Conclusion

Abstract

The first section provides includes an assessment of what can be added to our understanding of how hip hop started. It points especially to areas for in which more data are needed. It also provides sketches of how one might use the theoretical framework developed in this work to study the evolution of hip hop beyond the 1970s. The second section concerns how the theoretical arguments in this book can go beyond the world of hip hop and be put to use in studies of the birth of similar entities, such as other musical forms (rock n’ roll or jazz), professions, academic disciplines, racial groups, and nations. The final sections of the chapter presents the substantive implications of this work. As opposed to the popular narrative that portrays life in the South Bronx during the 1970s as the quintessence of social and personal disorganization, the story of hip hop shows that, at least among youth, the South Bronx was a place of creative vibrancy with its own form of social order. It argues that, if we look closely, we shall see that other American ghettoes also exhibited (and continue to exhibit) such vivacity.