Hip-hop culture has been in our world since the mid-20th Century and with it came hip-hop dance and hip-hop style. Every dance style needs its own music, style and set of movements. Today, hip-hop dance can apply to all three of these elements. But hip-hop dance didn't start out as it is today; the predecessor of hip-hop dance was break dance. Break dancing began in the 1970s, and started as a popular dance style among parties of African-Americans in Bronx, New York.


One of the first musicians to contribute heavily to break dancing was DJ Kool Herc, who recognized that break-dancers needed specific music to dance to, and began mixing "breaks" into his music. Breaks were instrumental/percussive sections in songs. Break-dancers would dance in these breaks, as they were often the most aggressive parts of the songs as well. Michael Jackson and other MCs also began including and prolonging breaks in their music, and break dance became a new trend.


Then came hip-hop music. Hip-hop music influenced many of the changes seen in the popular dance style of break dancing during the 1970s. The MCs began rapping differently as their underlying beats became more complicated. This rap was referred to as "gangsta rap", and with this new style of rapping came the formation of hip-hop dance.


The main elements of hip-hop dance were the rhythm of the music, the rhyme patterns of the MCs and the movements of the dancers. The rhythms of the music were never difficult to predict, as they were strongly based on the DJs' selection of beats, but the MCs and the dance moves were unpredictable at each dance battle. DJ Afrika Bambaataa (a.k.a. Bam) called hip-hop the "urban movement", and thus hip-hop dance became official.


Over the years, hip-hop dance has evolved significantly. Each dance form created within the hip-hop dance genre has had different musical influences, different dress codes and different terminology. However, many dancers from the various hip-hop dance styles would agree that the commercialized set up of hip-hop dance today takes away from its original purpose.


Hip-hop dance was to be performed at jams, in clubs and for social events. But hip-hop dance has become so popular today that it is featured excessively in movies and on stages. Film edits for commercials and music videos can view dancers from very few angles, and often exclude the transitions featured in the dances. Also, previously planned choreography takes away from the intended spontaneous feel of hip-hop dance, if the dancer does not perform the choreography well.


Possibly the most offensive element of evolved hip-hop dance is the blending of all forms of dance into one, which has completely done away with the individual structures of each dance form. For example, popping and locking are often fused together, to create pop-locking, which makes it difficult for the dancer to stay on the beat of the music.


Overall, most hip-hop dancers today, whether they committed heavily to the development of a dance style or whether they are just learning to dance, are pleased with the hip-hop scene today and are glad to see it being recognized and respected as one of the most popular dance styles of the century.