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How pop culture affects society
History of racism in America
Pop culture and its impact on society
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Pop Culture and Whiteness
The pop culture describes the sum total of ideas and concepts that are in vogue, popularly known and determines the prevailing culture in American society. The pop culture is playing a major role in shaping the American society; in fact, cultural elements such as values and norms are shaped by pop culture. Pop culture is projected in the mass media, such as Television, Radio, Newspapers, and Internet. It is in the music we listen to, the novels and magazine we read, and various television shows and movies. If we only take a cursory look, we might think that pop culture has the requisite balance for an egalitarian society, but a critical and objective consideration has proven otherwise. The world of performing arts has a history of racial bias. While the bias might not be obvious to the unsuspecting because pop artists and even novelists present their offerings to the market as products meant for people of all races, yet the discerning ones know that the line is drawn somewhere. Every time I think along this line, Paul Haggis’ film, “crash”, readily comes to mind. The main point of crash is that everyone has racial prejudice and that no
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Recent rap music is giving the picture of a people who are ready to sweat out their blood if that is what it is going to take for them to have a voice in a society they actually belong to by descent. Kendrick Lamar’s Rap, “Alright”, Michael Eugene Archer’s (popularly known has D’Angelo) “Black Messiah” and Dev Hynes’ Song, “Sandra’s Smile” are few of the loud voices of black rappers in recent times. While the black race continues its fight for leverage on all fronts, we can not but remember other real life issues that have sprang up and remain as a result of white dominance. Such issues include insecurity, suspicion, protests and unhealthy competitions that are detrimental to peaceful
...nd provided Black Amer¬ica with tal¬en¬ted con¬tem¬por¬ary lead¬ers who voiced the struggle they were facing. Its major impact comes from the fact that it has encour¬aged a pro¬found Nation¬al¬ism in Black America.” Today’s Hip-hop & Rap artist promote the culture with guns, dope, violence and sexism instead the manhood and womanhood, support of the struggles, prisoners, and good entertainment from the roots of Afro centric culture. There may be a few that still install Black Nationalism into today’s society, like Jay-Z and P. Diddy who have built empires that will lead others to want to succeed and follow their the success route. In today’s society the youth lacks the encouragement to stand up for their rights and decides to fight to get their points across. They don’t think about the self-determination, self-defense or self-respect its all about actions, no unity.
Moreover, the task at hand is not one that is easily accomplished. In order for music to be a hit, it had to be a hit within the white community. The ...
One of Williams main topics of concerns is the wrong messages that “public airwaves” are sending to their listeners and followers. Williams claims rap and other medias are representing and sending the wrong message about African American communities. She mentions that rap music once held a positive message but now rap music is bombarding the public with the use of profanity, violence, and obscenity throughout their lyrics and music
Nationalities in society today have a stereotype that they are unfortunately characterized by. People assume that Asians are smart and good at martial arts, that the Irish swear too much and consume too much alcohol, that Americans are obese and lazy, and that African Americans are criminals into drugs and are in prison. These stereotypes make everyone of one nationality to be the same as individuals. There are, of course, people who fit the stereotype, which is how the stereotype came to be, but there is a large number of people who defy the stereotype of their race. The film industry helps to reiterate the stereotypes of certain races by matching the race of the actor with the character in the film for a certain effect. African Americans, specifically, in modern day films have been frequently seen to both
A race issue that occurs within the rap and hip-hop musical genre is the racial stereotypes associated with the musical form. According to Brandt, and Viki rap music and hip- hop music are known for fomenting crime violence, and the continuing formation of negative perceptions revolving around the African-American race (p.362). Many individuals believe that rap and hip-hop music and the culture that forms it is the particular reason for the degradation of the African-American community and the stereotypes that surround that specific ethnic group. An example is a two thousand and seven song produced by artist Nas entitled the N-word. The particular title of the song sparked major debates within not only the African-American community thus the Caucasian communities as well. Debates included topics such as the significance and worth of freedom of speech compared with the need to take a stand against messages that denigrate African-Americans. This specific label turned into an outrage and came to the point where conservative white individuals stood in front of the record label expressing their feelings. These individuals made a point that it is because artists like Nas that there is an increase in gang and street violence within communities. Rap and hip-hop music only depicts a simple-minded image of black men as sex crazed, criminals, or “gangsters”. As said above, community concerns have arisen over time over the use of the N-word, or the fact that many rappers vocalize about white superiority and privilege. Of course rap music did not develop these specific stereotypes, however these stereotypes are being used; and quite successfully in rap and hip-hop which spreads them and keeps the idea that people of color are lazy, all crimin...
It goes without saying that hip-hop has changed. It began as a social practice of African-centered liberation to transform the black community or bring the youth together in unity, but towards the 90’s and onto the hip-hop scene in todays day and age, it is anything but that. The youth of today will know Tupac Shakur and beautify or streamline his self-destructive “thug life” but remain in the dark of figures like Mutulu and Afeni Shakur. Although this is a sad reality to live in, it is not hip-hops responsibility to change this. It is the responsibility of artists alike representing an oppressed populace to speak meaningfully in their art, in someway or another, for the liberation of their people.
Although we have taken monumental strides in the past fifty years towards racial equality and diversity, it is still commonly argued that popular culture lacks some sort of racial representation. In the United States, the people who live here are vastly diverse when it comes to race and culture, yet in the media people of color get marginalized and stereotyped everyday in film, music, and etc.
