Socio-political sentiments unfolds the discourse of racial and gender distinction. The effect of counterculture forged a substandard level of equality to establish common factors to groups of individuals. These socio-political factors constituted a shift in the quality of the urban life affecting young individuals (D’Amico, 2014); and the rigid reality where freedom is promoted but expression is restrained embody the racial segregation in the society (Keyes, 1996). Furthermore, Whiteley’s (1998) approach to gender repression sheds light to women’s inferiority through male-produced music, suggesting sexual objectification of women. Strongly supported by Walser’s (1993) work, the genre of heavy metal heightened the presence of patriarchy in the …show more content…
An element of its popularity was that these black popular forms, unlike Soul and Disco music, were greatly supported by young white Americans. The evolution of hip-hop was notable as it is “the first form of black popular expression that was not initially afforded the process of communal critique prior to its subsequent mass production and distribution” (Neal, 1997, p.131). Hip-hop represented essentialized blackness that was urban, youthful, and threatening. It also expressed the lives of young black urbanites affected by the consequences of existing socio-political factors, including urban deterioration, economic decay, and the proliferation of recreational drugs. Similarly, “socio-political sentiments ranging from poverty, police brutality, and racial genocide to class and gender relations by an urban black youth constituency” (Keyes, 1996, p. 224) was an distinctive theme for rap music. The black community, consisted of African American and Hispanic residents, was unwillingly settled to live below the line with detrimental living conditions. Moreover, they were also victims of tax evasion and immoral activities of the American system. In 1982, Melle Mel released “The Message” inflicting the affinity of “a jungle” and the grim ghetto life and the tragedy it caused him to lose his life as he says “lived so fast and died so young”. Following his footsteps, several courageous youths attempted to produce songs with a similar ghetto-focused themes. The skeptical reality expressed through black music aggravates the existing marginalisation towards the black community politically, economically, and
In one of the chapters, ‘Where Did Our Love Go?’ the author reveals how blacks in America use the music to express their anger and commitment to emerge as great people in an unfair community. Most songs are written to educate the society on the negative effects of racism. They encourage the society to love one another and embrace unity. The human nature is founded through a social platform where philosophers claim that people were created to love one another and live with peace and unity. Through this book, it is clear that the blacks in the hip-hop generation are money minded. However, this is expected in a world where the economy is tough. The author claims that the youth are the people who are majorly affected by racism. Many of them have been arrested for pity mistakes which are magnified in the courts due to the impression that the society has on the black people. They engage in dirty activities like drug dealings that that put them on the wrong side of the
Hip-Hop became characterized by an aggressive tone marked by graphic descriptions of the harshness and diversity of inner-city life. Primarily a medium of popular entertainment, hip-hop also conveys the more serious voices of youth in the black community. Though the approaches of rappers became more varied in the latter half of the 1980s, message hip-hop remained a viable form for addressing the problems faced by the black community and means to solve those problems. The voices of "message" hip...
The movie ‘From Mambo to Hip-Hop’ is a great documentary about a revolution in the entertainment industry. It talks of evolution on Salsa music and Hip-Hop culture in suburbs of New York. South Bronx is a ghetto neighbourhood. The people living in the area are challenged economically. There is a record of high cases of violence that exist in the streets due to high crime rate and drugs being traded as a means of survival (Gordon, 2005). Most of the people living in the area are descendants of African immigrants who could trace their origin in the Caribbean islands with a large number Latin American population too.
Hip-Hop’s criticism of George W. Bush is a good example of hip-hop’s reflection of Black public opinion. The Republican candidate who already had a low approval rating of 57% amongst African-Americans received an even lower approval rating after his lackluster efforts to support Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 (Jones, 2003; Cillizza & Sullivan 2013).
Love & Hip Hop is an American Reality Show series on VH1. The series debuted on March 14, 2011. Mona Scott-Young is the CEO of multi-media entertainment company Monami Entertainment which is home of the popular show. In addition to “Love & Hop Hop,” the film and television division of Monami Entertainment has produced the spin-off “Chrissy & Mr. Jones” and “The Gossip Game,” both on VH1. All of these shows have a common theme. They are all drama filled reality shows based on the chronicles of several men and women with unpredictable love lives, who are involved in Hip Hop. Though found entertaining by many, these shows are all geared to target the young urban demographic and has stirred up controversy for several reasons when viewed by the wrong audience. The main female characters of the show this previous season are Yandy Smith, Erica Mena, Tara and Tahiry. All four of these women lead separate story lines that revolve around the four leading men; Mendecese, Rich Dollas, Peter Gunz, and Joe Budden.
“The Hip Hop Wars What We Talk About - And Why It Matters” by Tricia Rose explores what hip hop has done to society in recent years and what people think it has caused. Though it has become one of the most commercially successful genres in mainstream music Tricia Rose explains that the topics in hip hop music have narrowed. Commercial hip hop mainly consist of black gangstas, thugs, pimps, and hoes. In the book she looks into the different points of views of people who think whether hip hop invokes violence or if it reflects life in a black ghetto and if it slows down advancement for African Americans in US. The author goes back and forth with the opinion of the mass on hip hop, she says people view hip hop as a music like heavy metal which people associate with violence but she refutes most of these points by showing the positives of hip hop.
