In the past decade, audiences have witnessed the emergence andsuccess of a myriad of music styles.

Grunge peaked in the mid 1990’s with Nirvana’spopularity, followed by the teen pop explosion led by the SpiceGirls, Cristina Aguilera, Britney Spears, and N’sync in thelate 90’s and early 2000’s. Leaders of the music worldhave always come from many ends of the music spectrum–that is,until recently.

Anyone listening to the radio or watching the videos played byMTV over the past couple of months, can surely notice a trend inthe music industry; the skyrocketing success of hip hop.

Hip-hop and rhythm-and-blues (R&B) have become increasinglypopular and well-received, taking over all media outlets almostovernight. Be it radio, record stores, or award ceremonies; thehip-hop world has captivated audiences and critics, declaringitself the most popular musical style of the times.

Any viewer of the highly popular and most talked about musicaward show, the MTV Video Music Awards, would easily notice thatmany of the award winners came from the same musicalbackground.

“Yeah” has perhaps been the most recognizable andmost played single of the year and Usher took home two trophies, or”moon men,’ at this year’s VMA’s. Not onlywere Outkast and Jay-Z tied for most nominations for an artist,they also tied for most awards won by an artist, with four apiece.Other hip-hop winners included Beyonce for “NaughtyGirl,” and Black Eyed Peas for “Hey Mama.”R&B crooner Alicia Keys also took home a moon-man.

With that, 13 out of 20 award winners were from the hip-hop andR&B world, taking into account that artists from this genrecannot possibly win categories like Best Pop and Best Rock. Hip-hopappears to have completely dominated the VMA’s.

Like most college students who enjoy going dancing, Senior EricaAlvarez’s music of choice to get down to is hip-hop.

“I usually won’t even go to a club thatdoesn’t play hip hop,” Alvarez said. “The musichas the best beats, and it’s easy to groove to.”

Another aspect of the music industry that hip-hop has taken overis the Billboard charts, which basically dictate what’spopular in music.

This week’s top ten singles in the country are pretty muchidentical to what they have been since the beginning of the summer;over half of the songs are hip-hop tracks. Leading off with the newhit “Goodies” by Ciara, the top ten includes hits bythe Terror Squad, Nelly, Juvenile and Lil’ Flip. Eight out often are hip-hop and R&B songs.

Rock and pop are getting less and less play on radio stationsand record stores.

The top ten albums on Billboard pretty much mirror the singleschart. Usher has the biggest hip-hop album of the year, sellingmore than 5 million copies and staying in the top ten for months.Alongside him are new debuts from R. Kelly and the return of Mase.Hip hop artists claim five of the top ten spots.

“Hip hop is definitely hot,” music industry majorSharon Wang from the University of Southern California said.”The next big thing is hip hop fused with jazz, to create amusical blend no one has heard before. It’s going to behuge.”

Young, alternative rock is on its way out. With hip-hopdominating everything music, it seems as though there’s noroom for other styles. Teen pop may always have its market, butit’s not going to see the huge popularity it did a few yearsago. As long as the country keeps on listening, requesting, andbuying the music, hip-hop is likely to dominate for a long periodof time.

Whether you like it or not, better get used to it, becauseit’s all you’re going to be hearing for a while.