I'm posting this question after reading a recent reply to a similar
question. I spent 30 minutes looking through the web site in the
answer, but couldn't understand the answers, as the information was
much too specific, and assumed prior knowledge of different music
types.

I should add that I'm a fairly up to date thirty something guy, but
still don't comprehend Hip hop or trance.

So, to put a succinct question: (I'll start with Hip Hop, and post
further separate $10 questions for each music type).

Please explain, or provide a link to a site that explains in plain
English whast Hip Hop is. The only types of music that I am aware of
are pop, rock, classical jazz, disco, and rap. As such, please don't
reference your answer with other music types that I don't understand.

Many thanks.

Hello and thank you for your question.  The authority in this area is Davey D.

"Hip Hop is an art form that includes deejaying [cuttin' & scartchin']
emceeing/rappin'. breakdancing and grafitti art. These art forms as we
know them today originated in the South Bronx section of New York City
around the mid 1970s. Hip Hop has thrived within the subculture of
Black and Puerto Rican communities in New York and is now just
recently beginning to enjoy widespread exposure."
What Is Hip Hop?..by Davey D
http://www.daveyd.com/whatishipdav.html

Davey D's Hip Hop Corner
What is Hip Hop...Directory
http://www.daveyd.com/whatiship.html

At the same site you'll find:
<Afrika Bambaataa's Definition Of Hip Hop>
"Hip Hop means the whole culture of the movement.. when you talk about
rap..Rap is part of the hip hop culture..The emceeing..The djaying is
part of the hip hop culture. The dressing the languages are all part
of the hip hop culture.The break dancing the b-boys, b-girls ..how you
act, walk, look, talk are all part of hip hop culture.. and the music
is colorless.. Hip Hop music is made from Black, brown, yellow, red,
white.. whatever music that gives you the grunt.. that funk.. that
groove or that beat.. It's all part of hip hop...."
http://www.daveyd.com/whatisbam.html

"I mixed anything from Billy Squire to Michael Jackson to Thin Lizzy
to Sly And The Family Stone to Glen Miller to Tschochosky....  When I
laid this foundation down.. the key was we could take almost anything
musically just as long as it had a beat to it.. so that the rhymer who
flowed over the top of it could syncopate."
Grandmaster Flash's Definition Of Hip Hop
http://www.daveyd.com/whatisflash.html

Here's another version of the answer, with cites back to Davey D
"Historically, rap music comes from hip-hop culture. The roots of rap
music trace back to the Jamaican ska era of the mid-60s. MCs rapping
over party music made its way to New York a decade later, thanks to DJ
Kool Herc, a man many crown the "Father of Hip Hop." Kool Herc
emigrated from Jamaica to New York in 1967 and helped give birth to
the hip-hop culture that would continue to thrive and spread.
The Hip Hop Network notes that while the Sugar Hill Gang's 1979
"Rapper's Delight" was the first breakthrough rap hit, it emerged from
a "an inner-city phenomenon centering on DJs and including equal
proportions of break dancing, MCing, and graffiti art."

"More recently, "rap" has been used to describe the aggressive,
mass-market produced music of Nas or Eminem. But, as one online
encyclopedia points out, "Not all music that has rapping in it,
however, is actually rap music, and not all hip-hop music has rapping
in it." Artists like Jurassic 5 and De La Soul typify hip-hop music,
which is generally more multi-instrumented and less in-your-face.

Rap and hip-hop music is now a huge industry, and it has the diversity
of a huge industry. There's Christian rap, Latin rap, southern rap.
Check out the Rap and Hip-Hop category in the Yahoo! Directory for
more resources, including Davy D's Hip Hop Corner."
http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20030325.html

Search terms used:
"What is Hop Hop"

Thanks again for letting us help.

If you find any of the above unclear, please request clarification. 
I'd appreciate it if you would hold off on rating my answer until I
have a chance to reply.

Sincerely,
Google Answers Researcher
Richard-ga

---

Clarification of Answer by richard-ga on 20 Nov 2003 19:11 PST

Researcher colleague Pinkfreud refers us to the following article on
tensions between hip hop and rap:

Rap Music Is Killing Hip-Hop Culture 
http://www.blackelectorate.com/print_article.asp?ID=998

-R

Well done! Finally, I understand that Hip Hop is more than a music
style, it relfects a broader culture. I also understand that rap is a
subset of Hip Hop.