The following Ethnography takes a very specific look into the vast world of New York hip-hop, a specific look at a category of a dance style, or more appropriately a dance tradition in hip-hop known as “b-boying and b-girling.” Joseph G. Schloss is the author of the book called “Foundation: B-Boys, B-Girls, and Hip-Hop Culture in New York.” The book provides an engaging, new and exciting look on this amazing hip-hop subculture. The New York culture of b-boying and b-girling holds lots of valuable history and traditions to world music. B-boying and b-girling is a way of dance that has been passed down from generation to generation while being preserved by the performers.…
Adding to his sound style a bit of his culture that differentiated him “the Jamaican sound system toasters or black radio announcers hyping a record” (George 17).…
By the forties Afro American musical tradition was an urban one. World War 1 and the Great Depression produced the ‘modern’ Negro. The music in the forties, fifties, and sixties was not confined merely to social areas. During these years, identifiable relationships were created by stance of aesthetic analogies.…
‘His songs held a powerful set of symbols, meanings and behavioural norms which were opposed to those in the larger culture, that bound the subculture’s members together (Griswold, (2013), p.…
Music is part of our lives, we listen to music all the time one way or another. Music can bring many kind of emotions and at times it reflects our feelings. But not only that, music is also really influential in many positive and negative ways. The kind of influence that I will be referring throughout this essay is the powerful influence music can bring to us in our understanding of race and ethnicity. This is call pop-culture “the entirety of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, images and other phenomena that are within the mainstream of a given culture”.…
Craig Watkins, Gaye Theresa Johnson, and Robin D.G. Kelley to understand why music is such an inclusive and meaningful expression for African Americans. This paper will attempt to understand how black music came to be, the urban situations that created a need for music, how hip hop, rap, and rock ‘n’ roll demonstrated blacks representation of urban situations, and how blacks represent problems facing African Americans in society and in cities. In order to understand why music, and hip hop more specifically, is heralded as a uniquely black form of expression, it is important to understand the construction of city life that awoke a desire for self and cultural expression through the art of music. This paper will link social and urban conditions that created unique circumstances, like increased violence and crime, and suburbanization, for the birth of hip hop culture. This paper will examine several important themes of hip hop: how it was formed, what hip hop culture is, patterns in rock ‘n’ roll, deconstruction of the urban environment, hip hop politics, and whiteness.…
The influence of rock ‘n' roll was popularized in the 1950s and it was during this time rock ‘n' roll became somewhat of a divider but also a method of bringing people together. It pitted parents, the government, and even the mass media against teens and at the same stretch helped to erode some of the prejudices and the boundary lines between African Americans and White people. Parents in particular, disapproved the influence and message behind rock ‘n' roll, as it was a sexualized style of music. But, they also disliked the idea that the music came from African Americans irrespective of if it was a white entertainer who recorded the track. Also rock ‘n’ roll was accused of inspiring a rebellious nature in adolescents of the time.…
f music, Rock & Roll, flourished throughout households in the 1950’s and 1960’s. This particular style of music appealed to teenagers at that specific time frame, however, Rock & Roll was quite distasteful to parents as it was believed to be a negative impact on adolescents. Jody Pennington and J. Ronald Oakley’s “Don't Knock the Rock: Race, Business, and Society in the Rise of Rock and Roll” depict the rise and fall of Rock & Roll and its social changes within the decade spiritually, physically, and mentally throughout cultures throughout the decade. Furthermore, they examine Rock & Roll to determine was this the cause of diminishing traditional customs. Resultantly, Pennington argues YES as opposed to Oakley’s opinion.…
Swing music gained popularity in the 1930’s and “helped boost the careers of black and white bandleaders, but it also led to a creative slump that disheartened many younger black musicians” (pg. 425). Eventually bebop would become the music of the war decade and create or lead to more transformation of music including Hip-Hop. Hip-Hop or rap became widely known towards the end of the 20th century, speaking in rhyme, musicians sing about life stories, unlawful treatment of African Americans and violence. The rap group “Niggaz wit Attitude” in the 1980’s was a huge success and thus the creation of gangsta rap was evolved. By 2000, “hip-hop had become a global cultural force and the source of astonishing profits for men such as Simmons and Combs-and for white-owned business and music companies” (pg.…
