It may seem to be a hard task to trace back the history of rap music, though you often see the informal music associated with highly informal dance style. As far as the origin of rap music is concerned, most people agree that it is from Afro-American and Latino Street culture of New York City. Not only in this city but in the surrounding areas there is the influence of African people and their culture.
Rap is a vocal (口头的) style in which the performer speaks rhythmically and in rhyme, generally to a beat. The term of rap music is the same with hip-hop music typically-consisting of a rhythmic vocal style called rap. If we see it carefully, then we will definitely notice that the music usually is sung at higher pitches (调). Most of the time rap music is associated with chorus. Though rap music was primarily an American music style with African influence over its music and lyrics, recently it has been spread to almost the entire world.
There is hardly any country or nation where rap music cannot be seen in some form or another, and it is one of the most popular music styles among the youngsters. However, when it comes to its history, it is believed that hip-hop or rap music started in the early 1970s，and gained much popularity throughout the world during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The history of rap music and hip-hop music is full of controversies (争议) and bans, as the lyrics sometimes relate to drugs and crime; even most famous pop stars and hip-hop musicians and singers were found to be associated with the controversies in their life. For that reason, no matter how popular this music style was or still is, it has always had a bad reputation in the eyes of mainstream society.
小题1:The passage is mainly about _____.A．when rap music started B．how rap music developsC．what rap music is like D．why rap music is popular小题2:The characteristics of rap music are _____.A．solo, rhymes，beats and popsB．speaking, rhythms，beats and soloC．repeating, speaking, pops and chorusD．speaking, rhymes, beats and chorus小题3:Rap music is now one of the music styles mostly run after by _____.A．the agers in AfricaB．all kinds of people in the worldC．the youngsters all over the worldD．the young people in the US小题4:Rap music is often not well thought of by the mainstream because _____.A．it comes from the lower classB．it has a short historyC．it is associated with crimes and drugsD．its music is full of controversies