Struggles come in all shapes and sizes; it identifies the strength of a person. Josh Ellis stated “Lamar seemed to [imply] that some of the responsibility for preventing killings…lay with black people themselves” as he speaks from personal experience after being in a gang (Eells 44). The white supremacy has struggled to keep restrictions on African Americans since the Jim Crow laws; they suppress by keeping them weak minded and killing them off. This may be considered a weak tactic, but it is no different than the “mistakes” of African American killing each other. But it does not take that experience to know that African Americans contribute to their own crisis. They are responsible for their own actions, which mostly result in revenge; not realizing that this do not make them equal, it just adds to the sad news of America. This country is based on wrong doings and consequences leaving the minority leaders to try and make a difference for generations to come. “But… I’m no mortal man, maybe I’m just another nigga” entering into the society where only judgement prevail to the cycle of life (Poem 1 22). Its takes knowledge in order to have courage to step outside the box and lead a movement toward change. “… I learned/…respect/ If I respect you, we unify and stop the enemy from killing us” (Poem 1 17 and
Pop culture in the 1950s and 1960s began to spread and infest the nation from front to back through radio shows, books and magazines, television programs, and even motion pictures. Whether it is culture in terms of political affairs, clothing or the latest musical sensations, the United States has always played the dominant role when it came to who knows what is best, first. Some cases of Americanizati...
The music industry’s history is a convoluted mess. There is no real consensus on what the music industry IS and what paths it has taken. Were the Beatles the greatest band to ever exist? Maybe. Is there a hyper objectification of women throughout the “men’s club” that is the music industry? Probably. It’s this hard to define, frankly confusing business that is worth roughly $130 billion dollars today. With it’s flimsy and opaque edges, can the music industry ever be called into question on its wrongdoings? The racist undertone throughout its history may force it to. With the music industry as an ever growing business that seems to change almost every decade, the one thing that has not changed throughout time is an undercurrent of racism that
On an individual basis, popular culture helps establish and mold the subjective self. It influences the way individuals think, act and respond, and this becomes part of how people develop their personalities, preferences, beliefs, and their overall identity. For example, most people idolize certain fashion statements or fads which determines their preference of clothing. This process of self-formation coincides with both elements of personal choice and the responses and attitudes of others. Furthermore, the identity that an individual asserts is influenced by and helps determine the development of social relationships; it influences the communities and groups to which an individual will identify with and how that identification is processed. In the establishment of communal bonding, mass culture helps with, as Leavis describes, a “leveling down of society” (35). The lines of class distinction have been blurred which, to Leavis is not a good thing, but it unites us nonetheless. Popular culture also promotes unity in that it “blurs age lines” (29). As stated earlier, the products of popular culture are targeted towards a variety of audiences; adults read comic books, children watch adult films, etc. (Macdonald 29). Similarly, teenagers and young adults are brought together through night clubs, fashion, and music; college students come together to enjoy campus events; book fans wait in line hours for new releases, etc. Each of these instances produce feelings of belonging, acceptance and connection with members of society over a common
Despite many progressive changes, racism is still a major issue. No one is born racist, racism is taught and it is taught in popular culture. Younger generations are exposed to racism through popular culture; one of the many mediums in which racial stereotypes are still supported. Matt Seitz, in his article, “The Offensive Movie Cliche That Won’t Die” claims that metaphorically, in popular culture cinema, African-Americans are mentors of a white hero, but beneath the surface, it is racially offensive towards these mentors because they are still considered servants of whites. Michael Omi, in “In Living Color: Race and American Culture” adds to the claim of Seitz that racial issues in our society brought on by the media and popular culture. He
We rely heavily on music to get us through a work out, cleaning, and we even rely on it when going through rough patches in our lives. One can say music is where we turn to too get in a certain mindset. For instance, boxers before a fight listens to music that will get them energized and pumped up. This doesn 't seem so bad, but unfortunately the most popular music today has the most negative effects on its audience. Specifically, Hip hop Music, today it is more provocative than ever and one can only assume it will only get worse from here. The lyrics to these harmful but catchy tunes are to blame for distorting the image of what success looks like in the mind of our youth. Not only are the lyrics poisonous but the music videos and graphics that go along with the songs are even more negatively influential. Furthermore, It is a combination of damaging lyrical messages and visual representations that are adversely contributing to the racial profiling of African Americans. The evolution of rap culture could be more dangerous than we realize. On the image to the left is 50 cent on a cover to his album. This is what is selling in today’s society. If this is not African Americans contributing to their own racial profile I don’t know what
Popular culture embodies the beliefs, ideas, perspectives, attitudes, and images of various cultures. Popular culture is heavily influenced by mass media, key celebrity figures, movies and related entertainment, as well as sports and news. However, in the past decade, the Internet and social media has come to be a significant influence on pop culture.
Pop culture is a reflection of social change, not a cause of social change” (John Podhoretz). It encompasses the advertisements we see on T.V, the clothes we wear, the music we listen to, and it’s the reason Leonardo DiCaprio has not won an Oscar yet. It defines and dictates the desires and fears of the mainstream members of society and it is so ingrained into our lives that it has become as natural as breathing. Moreover, adults never even bat an eyelash at all the pop culture and advertising that surrounds them since it has become just another part of everyday life. Pop culture is still somewhat seen as entertainment enjoyed by the lower class members of society but pop culture standards change over time.