At the end of the discussion on Tuesday, we briefly brought up how they did not know whether or not record sales increased in metal with the parental advisory sticker in place and I wanted to shed some light on the idea of the role of authority figures trying to stop youth listening to a certain type of music.
Off the top of my head, I can think of two examples of parents and authority figures actually stimulating the popularity of music by trying to protest it. The first being Elvis in the mid to late 1950's. Rock and Roll as a whole was pretty new and parents felt pretty threatened by it. Among all of these ,new rock and rolls acts perhaps no one made parents feel as threatened (with the exception of Jerry Lee Lewis, who's actions were extremely inappropriate and ruined his career) as Elvis and hip swiveling dance moves during his performances that parents thought was very suggestive and not appropriate for their children to see. No matter what the parent did to try and stop him from catching on with their children (this includes Elvis' first performance on the Ed Sullivan show, where he is famously shot from only the waist up so his dancing is not seen on television) Elvis just kept getting more and more famous.
The second thing I can think of is when Billy Joel released "Only the Good Die Young." This song talked about the Catholic church, and not in the way the church likes being talked about. Because of this, the church banned the music. This only caused Joel's record sales to dramatically increase until he had one of the biggest albums/ singles in the country because every kid had to hear what the Catholic church was so angry about. No matter what the music, I think that parents trying to stop their kids from listening to a certain kind of music will only make them want to pursue that music more. Parents can also lead to making music more popular than it previously was by drawing attention to it. Then the idea of "any publicity is good publicity" starts coming into play, and in some ways, having parents dislike music only makes kids want it more. If the parental advisory stickers had no effect on album sales, Dee Snyder testifying in front of congress on television almost certainly did.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Monday, October 8, 2012
Metal on the "Outside"
I thought it was interesting when Rob Zombie said that metal was for outsiders and marginally unpopular. They made a point of saying it did not do well in the mainstream and was not supported by mainstream culture. This movie was released in 2005 and out of the top 100 albums released in 2005, 7 of them were released by metal bands.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_in_music#Billboard_Top_200_number-one_albums
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_in_music#Billboard_Top_200_number-one_albums
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Syllables
Hey, before we get too far away from hip-hop I thought I'd show you guys this song, I thought the lyrics were interesting because they shed some light on how rappers that were present in different eras view the music of today:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-EvG-rF8w8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-EvG-rF8w8
Don't Ignore the Context
I do believe that we, as a nation, have progressed socially.
However we are still living in a world where everything is still unjustly skewed
especially in the context of hip hop culture. One can say that more women are
in positions of power and they get generally more respect in different mediums,
but one cannot ignore the fact that all of this improvement mainly applies to
white women. Women of color have a harder time getting jobs and when we do get
jobs we get paid less than white women. "According to Census data, for each dollar a male earns, a female receives only 77 cents. The wage gap is even wider for women of color, with Black and Hispanic women receiving 61 cents and 52 cents, respectively, for every dollar
paid to a white male." (http://wagner.nyu.edu/wocpn/publications/files/Pay_Equity_Policy_Brief.pdf) Our race creates one more barrier that white women do not have to go through. The same thing applies to LGBTQ people of color. We may see more representation in media of LGBTQ people, but again most of that are white people. I bet you can name more publicly gay white people than you can name publicly gay people of color. LGBTQ people of color undergo more discrimination than their white counterparts "The report documents 27 anti-LGBT murders in 2010, which is the second highest annual total recorded since 1996. A whopping 70 percent of these 27 victims were people of color; 44 percent of them were transgender women. The study also found that transgender people and people of color are each twice as likely to experience violence or discrimination as non-transgender white people. Transgender people of color are also almost 2.5 times as likely to experience discrimination as their white peers." (http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/07/70_percent_of_anti-lgbt_murder_victims_are_people_of_color.html) So before you praise how far we've gotten as a nation, think about it on a broader scale and how hard it is and why it's still so hard for people of color to live in this society.