Hip hop is both a culture and a lifestyle. As a musical genre it is characterized by its hard hitting beats and rhythms and expressive spoken word lyrics that address topics ranging from economic disparity and inequality, to gun violence and gang affiliated activity. Though the genre emerged with greater popularity in the 1970’s, the musical elements involved and utilized have been around for many years. In this paper, we will cover the history and
Hip Hop culture has been the same throughout the years, such as expressing themselves, in their songs there are always themes and hinted quotes they tell their audiences on how they feel or what they did. Also in Hip Hop one of the biggest stereotypes is selling drugs. The film Notorious displays, what Hip Hop Culture is, such as rapping to express themselves and portrayal of drugs.
Hip-Hop is a cultural movement that emerged from the dilapidated South Bronx, New York in the early 1970’s. The area’s mostly African American and Puerto Rican residents originated this uniquely American musical genre and culture that over the past four decades has developed into a global sensation impacting the formation of youth culture around the world. The South Bronx was a whirlpool of political, social, and economic upheaval in the years leading up to the inception of Hip-Hop. The early part of the 1970’s found many African American and Hispanic communities desperately seeking relief from the poverty, drug, and crime epidemics engulfing the gang dominated neighborhoods. Hip-Hop proved to be successful as both a creative outlet for expressing the struggles of life amidst the prevailing crime and violence as well as an enjoyable and cheap form of recreation.
Hip hop has multiple branches of style and is a culture of these. This essay will examine Hip Hop from the point of view of the following three popular music scholars, Johnson, Jeffries and Smitherman. It will delve deeper into their understanding of what hip hop is and its relation to the different people that identify with its message and contents. It will also identify the history of Hip hop and its transition into popular music. In particular this essay will focus on what hip hop represents in the black community and how it can be used as a social movement against inequalities faced by them. This will then open up the discussion for the how this has influenced society, and the impact it has had in terms of race issues which hip hop itself often represents through music.
Hip hop has permeated popular culture in an unprecedented fashion. Because of its crossover appeal, it is a great unifier of diverse populations. Although created by black youth on the streets, hip hop's influence has become well received by a number of different races in this country. A large number of the rap and hip hop audience is non-black. It has gone from the fringes, to the suburbs, and into the corporate boardrooms. Because it has become the fastest growing music genre in the U.S., companies and corporate giants have used its appeal to capitalize on it. Although critics of rap music and hip hop seem to be fixated on the messages of sex, violence, and harsh language, this genre offers a new paradigm of what can be (Lewis, 1998.) The potential of this art form to mend ethnic relations is substantial. Hip hop has challenged the system in ways that have unified individuals across a rich ethnic spectrum. This art form was once considered a fad has kept going strong for more than three decades. Generations consisting of Blacks, Whites, Latinos, and Asians have grown up immersed in hip-hop. Hip hop represents a realignment of America?s cultural aesthetics. Rap songs deliver a message, again and again, to keep it real. It has influenced young people of all races to search for excitement, artistic fulfillment, and a sense of identity by exploring the black underclass (Foreman, 2002). Though it is music, many people do not realize that it is much more than that. Hip hop is a form of art and culture, style, and language, and extension of commerce, and for many, a natural means of living. The purpose of this paper is to examine hip hop and its effect on American culture. Different aspects of hip hop will also be examined to shed some light that helps readers to what hip hop actually is. In order to see hip hop as a cultural influence we need to take a look at its history.
The movie ‘From Mambo to Hip-Hop’ is a great documentary about a revolution in the entertainment industry. It talks of evolution on Salsa music and Hip-Hop culture in suburbs of New York. South Bronx is a ghetto neighbourhood. The people living in the area are challenged economically. There is a record of high cases of violence that exist in the streets due to high crime rate and drugs being traded as a means of survival (Gordon, 2005). Most of the people living in the area are descendants of African immigrants who could trace their origin in the Caribbean islands with a large number Latin American population too.
Additionally, I will look at fan feedback of the band and see if even the people who are buying the albums and going to the concerts are even acknowledging the successes of the band as something of merit, or are viewing their music in terms of how the patriarchy tells them to (i.e as a guilty pleasure). This is where I will apply the idea of discourses (whole systems of thought, speech, and knowledge production that structure institutional and social practices, (O’Brien & Szeman, 2014), ISAs, and feminist ideas of patriarchy spurring off Gill’s challenges of postfeminist assumptions of power that “women have not overthrown but rather internalized the disciplinary regime that dictates particular and compulsory ways of looking and acting” (O’Brien & Szeman, 2014), the idea that not only is the band not given respect musically, but perhaps these young women themselves become convinced that their music is more of a “guilty pleasure” than it is “quality
In Total Chaos, Jeff Chang references Harry Allen, a hip hop critic and self-proclaimed hip hop activist. Harry Allen compares the hip hop movement to the Big Bang and poses this complex question: “whether hip-hop is, in fact a closed universe-bound to recollapse, ultimately, in a fireball akin to its birth-or an open one, destined to expand forever, until it is cold, dark, and dead” (9). An often heard phase, “hip hop is dead,” refers to the high occurrence of gangster rap in mainstream hip hop. Today’s hip hop regularly features black youths posturing as rich thugs and indulging in expensive merchandise. The “hip hop is dead” perspective is based on the belief that hip hop was destined to become the model of youth resistance and social change. However, its political ambitions have yet to emerge, thus giving rise to hip hops’ criticisms. This essay will examine the past and present of hip hop in o...
Dixon, Travis L., TaKeshia Brooks. “Rap Music and Rap Audiences: Controversial Themes, Psychological Effects and Political Resistance.” Perspectives. 7 April 2009. .