Exploring the Positive Effects of Rap Music - Essay Example

Rap is a popular form of music and a manifestation of young, African-American culture. It emerged in the United States during the 1980s and 1990s. It comes from a legacy of African-American daily life over several centuries (Maurice, 1994). Some critics consider rap music to be a confusing and noisy part of contemporary American popular culture (Rose, 1994, p. 1). Some attribute to it violence, sexism, and misogyny. On the other hand, culture and music critics admire rap's role as an educational resource.

There seems to be a consensus in most studies that there are both positive and negative kinds of rap. Positive rap is consistently described as rap that presents self-protective concepts and skills, offers solutions, and provides inspiration to improve undesired conditions, such as motivating, inspiring, and heightening the consciousness of people. (Tyson, 2002, p. 135). This paper explores the positive effects of rap music on youth and society, concluding that despite its negative image, rap music has positive aspects and aspirations.

Rap has beyond doubt become one of the most popular forms of music amongst young people from the ages of 13 to 25. (Dyson, 1996, p. 10; Fried, 1999, p. 705; Rose, 1995, p. 45). Rap music has surpassed all other music genres, surpassing the previously top-selling genre, country music (Farley, 1999, p. 54). The rate of purchasing rap music has escalated from 3.8 to 11 percent from 1987 to 2008 (RIAA, 2009) It has become the most popular form of music among adolescents (Hodges & David, 2011, p. 322) Rap music has surpassed all societal divisions of race and socioeconomic status, emerging as a multi-billion dollar industry (Chappel, 2001, p. 110). Despite this enormous popularity, there are still frequent negative commentaries in the popular press.

For some people, the music has connotations of violence and this is partly related to a general cultural trend in modern American society which is not especially related to ethnicity (Roy, 2002). Others see the African American young people who are rap music’s most loyal fans, and make an immediate connection between race and violence, which gives the rap music scene criminal connotations (Frosch, 2007). There is undoubtedly a cultural gulf between the relatively wealthy, middle class and white American majority of parents and the largely urban and poor