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Depiction of females in rap music
The women's liberation movement 1960s
The women's liberation movement 1960s
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Funk music touched on a myriad of subject matter, but there are some notable recurring themes that also intertwine themselves in the structure of the hip hop music that came afterwards.
James Brown was undoubtedly one of the biggest figures of funk music and his music’s subject matter was just as broad and diverse as funk music itself. Yet, one recurring theme was that of hypermasculinity and misogyny. As E. Taylor Atkins points out:
[Brown’s response to the Women’s Liberation Movement was arguably] an effort to re-establish a male-dominated order in which women were primarily and fundamentally objects for male titillation and sexual conquest” (Atkins 338).
Some of the songs that Atkins mentions include “It’s a New Day” and “Hot Pants (She
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This simultaneously puts down woman through sexual objectification while he puts men on a pedestal as the gender that must be catered to. A lyric that particularly stands out is when Brown says, “Do what he wants, give what he wants, respect will come to you and then you can hold your man, you can hold your man” (Brown). This line can be interpreted as Brown saying that respect can only be earned through a woman’s ability to appease her man. Unfortunately hypermasculine themes have also made their way into hip hop music, only now they are even more explicit and this theme shows no sign of stopping anytime soon. The film Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes highlights some of the contemporary issues in hip hop music and two of those issues include the glorification of hypermasculinity and misogynistic views through hip hop lyrics, performances and videos. Author, teacher and radio host Michael Dyson says, “When you think about American society, …show more content…
Perhaps this trend of commercially successful music promoting hypermasculinity and misogyny found success in funk music and the labels continue to push for these themes in an attempt to continue benefitting from the themes’ popularity and profitability. Both funk and hip hop share the characteristic of being genres that have recurring themes that have been commercially successful, and although it may be out of the control of the artist, these themes play a huge role in both
In the article “ From Fly to Bitches and Hoes” by Joan Morgan, she often speaks about the positive and negative ideas associated with hip-hop music. Black men display their manhood with full on violence, crime, hidden guilt, and secret escapes through drugs and alcohol. Joan Morgan’s article views the root causes of the advantage of misogyny in rap music lyrics. In the beginning of the incitement her desires shift to focus on from rap culture condemnation to a deeper analysis of the root causes. She shows the hidden causes of unpleasant sexism in rap music and argues that we need to look deeper into understanding misogyny. I agree with Joan Morgan with the stance that black men show their emotions in a different way that is seen a different perspective.
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
The film Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes is directed by filmmaker Byron Hurt. The film was released on January 24th, 2006. Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes is a documentary that looks at issues within hip-hop issues such as masculinity, sexism, violence, and homophobia. The problem I see in hip-hop/rap culture is the promotion of violence, sexism, and homophobia. Most artists don’t practice what they preach or rap about. They might rap on a track promoting gun violence to teens but the same rapper never touched a gun and he has a degree. Many artists also down play the effects their lyrics have on the youth.
Hip hop is a form of art that African Americans have been using to get away from oppressions in their lives and allowed their voices to be heard in some type of way. As soon as big corporations seen the attention hip hop brought to the scene, they wanted to capitalize on it. These corporations picked specific types of attributes that some hip hop artists had and allowed it to flourish. The attributes that these artists carried were hypermasculinity, homophobia, violence and sexism. In the book, Hip Hop Wars by Tricia Rose discusses some of these specific attributes. One of the most damaging attribute is when hip hop is used to sexualize and demean everything about being a woman. Tricia Rose writes about this issue in chapter 5 of her book
In The Venus Hip Hop and the Pink Ghetto, Imani Perry argues that the over-sexualized, unattainable bodies of black women in popular culture will lead to the breakdown of feminism and the positive body image of the everyday black women. As hip hop music continues to become more popular, the sexist messages presented in lyrics and music videos are becoming more common to the everyday public, including young black girls developing a self-image. Instead of these girls being exposed to healthy, positive role models who encourage individuality and that there is more to a woman than her body they are given hip hop video models whose only purpose is to look sensual on screen. The strong women that do exist in the hip hop genre are pushed to sexualize themselves or their lyrics to sell records or stay relatively unknown. Although Perry’s arguments are logical, I believe that she is creating a slippery slope of logic. A genre of music cannot destroy the self-image of black women that has existed for generations.
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 is one of the major music genres of today like the blues were in the 1950's. Stanley Crouch views hip-hop as being vulgar and obscene while he sees the blues as being one of the classic music genres. In actuality, these two genres are similar in many ways.
When looking at the landscape of Hip-Hop among African Americans, from the spawn of gangsta rap in the mid 1980s to current day, masculinity and an idea of hardness is central to their image and performance. Stereotypical to Black masculinity, the idea of a strong Black male - one who keeps it real, and is defiant to the point of violence - is prevalent in the genre. This resistant, or even compensatory masculinity, encompasses: the hyper masculinity rife in the Western world, misogyny, and homophobia, all noticeable in their lyrics, which is in part a result of their containment within the Black community. The link of masculinity and rap music was established due to this containment, early innovators remaking public spaces in their segregated neighbourhoods. A notion of authentic masculinity arose from the resistant nature of the genre, but the move to the mainstream in the 90s created a contradiction to their very image - resistance. Ultimately, this in part led to the construction of the masculinity defined earlier, one that prides itself on its authenticity. I’ll be exploring how gender is constructed and performed in Hip Hop, beginning with a historical framework, with the caveat of showing that differing masculine identities in the genre, including artists
Motown paved the way for future artists to explore themselves. It helped created the grounds of a great music and cultural integration in the 1970’s to now and hopefully forever. Hip Hop’s arrival was credit to Motown triumphs in the musical world. Through the mixing of percussion and the rhythm of the drumbeats of funk and disco, hip hop revealed the opposition to social inequality and discrimination
From its conception in the 1970's and throughout the 1980's, hip hop was a self-contained entity within the community that created it. This means that all the parameters set for the expression came from within the community and that it was meant for consumption by the community. Today, the audience is from outside of the community and doesn’t share the same experiences that drive the music. An artists’ success hinges on pleasing consumers, not the community. In today's world, it isn’t about music that rings true for those who share the artists' experiences, but instead, music that provides a dramatic illusion for those who will never share the experiences conveyed. This has radically changed the creative process of artists and the diversity of available music. Most notably, it has called in to question the future of hip hop.
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.
The oppressive picture displaying the sexual objectification of women that most hip-hop artists paint while rapping can only be described as appalling. Many artists imply that a woman?s sole purpose is to gratify a man?s every sexual desire. For instance, ?Nelly?s ?Tip Drill? goes as far to portray scantily clad women as sexual appliances? (Weisstuch). Though Nelly is relatively mild when contrasted to other hip-hop artists, his actualization of women cannot be ignored. By calling women ?sexual appliances,? Nelly essentially promotes the idea that it is customary to view all women solely as sexual objects. Moreover, the generic ?sex appe...
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 began in the 1970's in the United States in that time it was not popular, but over the years it becomes more popular. Young people hear this music often because of lyrics or videos image. The new hip hop music typically portrays women as an object where a man can control a woman. Also, have violence and the style of hip-hop music have changed to obtain more money.
Thus, the ontology of funk music satisfies the songwriters’ needs to fulfill the novelty to stay within the standardization set by corporations. By producing this commodity, it becomes a target for artists who seek to find recognizable sections, allowing them to file for infringement to gain shares of the profit. This is especially the case if the song is produced from capitalism, which almost guarantees it will provide high profits. Thus, the overall creative value is