Money, Cars, Clothes & Hoes: Breaking Stereotypes

      I’m an amazing mind reader and I would like you to quickly take a second and envision a generic “rapper”…  Do you have a picture in your head? Prepare to be blown away with my mind reading skills… Were you picturing a black male? Told you I’m good.

     American society stereotypically associates certain music with certain types of people. Though there are definitely exceptions, typically each genre both targets and attracts people of specific demographics. Here are some musical stereotypes that I guarantee most Americans believe to be true: Country music is often associated with a white audience; Pop Music is associated with young listeners; Heavy Metal is often associated with male listeners; Christian Rock is associated with (you guessed it)… Christian listeners; and Rap/Hip-Hop is often associated with a black audience.

     When I introduce myself to someone, I can guarantee that the first thing to come out of that someone’s mouth is “you’re Irish right?” I can also guarantee that the second thing out of that person’s mouth isn’t “you’re a huge rap fan right?” Though surprising to many, I could talk all day about 2pac, Kendrick Lamar, KRS-One, The Wu-Tang Clan (even Ol’ Dirty Bastard), A$AP Rocky, Cam’ron, Dilated Peoples, Curren$y, Nas, N.E.R.D., Big L, Outkast and my guys The Cool Kids. Despite the fact that I am a white female (a.k.a. not your stereotypical rap fan), I still have spent close to a decade listening to, interpreting, and appreciating the sounds, lyrics and ideologies found within rap music.

     Music has the ability to act as a universal language among people of all differences. Music, as a communication tool, can reach out and touch the masses. Different ideologies, which help us to define and make sense of the world around us, are illustrated and can be recognized in every genre of music regardless of the gender, age, race, socioeconomic status, religious background or sexual orientation of the listener. Music is interpretive.

Please, Revolt!

            One thing that stuck out to me this week was the quote, "Why do the masses not revolt against those who oppress them?" Why do we not fight against things that bother us? Maybe we feel as though we can never actually change anything. Going back to last week, we learned that there are those in the power with money. If none of us have any great amount of money, it almost seems hopeless that we can change anything. Money seems to make our world go round.
             In today's music industry,dance music seems to be the popular thing. It seems every other day that there is some new dance song that is telling us to go to a club, dance till it closes, and drink till the A.M. Yes, these songs are fun and very catchy, but it is almost becoming annoying. People are not partying every day of their lives and if someone is, I want to know how their liver is doing. I have heard many people talk about this and how all music is becoming the same. It is becoming boring. Why do we not revolt against this? We could choose to not buy songs, buy concert tickets, or turn off the radio. Us buying this music is really only helping the rich. We are giving them our money over and over again after they make a very easy to write and produce party song. When looking at the Top 10 iTunes list, I see that "Turn Me On" by Nicki Minaj and David Guetta is somewhere near the top. Yes, this song is a very catchy dance tune that will be great to listen to at the clubs, but I feel like I have heard this song 10 million times!!!!! I could name 10 other songs off the top of my head that sounds like this exact song. Hopefully, people will soon care about artistic achievement over easy lyrics and a slick beat. I mean, really, dance music has been popular since like 2006, why won't it die!?!?

Jeffrey K.

The Power of Hegemony

Hegemony seems to be a topic that very few in our society have words to explain or express knowledge about. Yet, it seems to be a mainstream form of imperial dominance that encompasses most of our world and our society. So the question remains, why is this so hard to pin point where popular items come from? We are constantly debating what is more predominant in pop culture. From music, to books, television shows, cars, and even people, we are continuously looking for who dominates our culture. Today marks the 1^st of February and the start of Black History Month. Since 1976, it has been observed in the United States in observance of the history of the African diaspora. This mass displacement of so many individuals all over the world has brought people to America that has helped shaped our nation. People like Martin Luther King Jr. spoke about descendants of Africa being brought over in slave ships and helping to build a nation… OUR nation. The social, cultural, ideological, and sometimes economic influence are far too often exerted by the dominant group. In centuries past a culturally diverse society could easily be manipulated by the wealthy aristocratic society, leaving the lower-class without a voice. The hegemony of our nation is changing. With the advancement of technology and the internet, it has catapulted simplistic ideas that those considered the “lower-class” have presented and are becoming popular. This message holds more power than ever before. Singers and rappers that were once considered to be “noise” for those of “good-taste” are becoming major influences in our society. Videos are becoming viral, making those owners famous and often times reality stars. Whether you’re black, white, brown, yellow, or green, the power of influence now is obtainable to all.