paid to a white male." (http://wagner.nyu.edu/wocpn/publications/files/Pay_Equity_Policy_Brief.pdf) Our race creates one more barrier that white women do not have to go through. The same thing applies to LGBTQ people of color. We may see more representation in media of LGBTQ people, but again most of that are white people. I bet you can name more publicly gay white people than you can name publicly gay people of color. LGBTQ people of color undergo more discrimination than their white counterparts "The report documents 27 anti-LGBT murders in 2010, which is the second highest annual total recorded since 1996. A whopping 70 percent of these 27 victims were people of color; 44 percent of them were transgender women. The study also found that transgender people and people of color are each twice as likely to experience violence or discrimination as non-transgender white people. Transgender people of color are also almost 2.5 times as likely to experience discrimination as their white peers." (http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/07/70_percent_of_anti-lgbt_murder_victims_are_people_of_color.html) So before you praise how far we've gotten as a nation, think about it on a broader scale and how hard it is and why it's still so hard for people of color to live in this society.
This brings me to my next point relating to my discussion board post about dominant
culture. To me, dominant culture equals straight white males. Producers will
play to this dominant culture when they make music so they can make more money.
We can acknowledge that the misogynistic homophobic music that hip hop became has
been detrimental to hip hop culture, minorities and their thinking and the
thinking of those around them, but we can’t ignore the reason hip hop evolved
to this. We must also acknowledge that dominant culture is a main culprit to
the faults in hip hop.
Here are some more texts I am basing my post on: http://www.temple.edu/tempress/chapters/657_ch1.pdf
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/general/news/2012/04/16/11376/idea-of-the-day-gay-and-transgender-people-of-color-face-a-greater-struggle/
Statistics
I came across this interesting article during my research for my discussion board. http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111521814339424546,00.html#articleTabs%3Darticle
It questions the statistic "70% of rap listeners are white suburban kids" and it traces that statistic to its sources. Statistics about race can be a tricky thing to measure so it was insightful to see how this specific statistic came about. This plays into one of our discussion points about the credibility of sources in social science. It's hard for us to observe human behaviors when as humans we are more complex and statistics simplifies our behaviors.
It questions the statistic "70% of rap listeners are white suburban kids" and it traces that statistic to its sources. Statistics about race can be a tricky thing to measure so it was insightful to see how this specific statistic came about. This plays into one of our discussion points about the credibility of sources in social science. It's hard for us to observe human behaviors when as humans we are more complex and statistics simplifies our behaviors.
Friday, October 5, 2012
Youtube, and the World of "Vlogging"
I've followed a couple who call themselves "CTFxC" for over two years. The concept of vlogging, though known before the emergence of YouTube, was not really as large as it is today. Channels (Specific sites within YouTube by people) that are popular for vlogging are as follows:
- http://www.youtube.com/bfvsgf
- http://www.youtube.com/ctfxc
- http://www.youtube.com/user/shaycarl
As you can see, the first two have around 500,000 subscribers, whereas the latter has nearly 1,000,000 subscribers, so obviously they have a large impact on today's social media networking today. With the feature of the "demographics" of YouTube, where it gives you the statistics of each video, it's really interesting to see which type of people watch these videos. I randomly searched a vlog video from the ctfxc channel and got these following statistics:
It's really interesting to see this since our focus is on the youth subcultures, which is generally encompassed around the age from 12-18. If you guys have the time, I would recommend checking out this interview of the "ctfxc" : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDcfZiUhDA4 (Note: There are other videos of other vloggers that I have not covered, such as mysterguitarman). Also note that these channels have people from totally different backgrounds: Charles from CTFxC is a part of a rock band, as his father was, the family from ShayCarls is that of a Mormon family, and the couple in the bfvsgf are your typical New Jersey people. With all these different subcultures presented, I think one of the main reasons why people are drawn into these videos is to look at different people's lives, and subsequently different subcultures. I personally know that I won't be travelling around Europe or across the country every day, as does Charles does, so having that "middleman" which is the vlog provides me that sort of entertainment. I know this is similar to the idea that was brought up in the hip-hop discussion: Because the majority of rap listeners are white suburban kids, one of the reasons they listen to this, we hypothesized, was to take a glance at the life of the "ghettos." And because these videos are roughly 10 minutes each, it doesn't consume all of my time (However, each of these channels have roughly 800-1000 daily vlogs, so catching up might take awhile).
