Hard Work Pays Off - The popularity of Dutch hip-hop/rap in the 21st Century

Dutch hip-hop/rap (Nederhop) seems to have become more popular in the Netherlands in the recent years. However, no scientific research about whether Nederhop indeed became more popular and successful and what the reasons behind this popularity and success are has been conducted yet. To fill up on this gap, this research examines if Nederhop indeed became more popular in the Netherlands in recent years and what the reason or reasons are that Nederhop has become this important in the Dutch music industry and this omnipresent in the Dutch music charts. The research methods are threefold and consist of a chart analysis of three yearly music charts from 1989 onwards, semi-structured interviews with N = 3 people working in the Nederhop music industry, and a survey distributed to N = 254 consumers of (Dutch) hip-hop/rap. Data from the music charts, data from the interviews, and data from the survey show that indeed Dutch hip-hop/rap has become more popular in the Netherlands over the last few years. The research shows that there are five possible explanations for this popularity and success: the ability to distribute music more easily because of technological changes, the availability of information about the genre, positive and negative media attention to the genre, changes in the Dutch culture, and internal changes of the music. Through the semi-structured interviews and the survey explanations for the recent popularity and success of the genre are found. The research found that all in all, a combination of the ability to distribute music more easily, the availability of information about the genre, and media attention to the genre has contributed to the recent popularity and success of Nederhop. The popularity comes from a sequence of chance events in which every event reinforces the impact of the event and other events and aspects and Nederhop can thus be seen as a Superstar within the different music genres in the Netherlands. There was not enough conclusive evidence that observed that changes in the external environment and/or changes in the internal aspects of the music have played part in the recent popularity and success of the Nederhop genre.