“Selling Down: The Marketing of the Hip-Hop Nation” Do you like hip-hop? Do you think hip-hop brings people’s attention to an advertisement or commercial? In “Selling Down: The Marketing of the Hip-op Nation” which was adapted from Other People 's Property: A Shadow History of Hip-Hop in White America” (2007), author and senior editor Jason Tanz argues that hip-hip is a useful source to get the attention of the people; therefore, marketers and salesmen should keep using hip-hop in advertisements and commercials no matter what or who opposes. He also argues the idea that youth see themselves as being members of a higher status by wearing brand name clothing that is advertised by hip-hop. In the fifth paragraph of the article, Tanz starts …show more content…
In the article, Tanz uses examples, advertisements, commercials, symbols, quotes, and other facts to make his argument clear. One of the reasons he gives to back up his claim is by saying that, “ It is an industry that seems to thrive by tapping into our deepest fears, insecurities, anxieties, and aspirations” (87-88). Furthermore, he is saying that hip-hop is used to get into one 's mind and affecting one 's mood and/or …show more content…
Tanz is believable because he seems to be very knowledgeable about the issue. He tries to connect the audience with the advertisements and commercials that he uses by using his personal experiences. For instances, when he starts mentioning a T-Mobile’s commercial on pages 88-89, he says “They remind me of my own embarrassing attempts to prove myself as a full- fledged member of the hip- hop community”(89). He is using his personal experiences to help explain how hip- hop is used to get people’s attention, in this case the black guy from the commercial and him the
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 modern day society, popular culture has gained equal status to world issues and politics. Music, movies, and literature have started cultural revolutions and challenged the straight-forward thinking many individuals have accepted in the past. But while popular culture can advance new ideas and create movements, it also has the ability to challenge advancements society has made. Imani Perry’s essay, The Venus Hip Hop and the Pink Ghetto, focuses on hip hop and its negative impact on women and body image.
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.
Hip-hop can demolish citizen. For instance violence in some songs cause the youth to starts fights and also kill citizens. On the other hand, gangs and street thugs are a few examples. However teenagers kills, steals, vandalize, and etc. Therefore, hip hop has produce an negative impact in the world today. It has promoted an unhealthy lifestyle. This is due to attitudes and behaviors of American Youth. In addition, it teaches African American youth to use profanity. Furthermore, american youth does not have no role model when listening to hip-hop.
As hip hop culture became prevalent in pop culture, so did black culture. Hip hop stems from black struggle. Their vernacular, songs, and spiritual ways were different from what whites were used to. Their different lifestyle of “living on the edge” was intriguing yet inaccessible for the whites living among them. Thus, this initiated America’s fascination with the culture. It became about what people assume and perceive about black people rather than what they actually are. In essence, an essential to cool is being on the outside, looking in. In the media and celebrities today,
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.
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...
These articles depict the controversies of the hip hop industry and how that makes it difficult for one to succeed. Many of these complications and disputes may be invisible to the population, but these articles take the time to reveal them.
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.
The second article, “Commercialization of the Rap Music Youth Subculture” by M. Elizabeth Blair, expresses the point of the use of rap music to sell a product even though advertisers know nothing of the subculture....
Hip-Hop is produced on the role of coercion and power. The diversity of the culture supposes to create meaning not chaos. Social order is maintained by domination, and the power of the song lyrics. The black youth is more likely to be victimized by crime than any other group. Hip-Hop influence the music that we listen to that a new artist can directly affect how we dress, talk, dance and etc. For example, “prison inspired hip-hop styles like sagging black pants and oversized t-shirts” (Baxter & Marina 2008, 110). Sending a culture shock across the country, some may believe it could be a good thing and others may believe it could be a detriment to our youth and
In conclusion, these theorists who explore hip hop all have generalized ideas of what hip hop represents. Johnson is more oriented towards the female side of hip hop, whereas Jeffries is focused on the unity side of what it offers and Smitherman thinks that it is a black CNN. Although each scholar focuses on different aspects of hip hop, it is evident to point out that all these aspects correlate with one another. Hip hop is a cultural tool formed out of a need to take a stance on the issues that relate to the black community. And that it’s a voice to relate and unite people who share the same struggles on which to advocate change.
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.
Dr. Boyce Watkins compares Hip Hop to “Adolph Hitler’s Mien Kampf as a harmless little book or the bible has no impact on Christianity” (KultureKritic). Basically he is trying to say that when you control of a few group of people’s minds you are controlling the people themselves. By corpora ting the airwaves with message serve as a blueprint for our youth to self-destruct by creating a large army of pants-sagging, Blunt-smoking, tattooed-up, uneducated, STD-infected, impoverished thugs.
Hip-hop music is portrayed by an entertainer rapping over a track that regularly comprises of loops or specimens of other music woven together (Selke INT). Hip-hop originally appeared in the Bronx around the 1970s and steadily turned into the predominant mainstream music structure by the 1990s, representing a multi-billion dollar industry today (Selke INT). Hip-hop music can additionally have some positive impacts. For example, its verbal imagination can motivate audience members to play with dialect, and acknowledge musicality and rhyme (Selke INT). Just like poetry, hip-hop can be a way of expressing oneself.