Rap videos

On Tuesday, we watched four different rap videos and analyzed their meaning and what message they were trying to convey to their audience.  After watching all four videos, the main message I picked up was that it was important to have money and power in life in order to be successful.  Each video displayed some sort of importance of money, drugs, and sex which I thought gave viewers a bad impression on what is important in life these days.  I thought the YC “Racks” video’s song and meaning was just terrible.  It was a waste of four minutes of listening to rappers talk about how much money they have.  The only message that the video really sent was that it is important to have materialistic things in life.  After watching the “Diamonds” video by Kanye West, I thought it was interesting that he wasn’t wearing any diamonds where as typically he wears diamonds in most of his videos.  It seemed like he felt sorry for the children and in a sense could relate to them because even with all of this success as a famous rapper, in a way he was just as alone as them when seen walking alone throughout the video.  I thought when the ring turned into a child miner after the man proposed to his fiancé was interesting because some people forget how and where the diamonds come from.  I thought the video was a bit confusing but overall thought it brought some awareness to the horrific process that goes into mining for diamonds.

The Notebook

I think it's a good idea to question chick flicks. Millions of girls (and guys) watch them and then they base their own love life off of them. It's just not smart to accept the ideology of chick flicks. I watched "The Notebook" for the first time in 8th grade, and I remember bawling my eyes out. I thought it was a beautiful love story and I wanted someone to build a house for me and take me on a boat ride and expect me to leave my really nice fiance who loves me and treats me well for him. As I got older and watched the movie again I realized I couldn't cry about it anymore. I just couldn't get over the fact that she cheated on her fiance and people just accepted it because she loved Noah for one summer when she was a teenager. I also couldn't get over the fact that they had a really abusive unhealthy relationship. They fought all the time but because they were passionate it was okay. She slapped him in the face a bunch of times, kicked his car, and shoved him but he still loved her and built her a house? I do think it's kind of dangerous for young girls to watch these chick flicks and not question them. They start to have unrealistic expectations for their boyfriends and compare them to the unrealistic guys in the movies. Seriously, unconditional love only goes so far.

young, wild and free

This morning i went on i tunes to see which songs were on the top 10 singles chat, i was surprised to see "young wild and free" by Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa was still on top. I decided to watch and analyze the music video since i hadn't seen it before. Here are the common themes i picked up on: wealth with chains, diamonds, and nice cars, Drugs with huge over sized joints, bongs, and marijuana floating everywhere, Fun and Girls with everyone running around, playing and girls in bikinis getting wet on huge slip and slides and Power beating up on "losers" or "nerds" one which was in a wheelchair. I was really surprised to see that most of the video took place on a high school campus. I think this video gives teens the wrong idea on what high school should be like and what high schoolers should be doing. Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa make it seem that you are only cool and having fun if you are smoking weed and drinking. "Yea roll one, smoke one, when you live like this you're suppose to party, roll one, smoke one, and we all just having fun".

Music Can be a Way to Convey News

Rap as well as other genres of music has really impacted popular culture and mass media today. It is no longer about the artist or the song. The artists are now becoming brands themselves. What they wear, eat and say influences our daily lives (whether we like it or not).

The artists aren't the only people influencing things. Culture impacts their music. Kanye West's song Diamonds are Forever refers to the issue of Blood Diamonds. Families are dying over pieces of shiny rock. It is important that music covers these important issues because a lot of teens do not watch or listen to the news. However, they would be interested in listening to a new rap song and watching the music video.

I would rather listen to a song about an issue going on with the world like Black Eyed Peas' song Where is the Love? rather than listen to something calling everyone a bitch or a hoe. That does not benefit me as a person or provide me with important news. Artists have a responsibility as role models and brands to raise awareness for these pressing issues.