VH1

VH1 (stylized as Vl+1, sometimes as VH-1 and originally an initialism of Video Hits One) is an American cable television network based in New York City that is owned by Viacom Music and Entertainment Group, a unit of the Viacom Media Networks division of Viacom. It launched on January 1, 1985, in the old space of Turner Broadcasting System's short-lived Cable Music Channel. The original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly older demographic than its sister channel, focusing on the lighter, softer side of popular music.

The channel was originally created by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, at the time a division of Warner Communications and owner of MTV. Both VH1 and its sister channel MTV are a part of Viacom Media Networks. While VH1 has played music videos in the past, its recent claim to fame has been in the area of music-related reality programming, such as Behind the Music, the I Love… series, the Celebreality block of programming, and the channel's overall focus on popular culture. As of December 2015, VH1 no longer plays music videos.

Hip hop

Hip hop or hip-hop is a sub-cultural movement that formed during the early 1970s by African-American and Puerto Rican youths residing in the South Bronx in New York City. It became popular outside of the African-American community in the late 1980s and by the 2000s became the most listened-to musical genre in the world. It is characterized by four distinct elements, all of which represent the different manifestations of the culture: rap music (oral), turntablism or DJing (aural), b-boying (physical) and graffiti art (visual). Even while it continues to develop globally in myriad styles, these four foundational elements provide coherence to hip hop culture. The term is often used in a restrictive fashion as synonymous only with the oral practice of rap music.

The origin of the hip hop culture stems from the block parties of the Ghetto Brothers, when they plugged in the amplifiers for their instruments and speakers into the lampposts on 163rd Street and Prospect Avenue and used music to break down racial barriers, and from DJ Kool Herc at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, where Herc mixed samples of existing records with his own shouts to the crowd and dancers. Kool Herc is credited as the "father" of hip hop. DJ Afrika Bambaataa of the hip hop collective Zulu Nation outlined the pillars of hip hop culture, to which he coined the terms: MCing or "Emceein", DJing or "Deejayin", B-boying and graffiti writing or "Aerosol Writin".

Love & Hip Hop

Love & Hip Hop (also known as Love & Hip Hop: New York) is an American reality television series on VH1. The series debuted on March 14, 2011, and chronicles the lives of several women in New York who are involved with hip hop music. The show has produced seven successful spin-offs called Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta, Chrissy & Mr. Jones, The Gossip Game, This Is Hot 97, Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood, K. Michelle: My Life, & Stevie J & Joseline: Go Hollywood. VH1 has renewed the show for a 6th season. On November 2, 2015 VH1 announced the return for a Season 6, which was premiered on December 14, 2015.

Cast

Main

Current

Top Model

Top Model or Next Top Model is a fashion-themed reality television show format produced in many countries throughout the world and seen in over 120 countries producing over 200 seasons (referred to as "cycles"). The show takes the form of a modeling competition whose winners typically receive a contract with a major modeling agency and a cover shoot and fashion photo spread in a fashion magazine. The format was created by Tyra Banks for the original series, America's Next Top Model which was first aired in 2003, produced by Ken Mok's 10 by 10 Entertainment.

Format description

The following description of the show is based primarily on the American version of the series, though the format applies to the international versions as well.

Contestants

Each cycle of the show consists of 8–40 episodes and begins with 9–25 contestants. In each episode one contestant is eliminated, though in some cases there may be double eliminations, multiple eliminations, or no elimination at all, based on the consensus of the judging panel. Makeovers are administered to contestants early in the cycle, usually after the first or second elimination.

Popular culture

Popular culture or pop culture is the entirety of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, images, and other phenomena that are within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the late 20th and early 21st century. Heavily influenced by mass media, this collection of ideas permeates the everyday lives of the society. The most common pop culture categories are: entertainment (movies, music, TV), sports, news (as in people/places in news), politics, fashion/clothes, technology, and slang.

Popular culture is often viewed as being trivial and "dumbed down" in order to find consensual acceptance throughout the mainstream. As a result, it comes under heavy criticism from various non-mainstream sources (most notably religious groups and countercultural groups) which deem it superficial, consumerist, sensationalist, or corrupt.

History and definitions

The term "popular culture" was coined in the 19th century or earlier. Traditionally, popular culture was associated with poor education and the lower classes, as opposed to the "official culture" and higher education of the upper classes.