Defining ‘culture’ presents controversy. Hebdige called it ‘a notoriously ambiguous concept’ and Williams ‘one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language’. This essay will argue to what extent hip-hop ’s audience reflects African and African American cultural practices. Largely fueled and created by African Americans, materialism and attainment of conspicuous possessions became important which emerged a subculture in urban environments. As Heisley and Cours (2007) assert that status- oriented products are utilized in the process of maintaining social order, it makes sense that those who are in the lower socioeconomic groups would utilize the power of possessions to move into the higher socioeconomic echelons. Contrary …show more content…
And for the youth that find themselves consumed in this subculture, it amounts to a “proclamation that they are independent and intolerant of much of what they consider to be adult society, which they frequently view as hypocritical” (Taylor & Taylor, 2005). It is evident that Hip Hop has influenced many worldwide. This is indicated through film, television, magazines, and on the internet. Main stream society has played a part in hip-hop subculture now more than ever. Spotify did a study and it found that hip-hop is the world's top genre, showing up on playlists more than all others, regardless of geography or language.Therefore, the hip-hop reaches to the extent of who is listening and partaking in the …show more content…
Although, this fulfillment raises a level of concern because Selfhout, et al (2008) report on studies that find rap fans exhibit more externalizing behavior (e.g., drug use, engagement in unsafe sex, aggression, delinquency) than other adolescents. Several U.S. studies have also suggested that adolescents with more problems may indeed choose to affiliate themselves with non mainstream youth cultures and peers facing or acting out the same types of problems (Arnett, 1991; Bleich, Zillmann, & Weaver, 1991; Carpentier, Knobloch, & Zillmann, 2003; Dollinger, 1993; Gardstrom, 1999; Hansen & Hansen, 1991; McNamara & Ballard, 1999). Given the general public’s concern that Hip Hop’s influence on some youth generates trouble for society, it is to not surprise that policies and practices have been made to centralize on ways to control the influence. In addition or as a primary focus, some are concerned with (1) expanding afterschool academic, recreation, and enrichment, including tutoring, youth sports and clubs, art, music, and museum programs; (2) building systems of care, including case management and specialized assistance; (3) reducing delinquency, including truancy prevention, conflict mediation, and violence reduction; (4) enhancing transitions to work, career, and postsecondary education, including mentoring, internships,
Originating in the urban Bronx area of New York hip-hop culture emerged in the 1970’s as a way for minorities to form identifies and social status. Contemporarily, hip-hop has evolved to contain numerous activities such as, “spoken word poetry, theater, clothing styles, language, and some forms of activism,” (Petchauer). Also, in his Journal of Black Studies, author Tobey S. Jenkins states that the core framework of hip-hop culture consists of five elements, and those elements are, “the B-boy/B-girl (dance or break dance), the emcee (voice), the DJ (music), graffiti (art), and knowledge (the consciousness),”(Jenkins,2011). Jenkins also states that it is common for society to replace these elements when a person is to affiliate themselves with a product of hip-hop by five core stereotypes of the Black male hip-hop artist: “the nihilistic, self-centered, caked-out mogul with a god complex; the uneducated, lazy, absentee father; the imprisoned and angry criminal;
Watkins, S. Craig. 2005. Hip hop matters: politics, pop culture, and the struggle for the soul of a movement. Boston: Beacon Press.
Hip-hop culture has been a global phenomenon for more than twenty years. When introduced into the American culture, the black culture felt that hip-hop had originated from the African American community. The black community was being denied their cultural rights by the supremacy of the white people, but hip-hop gave the community the encouragement to show their black pride and televise the struggles they were facing in the world. The failure and declining of the movements, the influential, rebellious, and powerful music is what reshaped Black Nationalism, unity and to signify the struggle. The African Americans who suffered from social and political problems found that they similar relations to the political movements, which allowed the blacks to be able to voice their opinions and to acknowledge their culture openly.
