Dance is an activity of both art and recreation that serves a diverse range of purposes. One of these purposes is to attract consumers to a variety of goods and services. Within the present society, in which people are exposed to an astounding number of advertisements each day, it is not uncommon to see dance being used as a tool for product promotion. Especially through commercials, companies are able to draw viewers in and connect them to their messages with the use of dance. In the 2013 commercial for the Microsoft Surface Pro, hip hop dance is used to heighten appeal by creating an exciting aesthetic that encourages the viewer to feel involved with the product. This commercial, set in an office building, begins with a group of business
Hip hop originated in the 1970s in the Bronx, and it had become a trend around the world by the 1990s. Over time, a variety of street dances emerged through hip hop; one of these is break dancing (Kassing, 261). Break dancing, also known as b-boying (Kassing, 261) is featured in the Surface commercial. The big, athletic tricks performed by break dancers in the clip are contrasted by the rest of the dancers’ sharp and controlled actions. They hit each movement in sync with the music and with each other, which mirrors the professional and put-together environment of the business
Some of the most notable are “Cloud” Campos and Stephen “tWitch” Boss, both recognized for freestyling; “Sweepy,” an innovator of his own dance style; and Allison Holker, known for her athleticism. Although he is not a dancer, the famous beatboxer “KRNFX” is featured and adds an unexpected twist to the flow of the routine. The piece was choreographed by Jamal Sims and Christopher Scott, and the entire program was directed by Jon Chu (Surface). While most may not consider these people to be celebrities, they are popular in the present dance world, and their presence in the commercial raises the value of the product. By utilizing some of the industry’s most well-known artists, Microsoft was able to produce an effective advertisement that exhibits high-quality dance
They sell the product by using emotion and motivation. In the ad they use upbeat music, colorful colors and background, people taking control of themselves and ignoring others, people walking together to the “future”, and a message that draws people attention, “Your future is not mine”. These materials are what gets the audience’s attention and makes them consider buying the shoes.
Before the Lindy-Hop became popular and long before tap dance was established in the United States, Black Bottom dance was popular among both Blacks and Whites in Harlem, New York. The dance craze, appropriated from the blacks in Harlem’s nightclubs, became a big rage when brought to the white community and put on stage. Black Bottom dance, also known as “Swanee Bottom” was an popular dance among lower class African Americans in the early 1900s. Beloved to be introduced by Alberta Hunter, a popular blues singer, Black Bottom was a dance that emerged from African American culture. Although Black Bottom is not a family recognizable dance today, the popularity of the dance at this time caused a great ripple in the dances that came later on down the line.
This is an example of pathos, the commercial is trying to leave an impact in the audience by using emotions. The commercial then shows a dancer dancing in sync to the music using interesting dance moves that are quite marvelous. By watching him dance there will be different responses depending on the person, some will feel awed and curious while others may feel envy by the talent the dancer demonstrates. The music increases its intensity and the beat makes the audience feel excited. The commercial then states phrases that come off as being quite mysterious, “Machines don’t have emotions, but the rare few can inspire them” (Lexus 00:00:26). The phrase gains curiosity and enthralls people to continue watching. By using this strategy the commercial is effective in having different emotional reactions and catching a wide variety of people’s
1. This advertisement features Taylor Swift, which is a celebrity spokesperson; she is supporting the company, “Diet Coke”. People that enjoy listening to Taylor Swift’s music will most likely buy this product, because they think that buying this product, diet coke will make them closer, and more like their favorite pop star Taylor Swift. This advertisement also features Pathos, an appeal to emotions, because Taylor Swift may be someone’s favourite musician or person in general. It also features ethos, an appeal to credibility, or character, because Taylor Swift is famous for her music, therefore she is well recognized throughout our society, and the music industry.
Since the early to mid 90’s, hip-hop has undergone changes that purists would consider degenerating to its culture. At the root of these changes is what has been called “commercial hip-hop". Commercial hip-hop has deteriorated what so many emcees in the 80’s tried to build- a culture of music, dance, creativity, and artistry that would give people not only something to bob their head to, but also an avenue to express themselves and deliver a positive message to their surroundings.
