My family and I were on a New York subway and at one of the stops a few young black males carrying a CD player got on. Right after the doors closed, one of the young males turned on some music and the other guys started doing numerous impressive hip hop moves. Before the subway pulled into the next station, the young guys took of their hats and asked for money.
I thought it was cool to see a real-life example of something we had talked about in class.
I was also wondering if I would be correct in saying this is an example of the commodification of a subculture.
I'm from NY and so I've seen the guys dancing on the train. A lot of times they do b-boy moves and some poppin and lockin, so I think it's definitely a representation of hip-hop. Because they are asking for money, technically it could be considered a commodification of the subculture, but I don't think of it in the same sense that we might think of commercialized hip-hop artists. Even though they are asking for money, they are probably still very much within the subculture (including the socio-economic background) and they aren't altering the rawness of their art.
ReplyDeleteLove seeing stuff like this out and about!I agree with Safiya, though, in saying that this isn't really a commodification of the genre. These men weren't being marketed by someone else for profit, they were just trying to make a buck. It's possible the music they were dancing to was a commodified version of hip hop, but it depends on the artist, and as we've discussed in class, a lot of other factors that create a bit of a gray area.
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