-CLIO</ref> [[angst]]-filled, and anguished. They often address themes such as [[social alienation]], despair, and [[apathy]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://metal.mit.edu/brief-history-metal|title=A Brief History of Metal|last=Pearlin|first=Jeffrey|publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology|access-date=20 January 2017|archive-date=1 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170201235433/https://metal.mit.edu/brief-history-metal|url-status=dead}}</ref> ''[[The Guardian]]'' wrote that grunge "didn't recycle banal cliches but tackled weighty subjects".<ref name=Guardian>{{cite news|last1=McManus|first1=Darragh|title=Just 20 years on, grunge seems like ancient history|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2008/oct/31/grunge|access-date=29 June 2017|newspaper=The Guardian|date=31 October 2008|archive-date=13 September 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140913200821/http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2008/oct/31/grunge|url-status=live}}</ref> Topics of grunge lyrics include [[homelessness]], [[suicide]], [[rape]],<ref>Strong, Catherine. ''Grunge: Music and Memory''. Routledge, 2016. p. 19</ref> broken homes, drug addiction, self-loathing,<ref name="Gina Misiroglu 2015. p. 343">Gina Misiroglu. ''American Countercultures: An Encyclopedia of Nonconformists, Alternative Lifestyles, and Radical Ideas in U.S. History''. Routledge, 2015. p. 343</ref> [[misogyny]], domestic abuse, and finding "meaning in an indifferent universe".<ref name=Guardian/> Grunge lyrics tend to be introspective and aim to enable the listener to see into hidden personal issues and examine depravity.<ref name="Felix-Jager, Steven 2017. p. 134"/> Notable grunge bands include [[Nirvana (band)|Nirvana]], [[Pearl Jam]], [[Alice in Chains]], [[Stone Temple Pilots]], and [[Soundgarden]].<ref name=Guardian/><ref name="allmusic grunge">{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/style/grunge-ma0000002626 |title=Grunge |access-date=24 August 2012 |website=[[AllMusic]] |archive-date=2 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120602144523/https://www.allmusic.com/style/grunge-ma0000002626 |url-status=live }}</ref>

====Hip hop====
{{Main|Golden age hip hop}}
[[File:Breakdance-oldschool.png|thumb|left|upright=0.9|This cartoon depicts a 1980s-era dancer doing [[breakdancing]], an African-American dance form that was a key part of [[hip hop culture]].]]