For many, music is a cultural history that brings families together, allowing them to share a common interest. The birth of hip hop ignited a whole new world of music, which lead to vast amount of controversy in the music industry. Hip hop has always been recognized as the platform for the black American culture. Hip hop become a moment that changed the entire music industry, and as the culture progressed it become more mainstream. In today’s music society, it is evident that the white race has become greatly involved with hip hop and the lifestyle that entails this culture. Notorious artists such as the Beastie Boys and Vanilla Ice enabled artists such as Eminem, Miley Cyrus and Iggy Azalea to follow their dreams in the hip hop world. If one acknowledges all the aspect of the hip hop culture such as the type of dance or the graffiti art, does the color of his or her skin really matter? It is clear that these artists have tested this theory, and have results that are shocking. White artists are becoming more accepted and appreciated for their music and are being mentors for the hip hop community. As a result of the outbreak of hip hop out of the Bronx, all races were able to enjoy and love the culture of hip
Whips and chains have played an important role in Black American’s oppressive history. In the days of slavery, chains were used to dehumanize us, restrain us and keep us from escaping our oppression, while whips were used to reinforce the oppression and our inferiority as a race. Today, literal whips and chains no longer represent the oppression of Black Americans; they have been replaced with the drive to obtain modern day “whips and chains”, or simply put, material possessions- a new, slightly self-imposed slavery. This is evident in the unifying factor of hip-hop music, which glorifies a lavish lifestyle sometimes at the cost of morals, values, and self worth.
Music has been around since the beginning of civilization. Music was used to tell myths, religious stories, and warrior tales. Since the beginning of civilization music has greatly progressed. Music still tells a story, we know just have many genres to satisfy the cultural and social tastes of our modern society. Hip Hop is a genre of music that has significantly grown the last couple of decades. It's increased popularity has brought it to the forefront of globalization. Technological advances has made it easy for Hip Hop to spread out globally. This occurrence of globalization is a key example that as our cultural borders are broken down by technology, our own cultural and social practices become fluid. Although there are many positive and negative comments about the globalization of Hip Hop, it is a reflection of the growing phenomenon occurring all over the world.
Hip hop music has gone through many changes since the 1980’s and continues to change today with new artists, styles, and sounds. Over the past forty years hip hop music has been a way for fans to relate to artist through their songs because many hip hop artist lived and experience the same things that their fans did. Hip hop has changed over the years because of changes and improvement of the average American. Hip hop music reflects on the current situation in American life and over the past forty years hip hop changes with the current times and views of hip hop fans in America. The improvement of more Americans since the 1980’s has help grow the access to hip hop music as well as the popularity of hip hop music and artists.
This technique is commonly broken into three categories: pathos, ethos, and logos. The multi-billion-dollar company, Nike, is one of many companies that utilizes these techniques to not only sell their products, but present their values and morals as an athletic company. Nike’s, “If you let me play,” ad is a perfect example of a print advertisement that encompasses all three persuasion techniques. The ad has emotional appeal, using pathos to evoke feelings of strength and positivity in young girls and their parents urging them to embrace sports and physical activities. Ethos is a fairly simple persuasive technique for Nike to utilize due to their overwhelming success and popularity. With such a large company, it is easy to establish unspoken credibility. In order to establish further credibility, there are statistics and claims based on logical reasoning that exemplify an advertisement using logos to help the target audience understand exactly what Nike is striving to communicate. Through capitalizing on these persuasive techniques, Nike not only successfully promoted their female athletic apparel, but also educated the public on the importance of empowering young girls and encouraging them to participate in sports and physical activities for the overall betterment of their lives mentally, physically, and
For the past four decades, African-Americans have been highly visible in the realms of popular culture through the legacy of the hip hop nation. Hip hop culture has vast and complex formations across the country and the globe, but popular representations are most frequently tied to the “culture of poverty” and violence that many social scientists have claimed exists within poor, urban, African-American communities (Ensminger 1). The diseased language of discourse surrounding the “tangle of pathology” that pervades hyper-visible misrepresentations of particular black communities and black expressive cultures are frequently utilized to dehumanize and devalue the black lived experience. This has produced a narrow scope through which blackness is represented and understood, as well as a lingering effect in African-American self-perception that is both disempowering and limiting to self-expression. In 2003, James Spooner disrupted popular representation by examining the marginalized experience of African-Americans in the predominantly white punk scene, while also expanding the category for black cultural expression in his documentary Afro-Punk: The ‘Rock n Roll Nigger’ Experience. Today, Afro-Punk (AP) embodies an online cultural movement that represents what afropunk.com refers to as “the other black experience.” From the general AP website, to Instagram and Twitter accounts, to an active Facebook page with almost a hundred thousand likes, this small but growing community has moved beyond the confines of the punk music genre and become a cultural movement which celebrates “the creativity and freedom of spirit in alternative Black culture” by exhibiting music, art, film, fashion, and more (Afropunk, Facbeook.com). Guided by the punk pr...
