Hip-hop and the link between industry, media, fans - Essay Example

? Hip hop Hip-hop Use cultural theory to consider the link between industry, media, fans and music genre formation Cultural theory is a branch of knowledge that applies experience based techniques, in a quest to develop theories that give an explanation of different elements of human expression. Human beings use communication techniques to express, emotions, feelings and different states of mind acquired in their daily activities in respect to the environmental set up they are in. The term expressions denote forms of communication that human beings use to pass certain information from one person to another. The existence of these forms of communication forms the base for cultural theory. The need to explain how human beings relate with their environment, adapt to it and communicate their experiences to successful generations’ forms the relevance of cultural theory.Human beings use different forms of expression to communicate formation from one person to another. These forms include language, signs, art, music and dance, and observation. Language is used to communicate information either orally or through written work. Signs and dances, on the other hand, are used to transmit information through the use of visible sense, where ideas are encoded in gestures, body movements and other forms of physical signs. Art involves the use of carefully developed carvings and drawings to communicate ideas (Giddens 1997). Music is a complex form of communication that carries cultural information usually expressed in a coherent mix of the other forms of communication. Music involves combined use of language, dance, musical instruments, signs and art in a good proportion to communicate information from one person to another. All those music elements determine its variation. Music is a cultural phenomenon and can only be understood from a well organised study of cultural elements that build it. Music is also made of key components which include industry, genre formation, media, and fans. The interrelationship between the components can be understood through the cultural theory (Negus 1996). The theory also analyzes the interrelationship that exists between different people to establish the ideologies that govern their interactions. Cultural theory has a number of elements that outlines several ideologies that govern the interrelationship of different parties in the music. Racism is one of the elements of cultural theory that analysis music with the aim of understanding how music industry, genre formation, media, and fans interrelate. Racism refers to prejudice and discrimination of people based on physical differences that exist between them. Members of a community can discriminate other people based on some physical variations such as the skin colour (Longhurst 2007). This discrimination is seen in the behaviour of a particular group toward another. For instance, in United State the white people may disqualify the black people from access public swimming pools for entertainments. For instance, as revealed by the photo below. Such swimming pools may be linked with a particular music genre where fans come to swim while enjoying the entertainment from that music genre. Since the black fans may be limited from participating in those entertainments, then it determines the kind of funs to get involved in the music genre. This kind of racism also influences genre formation, for instance, the black people may find that they are being discriminate by the white people, and decide to form music genre that fit their race. Racism creates an ideology that some people are superior to others based on physical differences. The instincts of superiority felt by a tribe create an environment where one tribe is abusive to the other. This result into one tribe exhibiting behaviours that directly disqualifies others in different areas of life. Mase says that racism is evident in music and society in three interdependent dimensions. The first one is the structural where there is social and economic discrimination against ethic minority. For instance, in United State blacks may be identified as the minorities and those with talented in music may be undermined (Giddens 1997). The second one is institutional where rules in institutions may be set to operate in a way that perpetrated discrimination against ethnic minorities. For instance, most of companies, radio stations, and television networks can be owned by white people. The black people may be denied the right to access music instruments such as recording studios. The third one is individual which referred to the expression of individuals’ view in the work place. For instance, black people in United States can be viewed as inferior race and hence undermining their songs. Racism also manifests itself in the reaction of the audience to music (Giddens 1997). There may be an attitude formed within the audience that some music is meant for a given group of people and not for some. This results into White people adoring white musicians while black people adoring black musicians. This ideology of racism extends to ethnicity on a smaller scale. Ethnicity is another element of cultural theory which refers to the outlooks and cultural practices of a particular group of people that separates them from others. In the society, the members in that particular group view themselves as culturally different from other group. This other group view the ethnic group to be so in return. Ethnicity can reveal itself in music industry as seen in the ideology of patriarchy. Patriarchy is the control that men have over the women. It is a type of social organization that contributed