The golden age of hip hop refers to [[hip hop music]] made from the mid-1980s to mid-1990s,<ref>{{Cite news|last=Caramanica|first=Jon|date=26 June 2005|title=Hip-Hop's Raiders of the Lost Archives|language=en-US|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/26/arts/music/hiphops-raiders-of-the-lost-archives.html|access-date=10 January 2023|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=10 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230110174930/https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/26/arts/music/hiphops-raiders-of-the-lost-archives.html|url-status=live}}</ref> typically by artists originating from the [[New York metropolitan area]].<ref name="AllMusic.com">{{cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/style/golden-age-ma0000012011|title=Golden Age|website=[[AllMusic]]|access-date=10 November 2016|archive-date=30 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161030215702/http://www.allmusic.com/style/golden-age-ma0000012011|url-status=live}}</ref> The music is characterized by its diversity, quality,<ref name=autogenerated1>{{cite web|url=https://www.today.com/popculture/remembering-golden-age-hip-hop-wbna5430999|title=The '80s were golden age of hip-hop|last=Green |first=Tony|work=[[Today (American TV program)|Today]]|date=13 July 2004|access-date=21 May 2023|archive-date=13 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191213093831/https://www.today.com/popculture/remembering-golden-age-hip-hop-wbna5430999|url-status=live|quote=as hip-hop music moves into its 25th year, its 40-something followers are starting to wax nostalgic about what many feel was the "Golden Age" of hip-hop music: The ’80s.}}</ref> innovation,<ref name="rollingstone1995">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/artists/slickrick/albums/album/103326/review/5945316/behind_bars|title=Slick Rick: Behind Bars|last1=Coker|first1=Cheo H.|date=9 March 1995|magazine=[[Rolling Stone]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100202153447/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/slickrick/albums/album/103326/review/5945316/behind_bars|archive-date=2 February 2010|url-status=dead|access-date=16 September 2014|quote="Sittin' in My Car" is vintage Slick Rick; bolstered by an elegant piano loop, Doug E. Fresh's beat-box breathalistics and Slick's crooning of Billy Stewart's "Sitting in the Park," the song invokes memories of rap's '86-'89 golden age, when it seemed that every new single reinvented the genre.}}</ref> and influence after the genre's emergence and establishment in the previous decade.<ref name="autogenerated132">Green, Tony, in Wang, Oliver (ed.) ''Classic Material'', Toronto: ECW Press, 2003. p. 132</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Spin magazine picks Radiohead CD as best |url=https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2005-06-19-spin-top-cd_x.htm |access-date=21 May 2023 |work=[[USA Today]] |agency=[[Associated Press]] |date=20 June 2005 |quote=[Spin editor-in-chief Sia] Michel [...] points out that Spin started several years before hip-hop mag Source was founded: "We put hip-hop on the cover before anyone else did."  "Because we started this list in 1985, we pretty much hit hip-hop in its golden age," she says. "There were so many important, groundbreaking albums coming out right about that time."}}</ref><ref name="The Age 2003">{{cite news |title=Jungle Brothers still untamed |url=https://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/music/jungle-brothers-still-untamed-20031024-gdwlf3.html |access-date=21 May 2023 |work=[[The Age]] |date=24 October 2003 |quote=Emerging from the late-1980s New York City underground rap scene, the Jungle Brothers inadvertently found themselves part of hip-hop's golden age. Their early albums, 1988's Straight Out the Jungle and 1989's Done by the Forces of Nature, are considered, along with efforts such as the Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique and De La Soul's Three Feet High and Rising, to be among the most influential hip-hop albums.}}</ref> It has various [[wikt:subject-matter|subject matter]], while the music is [[experimental hip hop|experimental]] and the [[Sampling (music)|sampling]] eclectic.<ref>Roni Sariq, [http://citypages.com/databank/18/854/article3420.asp "Crazy Wisdom Masters"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081123092309/http://citypages.com/databank/18/854/article3420.asp |date=23 November 2008 }}, ''City Pages'', 16 April 1997.</ref><ref>Will Hodgkinson, [http://arts.guardian.co.uk/homeentertainment/story/0,12830,1044954,00.html "Adventures on the wheels of steel"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080515044706/http://arts.guardian.co.uk/homeentertainment/story/0,12830,1044954,00.html |date=15 May 2008 }}, ''The Guardian'', 19 September 2003.</ref> 