This study will incorporate a mixed research design for data collection and analysis. Data for this dissertation was gathered from a wide range of sources including information from reliable hip-hop websites and radio stations as well as other online sources with relevant information. This study recognizes the problem created by the role of corporate America in hip-hop music. Corporate America’s involvement in hip-hop has contributed a lot to furtherance of stereotypes against black Americans, undermining of women and promoting crime. The people most affected are the young people across all races, who idolize hip-hop artists (Darby, Shelby, & Irwin, 2011). The study showed a great deal of information that point to the corporate worlds’ influence on hip-hop artists. This information will contributing to helping scholars and regulatory bodies to understand and sole the problem of negativity in the media. The information will also be relevant in resolving crimes in the country.
Hip-hop was a cultural movement. It emerged in the early 1970s from the South Bronx. Hip-hop came from the “ghetto” and it became a cultural force of social protest and creativity. But from the 1990s and onward hip-hop changed from a cultural creative production to one of mass consumption. Hip-hop began to grow and through mass marketing targeting larger and whiter audiences hip-hop evolved in to relying on the images of crime and sex. Hip-hop has changed from a tool of social change to cars, women, and drugs. There is a gap between the civil rights movement and the newer hip-hop generation. This is not to say that there are not artists in the hip-hop community that talk about things that need to change such as racism, exploitation of the poor, police brutality, and the lack of education for the black and the poor. But the mainstream music on the radio is mostly about female body parts shaking and grinding, having sex, getting really drunk, high, and/or violent. It is not entirely the fault of hip-hop artists there are people who do not know Malcom X, Susan B. Anthony, or Thurgood Marshall but most people will know overrated artists with trash lyrics such as Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, Soulja Boy, and 2 Chainz.What once was a helpful tool for creating social change is now hurtful. Hip-hop has created a lot of powerful African Americans with a lot of money and influence but it has ceased to have its power reflect and reveal social awareness to inspire culture change because not many rap about the need for change. By exploring the change of hip-hop from the civil rights movement to the modern day hip-hop this paper will attempt to show that hip-hop has been grown from a powerful tool of social awareness in to a monster of mass consumpt...
Listen to any pop radio station and soon enough, one will hear Iggy Azalea’s distinctive and unmistakable rapping, using, what has starting being referred to as her “blaccent”. Azalea has been under fire, especially after winning her first Grammy, for her vocals that resemble more of a voice of an African-American female rather than a style from her original birthplace, Australia. Many critics reject Azalea and believe she is placing herself in a culture she doesn’t belong in. For years, the hip-hop scene has been dominated by the African-American race. In today’s world, with people having access to almost any and all types of music, hip-hop has become commercialized to appeal to masses much larger and more diverse than just the African-American scene. In this paper, I will be discussing the tendency of society to generalize certain behaviors and styles to certain races. Too often, people today are criticizing others for not acting the way one of a certain race is expected to act. It is a controversy created by ignorance towards our growing and evolving world.
Even though dance first originated back in the 20th century when dancer Isadora Duncan broke away from the strict rules of ballet to create her own more natural form of dance. Through time and experimentation, many genres of dance has surfaced - whether from oppression or for theatrical purposes, each one has captured the eyes of it 's audience. From flashy, sequined clothes to light and flowy dresses; each form of dance has it 's own representation. As well as representation, each genre of dance has powerful emotion in it. These popular forms of dance can be classified into three categories: the pounding and rhythmic beats of Hip-hop, the powerful meanings of modern dance, and the wonderful elegance of ballet, the most thought-out.Everyone has watched in amazement as their high school dance