Hip-hop music is a popular type of music admired highly across the globe for its famous style, art and mode of expression. This highly admired music genre can include love, broken families, racism, hard times, sexism and adversity as its main theme. It has the power of evoking a different kind of mirth and sentiment in you. When it is sung at its full peach with a DJ, the listeners become ecstatic. If you are music lover or fond of pop song, you are sure to reach a different kind of state- a state of forgetfulness that is far ahead of the common ebullience of life and rustic mirth.
In the words of rapper Busta Rhymes, “hip-hop reflects the truth, and the problem is that hip-hop exposes a lot of the negative truth that society tries to conceal. It’s a platform where we could offer information, but it’s also an escape” Hip-hop is a culture that emerged from the Bronx, New York, during the early 1970s. Hip-Hop was a result of African American and Latino youth redirecting their hardships brought by marginalization from society to creativity in the forms of MCing, DJing, aerosol art, and breakdancing. Hip-hop serves as a vehicle for empowerment while transcending borders, skin color, and age. However, the paper will focus on hip-hop from the Chican@-Latin@ population in the United States. In the face of oppression, the Chican@-Latin@ population utilized hip hop music as a means to voice the community’s various issues, desires, and in the process empower its people.
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.
Watts, Eric K. "An Exploration of Spectacular Consumption: Gangsta Rap as Cultural Commodity." Rpt. in That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader. Ed. Murray Forman and Mark Anthony Neal. New York, NY: Routledge, 2004. 593-609. Print.
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
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.
Hip Hop’s according to James McBride article “Hip Hop Planet” is a singular and different form of music that brings with it a message that only those who pay close attention to it understand it. Many who dislike this form of music would state that it is one “without melody, sensibility, instruments, verse, or harmony and doesn’t even seem to be music” (McBride, pg. 1). Though Hip Hop has proven why it deserves to be called music. In going into depth on its values and origins one understands why it is so popular among young people and why it has kept on evolving among the years instead of dying. Many of Hip Hop values that make it unique and different from other forms of music would be that it makes “visible the inner culture of Americas greatest social problem, its legacy of slavery, has taken the dream deferred to a global scale” (McBride, pg. 8). Hip Hop also “is a music that defies definition, yet defines our collective societies in immeasurable ways” (McBride, pg. 2). The
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...
Imagine our youth all over the country being exposed to this explicit kind of language. There is no need to imagine, because it is already happening. Ever since the rise of Rap and Hip Hop music, teens have been turning to them to help solve their problems. However these kinds of music can be very destructive to teens. It is not the youth’s fault; it is the content that the music contains. Although Rap and Hip Hop music can be a force for good, they can also have an extremely negative impact on the attitudes and behaviors of our youth.
ingredient of hip hop music, has brought this genre music to the top; attracting and influencing many
Not only is hip-hop a way of expressing ones feelings or views, but it is a part of the urban culture and can be used as a communication tool. Slang originally came from hip-hop music and has become a very popular use in today’s society, especially the urban parts. Hip-hop is a standout amongst the most compelling musical sorts on the globe. There are rappers everywhere that know what amount of an impact their music can have. Some entertainers attempt to utilize that force of impact to do great (Ruiz INT).
The drug use behavior for teenagers has become a main problem today in the relation with hip-hop music. Although hip-hop culture do not directly effect on teenager’s performance in academic, many of them have been reported by creating trouble in the society. In the article, Taste clusters of music and drugs: evidence from three analytic levels, it describes that the hip hop culture has led teenagers to adopt with the relationship of substances use. The author determines that hip-hop culture can share a common affinity for marijuana use. The research discovers that USA has found the evidence by tying hip-hop with particular drug use. From the literature research demonstrate in Kubrin’s content analysis (2005:375-72006), some hip-hop music provides an “interpretive resource” for feelings of injustice. Therefore, the researchers believes that the clustering of hip-hop has high expectancy of drug use more than generally. The research’s result shows that the level of individual-level survey data or self-reported with drug use with hip-hop listeners have 28 percent for marijuana, 65 percent for alcohol, and 46 percent for cigarettes. Therefore, the research finds significantly higher use with marijuana and other substances by the musical preferences on hip-hop music. The researchers conclude that musical preference of hip-hop by youths