Understanding Hipness: ‘Subcultural Capital’ as a Feminist Tool by Sarah Thornton and Women and the Early British Rave Scene by Maria Pini, both discuss and analyze the social dance culture of the 1980’s. Thornton’s article focused primarily on the culture of clubbing while Pini’s article focused more on rave culture, however both did mention clubbing and raving at points in their article. Both articles carry validity in their arguments however it is important to take bias into account when analyzing their points. Throughout analyzing their articles, I’ve found my own personal criticisms of their writing choices and arguments. Sarah Thornton’s article, Understanding Hipness: ‘Subcultural Capital’ as a Feminist Tool, had three main points:…
Society’s views on rap and hip-hop music are often negative, despite other genres having similar social messages. One must ask themselves, why is hip hop and rap under such constant scrutiny? Authors Feagin, Vera, Batur, & Rose theorize, “From the start, the public viewed hip-hop culture and rap music through a racist lens. Rappers and rap fans were often portrayed as menacing Black adolescents, and rap music was vilified as violent and misogynistic” (qtd. in Sullivan 607). Although most people agree that modern day hip-hop and rap music have negative social effects, upon analysis, these views appear to be defective and based on bias perceptions— reinforcing racial oppression, racial stereotypes, and inequality.…
“Luke Spencer praises Harrison’s ‘uncompromising intervention in the politics of the 1980s’ and notes the poem’s ‘willingness to take risks in dramatizing a cultural crisis and imagining its solution”4 The skinheads are the result of these chaotic, faulty political and sociological failures. The skinheads are the victims of an industrial society who deprives its members of equal opportunities of an economical development. They are the representative of the working class and a failed economical system to provide employment opportunities. Since the Thatcher project failed to protect the working class and resulted in a class struggle, Harrison‘s V is the versus against all this mistreatment of the poor and unprotected people in the industry. Harrison cannot ignore his origins; he belonged once to the working class and now as an intellectual is voicing his disapproval by symbolism of the skinhead as a faulty product of Thatcherism, and a capitalistic society.…
Throughout its years of prevalence in the popular music industry, the disco genre has always polarised opinions. The subject of some quite literally explosive protests, many have hated disco for its supposed vapidity and homogeneity, and few have defended it. I will assert that the “disco sucks” movement was a populist declaration of difference and supposedly superior taste, musical purism built on racist, homophobic and hyper-masculine ideologies. My essay will be based on ideas from Richard Dyer’s In Defence of Disco (originally published in Gay Left magazine, 1979), as well as more recent writings analysing Dyer’s work.…
The purpose of this research paper is to compare and evaluate youth subcultures between Britain and the United States in the 1950’s. At the time, a post-war economic shift resulted in the manifestation of many subcultures. Thanks to an expanding market of consumerism and a decline in post-war rationing after World War II, young people had the money to spend on fashion and entertainment. The two main subcultures we will analyze in this report are the Teddy boys of Britain, and the “punks” of American society. With the development of rock n roll music and a desire to rebel against the common order, both subcultures were characterized by anti-establishment views and a distinctive style that older generations found aggressive and threatening.…
“Everywhere Is War: Peace and Violence in the life and Songs of Bob Marley” is written by Brent Hagerman, a professor in the Religion Department at Wilfrid Laurier University. In this article, Hagerman attempts to discuss the ambiguity present in Bob Marley’s songs. Knowing that Marley’s songs do suggest both peace and violence, Hagerman analyzes his songs to conclude if Marley was a pacifist or revolutionary. Although most of his analysis was based on “War”, he also evaluates others including “One Love”, “Rastaman Live up”, and “Chant Down Babylon”. To fully comprehend Bob Marley’s perspective about peace and violence, Hagerman take into account the society in which Marley lived in.…