What do you guys think of this concept of vlogging? Does it bring together people from different backgrounds, and even subcultures?
- http://www.youtube.com/bfvsgf
- http://www.youtube.com/ctfxc
- http://www.youtube.com/user/shaycarl
As you can see, the first two have around 500,000 subscribers, whereas the latter has nearly 1,000,000 subscribers, so obviously they have a large impact on today's social media networking today. With the feature of the "demographics" of YouTube, where it gives you the statistics of each video, it's really interesting to see which type of people watch these videos. I randomly searched a vlog video from the ctfxc channel and got these following statistics:
Top demographics
- Female, 13-17 years
- Female, 18-24 years
- Male, 13-17 years
Top locations
- United States
- Canada
- United Kingdom
It's really interesting to see this since our focus is on the youth subcultures, which is generally encompassed around the age from 12-18. If you guys have the time, I would recommend checking out this interview of the "ctfxc" : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDcfZiUhDA4 (Note: There are other videos of other vloggers that I have not covered, such as mysterguitarman). Also note that these channels have people from totally different backgrounds: Charles from CTFxC is a part of a rock band, as his father was, the family from ShayCarls is that of a Mormon family, and the couple in the bfvsgf are your typical New Jersey people. With all these different subcultures presented, I think one of the main reasons why people are drawn into these videos is to look at different people's lives, and subsequently different subcultures. I personally know that I won't be travelling around Europe or across the country every day, as does Charles does, so having that "middleman" which is the vlog provides me that sort of entertainment. I know this is similar to the idea that was brought up in the hip-hop discussion: Because the majority of rap listeners are white suburban kids, one of the reasons they listen to this, we hypothesized, was to take a glance at the life of the "ghettos." And because these videos are roughly 10 minutes each, it doesn't consume all of my time (However, each of these channels have roughly 800-1000 daily vlogs, so catching up might take awhile).
What do you guys think of this concept of vlogging? Does it bring together people from different backgrounds, and even subcultures?
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Degradation of Women in Hip Hop
Other than speaking about acquired wealth, the largest trend in rappers' rhetoric involves degrading women and almost dehumanizing them. Women are basically taken from being intelligent humans who have much to offer to merely objects. This trend has existed throughout much of hip hop history and has been a stable theme up until today. The article tends to put much of its focus on West Coast, and specifically Californian hip hop as a hot bed for important themes. Some of the biggest members of the community in California are also some of the genre's biggest offenders in degrading women. The book references NWA as large players in pushing hip hop forward and focusing on important social topics, but where is the mention of the groups' producer and writing force Dr. Dre's view on women? Although he left it off of NWA's biggest hits, on his "classic" solo album, "The Chronic," he pens a song called "Bitches Ain't Shit." The song offers up equality-based gems like the line "We flip flop and serve hoes like flap jacks." The entire premise of the track is basically that all women are are sexual objects that are only out to take your money (http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/drdre/bitchesaintshit.html). But he's really socially conscious right? Another great example is the rapper at the pinnacle of success in the music industry this moment: Kanye West. West has penned an uncountable amount of songs praising his mother in large or small ways, but still has the audacity to name a song "Perfect Bitch." In my opinion, the truly sad thing is it is about his current girlfriend, and she is quoted as saying "I'm honored. I love it" (http://www.tmz.com/2012/08/08/kim-kardashian-kanye-west-perfect-bitch-song/). Granted, it is an ode to her, but regardless, being blatantly referred to as a bitch and being proud is not a good thing when your name is plastered as many places as Kim Kardashian's. While rappers do occasionally take a stance promoting gender equality, for the most part, rappers tend to put women on the level of the cars they so prize, which is pitiful. The degradation and objectification of women in hip hop culture is truly its greatest limiting force.
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