Artists associated with the era include [[LL Cool J]], [[Run–D.M.C.]], [[Public Enemy (group)|Public Enemy]], the [[Beastie Boys]], [[KRS-One]],<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Coker |first1=Cheo H. |title=KRS-One: KRS-One |url=http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/114772/review/5944793 |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |date=16 November 1995 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090114082045/http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/114772/review/5944793 |archive-date=14 January 2009 |quote=In a genre that regularly denigrates its heroes, KRS-One has enough battle scars to be considered the Neil Young of hip-hop: a raggedy, highly opinionated figure from rap's golden age...}}</ref> [[Eric B. & Rakim]], [[De La Soul]], [[Big Daddy Kane]], [[EPMD]], [[A Tribe Called Quest]], [[Wu-Tang Clan]], [[Slick Rick]], [[Ultramagnetic MC's]], and the [[Jungle Brothers]].<ref name="Mervis 2004">{{cite news |last1=Mervis |first1=Scott |title=From Kool Herc to 50 Cent, the story of rap -- so far |url=https://old.post-gazette.com/ae/20040215rap0215aep1.asp |access-date=29 May 2023 |work=[[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]] |date=15 February 2004 |archive-date=14 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220814095144/https://old.post-gazette.com/ae/20040215rap0215aep1.asp |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Kot |first1=Greg |title=Hip-Hop Below the Mainstream |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-sep-19-ca-47202-story.html |access-date=29 May 2023 |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=19 September 2001 |quote=The golden age of hip-hop is at least a decade in the past, a time when the most artistically ambitious music--by performers such as Public Enemy, Eric B. and Rakim, De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest--was also the most commercially successful.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Coker |first1=Cheo Hodari |title='It's a Beautiful Feeling' |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-08-11-ca-33169-story.html |access-date=29 May 2023 |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=11 August 1996 |quote=Wearing a blue sweatsuit and a shining gold pendant, Nas reminded many in the crowd of the Golden Age of New York hip-hop, when rappers from Eric B. & Rakim to the Ultramagnetic MCs wore clothes tailored by the hip Harlem haberdashery Dapper Dan’s.}}</ref><ref name="Linhardt">{{cite news |title=Critical Beatdown: Ultramagnetic MCs |url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/8383-critical-beatdown/ |access-date=29 May 2023 |date=10 June 2004 |work=[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]] |quote=To claim that "Critical Beatdown" is the greatest hip-hop album of 1988 would take a lot of courage-- after all, it was the zenith of hip-hop's Golden Age, boasting classics from nearly every influential late-1980s rap group. And even if Ultramagnetic's Kool Keith and Ced Gee didn't possess the intricate rhythms of Rakim and Chuck D, or paint vivid ghettoscapes as well as KRS-One or Slick Rick, "Critical Beatdown" is still probably the hardest, fastest, craziest hip-hop album of that year.}}</ref><ref name="The Age 2003"/> Releases by these acts coexisted in this period with, and were as commercially viable as, those of early [[gangsta rap]] artists such as [[Ice-T]], [[Geto Boys]], and [[N.W.A]], the [[dirty rap|sex raps]] of [[2 Live Crew]] and [[Too Short]], and [[pop rap|party-oriented music]] by acts such as [[Kid 'n Play]], [[The Fat Boys]], [[DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince]], and [[MC Hammer]].<ref name="The Cotton Club">Bakari Kitwana,[http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0526,kitwana,65332,22.html/full "The Cotton Club"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080609225217/http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0526,kitwana,65332,22.html/full |date=9 June 2008 }}, ''Village Voice'', 21 June 2005.</ref>

In addition to lyrical self-glorification, hip hop was also used as social protest.<ref name="Mervis 2004"/> Lyrics from the era often draw attention to social issues, including afrocentric living, drug use, crime and violence, religion, culture, the state of the U.S. economy, and the modern man's struggle. [[Conscious hip hop|Conscious]] and [[political hip hop]] tracks of the time were a response to the effects of American capitalism and President Reagan's conservative political economy. According to Rose Tricia, "In rap, relationships between black cultural practice, social and economic conditions, technology, sexual and racial politics, and the institution policing of the popular terrain are complex and in constant motion".<ref>Rose, Tricia. ''Black Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary American''. Hanover: Wesleyan U, 1994. Print.</ref> 

There was also often an emphasis on [[black nationalism]]. Hip hop artists often talked about urban poverty and the problems of alcohol, drugs, and gangs in their communities.<ref>{{cite web |title=The social significance of rap & hip-hop culture |url=https://web.stanford.edu/class/e297c/poverty_prejudice/mediarace/socialsignificance.htm |access-date=12 September 2019 |archive-date=21 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190321161217/http://web.stanford.edu/class/e297c/poverty_prejudice/mediarace/socialsignificance.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Public Enemy (group)|Public Enemy]]'s most influential song, "[[Fight the Power (Public Enemy song)|Fight the Power]]", came out at this time; the song speaks up to the government, proclaiming that people in the [[ghetto]] have [[freedom of speech]] and rights like every other American.<ref>{{cite web |title=Public Enemy – Fight the Power Lyrics |publisher=Genius Lyrics |url=https://genius.com/Public-enemy-fight-the-power-lyrics |access-date=12 September 2019 |archive-date=10 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190710021100/https://genius.com/Public-enemy-fight-the-power-lyrics |url-status=live }}</ref>