Brief History of Hop

The Oxford Advanced Learner's English Dictionary defines the noun hop as:

• a jump
• a journey
• a plant
• a dance

Hop comes from the Old English verb hoppian, the Old Norse hoppa, and the German hüpfen, all meaning "to skip."

In late summers in the 1890s, young singles from New York would escape the city and vacation upstate, where they helped farmers harvest the region's cash crop—hops. They'd lodge in rustic dorms or swanky hotels, mingle all day in the fields, and attend the "hop" at night.

In 1928, professional ballroom dancer "Shorty" George Snowden was performing in a marathon in Harlem when a reporter asked him the name of the dance he was doing. It was just after Charles "Lucky Lindy" Lindbergh had finished his "hop" across the Atlantic. Snowden paused and told the reporter, "I'm doin' the... Lindy Hop."

In 1958, American Bandstand host Dick Clark made a hit of a Philly doo-wop group's “At The Hop.” Before Danny and the Juniors performed the song, Clark asked the leader to change the song's name from “Do The Bop,” so he could promote his side-hustle, MCing high school “sock hops.” At the same time, African-American teens were dancing at their own version of sock hops, commonly known as "hip hops.”

In the late 1960s, New York City DJs began to chant ("rap") over the top of the Disco records they played on the radio. "Hip Hop" was born.