to the understanding of society and music. In this case, men may consider themselves as ethnic groups with characteristics that are different and superior from that of women. On the other hand, women may also view men to be so in return due to their subordination. Men, therefore, can dominate the music industry because they constitute the majority as evidence in the various roles such as music technicians and producers, musicians and writers, and shareholders (Longhurst 2007). According to many research, there are generally more females than males in the music industry. But men dominate the majority in key decision making processes. According to Negus (1996), women creative roles are limited. The majority of female artists are singers as opposed to musicians, writers and producers. The female artists soon turn into family entertainers hence pre-determining their career paths. For instance, a number of well known female singers such as Cilla Black, LuLu, and Dusty Springfield predetermined their career paths due to gender discrimination. Summarize key genre developments and the musical artistes/acts most commonly associated with the development of post 1960s Western Popular Music Hip-hop is a post 1960 music genre that traces its origin from a music genres referred to as black music. Black music is denoted by this name because it is sung by people with a certain degree of black skin. The music became popular in 1970s but the first music record meant for sale was released in 1979. Musicians who were by then coming up to sing hip-hop were quickly taken up by companies that saw the music as a business opportunity. Hip hop music is defined by its musical style, visual appearance, performance rituals, and ideological and social connotations. In terms of visual performance, hip- hop is different from other genre and is determined by the dressing codes used by singers. These dressing codes are used to attract hip-hop funs that recognize it as a culture. For instance, the photo below shows the dressing code of a hip hop legend called MC Ramellzee. The music developed from merging different sounds and records together in a manner that is astonishing but has currently become accepted as a form of entertainment. The music has spread to all parts of the world especially with the modern technology. The performance rituals of hip hop music are revealed when it associates with various experiments in voice and sound to attract more audiences. Its development was highly influenced by the Jamaican rap which used astonishing sounds. These sounds and several other aspects of the music are borrowed from black traditions. According to Longhurst (2007), hip-hop was a like a tearing, re-construction and pre-packaging music product. The music was seen as a way to suppress the popularity of black music such as blues and reggae. The prominence of other kind of music was diluted by hip-hop because experiments in sound borrowed a beat from an original song and then used to sing a hip-hop song. This distracted the attention of audience from the original version of a song. Hip-hop music in its early stages of development was accused as a strategy to override the history of the black people that was often linked to exploitation. This is because these memories were contained in black music, that hip-hop greatly distorted, (Longhurst, 2007). The ideological and social connotations associated with hip hop are revealed by the violent culture of the music which is said to have led to the death of Tupac in 1996. The music was highly criticized but some artists come out publicly to defend the music. The death of Tupac was seen as a way to end the dominance of black Americans who had begun to command a large number of audiences. Musicians such as Nas, Snoop and Jay-Z managed to contain the situation in a meeting that was held and attended by mixed races of people. This meeting took place in New York and thus the city remains a significant place in the history of hip-hop. At the end of this meeting and after the end of this criticism, the attitude towards hip-hop changed, (Longhurst, 2007). The music gained popularity and emerged as a good entrepreneur venture. Artist for example Jay Z gained significantly from the business. With the emergence of hip-hop as a business, it is said it promoted interracial interactions. It also portrayed interracial aspects by the fact that it had borrowed various sounds and beats from all races. It was thus seen as transcultural and transnational. It is transnational because it is associated with the success of musician Emmanuel Jal who was a Sudanese, and MIA from London (Longhurst, 2007). In this situation, a music type that was seen to have been borrowed from various areas of the world is seen to enrich people from all parts of the world. The original though was that it would only benefit those who developed it. The artists of the music are young white people. Hip-hop developed from the USA mainly the West Coast at Los Angeles. The artists are commonly referred to as “Niggaz with Attitude” were the first to give the music its current popularity, (Longhurst, 2007). They released an album in 1989 that earned them a lot of money. The issue of singing in a group developed a new concept and they began to be known as “gangsta rappers.” However, they were questioned in the manner in which they presented Afro-American issues in the music. The music presented violent solutions to the exploitation the blacks were undergoing. Reference Giddens, A 1997, Sociology, 3rd edn. Polity, Cambridge. Negus, K 1996, Popular Music in Theory: An Introduction. Wesleyan, Indianapolis. Longhurst, B 2007, Popular Music and Society. Polity, Cambridge. Read More