...culture and identity that increasingly occur amongst youth throughout the world, but what factors best explain the participation of young people in these subcultures? Also, how do these factors operate? The purpose of this paper is to argue that the participation of young people in youth cultures is best explained by 2 factors; the media and one’s ethnicity. This argument is will made with particular reference to punk and hip hop subcultures as well as brief discussion of Indigenous subculture. The paper will begin with an over view of how subcultures are used to form identities and invent cultural meaning which will be followed by a discussion of the mass media’s influence on youth in today’s society and how and why the media is a major factor in determining youths involvement in different sub cultures. The influence a young person’s ethnicity has on their participation in subcultures will then be addressed with reference to Cohen’s (1955) version of strain theory and how this effects the formation and involvement in subcultures such as indigenous subculture and hip- hop. A conclusion will then be given stating that both ethnicity and the media are the best means of explaining youth participation in subcultures as they are largely influential in determining youth involvement in, as well as the original formation of subcultures. Sub- cultures are often seen as a way of forming collective identities from which an individual identity can be achieved outside that which is ascribed...
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...ip hop (stylized as Hip-Hop) is a broad conglomerate of artistic forms that originated within a marginalized subculture in the South Bronx and quickly spread through other parts of New York City such as Harlem among African American and Latino American youth during the late 1970s.[2][3][4][5] It is characterized by four distinct elements, all of which represent the different manifestations of the culture: rap music (oral), turntablism or "DJing" (aural), breaking (physical) and graffiti art (visual). Even while it continues in contemporary history to develop globally in a flourishing myriad of diverse styles, these foundational elements provide stability and coherence to the culture.[2] The term is frequently used mistakenly to refer in a confining fashion to the mere practice of rap music.[citation needed] The origin of the hip hop subculture stems from the block parties of the Ghetto Brothers, when they plugged the amps for their instruments and speakers into the lampposts on 163rd Street and Prospect Avenue and used music to breakdown racial barriers, and from DJ Kool Herc at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, where Herc mixed samples of existing records with his own shouts to the crowd and dancers. Kool Herc is credited as the "father" of hip hop. DJ Afrika Bambaataa of the hip hop collective Zulu Nation outlined the pillars of hip hop culture, to which he coined the terms: MCing or "Emceein", DJing or "Deejayin", B-boying and graffiti writing or "Aerosol Writin".[6][7][8][9][10] ...
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...Running head: MARKETING STRATEGIES AND SUBCULTURES Marketing Strategies and Subcultures: Flavored Cigarettes Abstract Most recently, TRIAAD Research Group developed marketing strategies for Exotic Smokes Cigarettes. These strategies were identified to attract 18-to-25-year-old customers to the flavored cigarette market. This young adult market is lucrative however focusing on specific subcultures within the market provides additional opportunities. The African American subculture, the Hispanic subculture and the Asian subculture are emerging multicultural markets with cultural and cross-cultural differences that must be explored by marketers. The United States is more ethnically diverse than ever before. The emerging multicultural markets offer opportunities for marketers to determine what marketing strategies are most effective to market flavored cigarettes within the African American subculture, the Latino subculture and the Asian subculture. After determining the marketing strategies to be used, the environmental factors, cultural differences, and cross-cultural differences must be identified for each subculture. The goal is to understand how consumers’ cultural identities relate to purchasing choices. Subcultures African American Subculture The African American market is not a monolithic group. Marketers must be aware of the diversity within the African American subculture that includes African-Argentinian, African-Cuban, African-Ecuadorian, African-Latino...
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...Mainstream hip hop music has been the center of criticism and controversy since its origins. The values of hip hop can vary, but the majority of mainstream hip hop does not have as much diversity, when it comes to the values it represents, as other subcultures in the hip hop world. Mainstream hip hop shares many of the same values as the dominant American society, which include the values of respect, money, and power. In the writings of Scott Crossley, he proclaims on the subject of hip hop “Rap’s ability to impact social change is immense, but this success is tarnished given that some of the social changes the rap brings about are arguably negative and counterintuitive” (Crossley 509). Hip hop as a whole has created just as many positive messages as they have questionable messages; but when corporations get involved and the music turns mainstream, the messages become eerily similar. Mainstream hip hop artists have always yearned for respect in the culture. Hip hop artists are always on the warpath for lyrical supremacy, competition has always been a huge part of hip hop. Which ever rapper can recite the most original and exciting lyrics can gain a large audience. Once a rapper has a large fan base, respect is gained from other rappers, media networks, and listeners alike. The art of the “battle” is very much alive in current mainstream hip hop. If a 2 rapper disrespects another rapper or his associates, a “battle” on a record can ensue. Most recently rapper Jay-Z “dissed”...
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...United States by African Americans, hip hop culture and music is now global in scope. Youth culture and opinion is meted out in both Israeli hip hop and Palestinian hip hop, while Canada, France, Germany, the U.K., Poland, Brazil, Japan, Africa, Australia and the Caribbean have long-established hip hop followings. According to the U.S. Department of State, hip hop is "now the center of a mega music and fashion industry around the world," that crosses social barriers and cuts across racial lines. National Geographic recognizes hip hop as "the world's favorite youth culture" in which "just about every country on the planet seems to have developed its own local rap scene." Through its international travels, hip hop is now considered a “global musical epidemic,” and has diverged from its ethnic roots by way of globalization and localization. Although some non-American rappers may still relate with young black Americans, hip hop now transcends its original culture, and is appealing because it is “custommade to combat the anomie that preys on adolescents wherever nobody knows their name.” Hip hop is attractive in its ability to give a voice to disenfranchised youth in any country, and as music with a message it is a form available to all societies worldwide. From its early spread to Europe and Japan to an almost worldwide acceptance through Asia and South American countries such as Brazil, the musical influence has been global. Hip hop sounds and styles differ from region...
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...This inspiration encompasses the spirit of Hip-Hop and why the genre was created to begin. This is also the reason why hip-hop was able to evolve into the multi-billion-dollar industry that is praised today. Long before the Christopher Wallaces and Tupac Shakurs that we think created hip-hop, the real pioneers of Hip-Hop simply told stories of their everyday life. Hip-Hop served as a reflection of the reality and conditions that its listeners experience. According to American Academy of Pediatrics, approximately 17% of male adolescents and 25% of female adolescents expressed that they liked their favorite song specifically because the lyrics were a reflection of their feelings. The youth is a particularly impressionable crowd. What they hear is vital to their growth and development as citizens of...
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...LATONIA ALFRED ART/100 RAP MUSIC IN COMPARISON TO SYMPHONY MUSIC LATONIA ALFRED ART/100 RAP MUSIC IN COMPARISON TO SYMPHONY MUSIC Rap Music in comparison to Symphony Music Rap Music, a form of Pop music that includes rhythmic poetry put over a musical background. The background consists of beats combined with digitally isolated sound bites from other recordings. The first recording of rap was made in 1979 and the genre began to take notice in the U.S. in the mid-1980s. Though the name rap is often used back and forth with hip hop. The name hip-hop comes from one of the earliest phrases used in rap on the song “Rapper’s Delight” by Sugarhill Gang. “I said a hip hop, hippie to the hippie, the hip, hip a hop, and you don't stop, a rock it to the bang bang boogie, say, up jump the boogie, to the rhythm of the boogie, the beat.”(Asante 109) In addition to rap music, the hip-hop subculture also formed other methods of expression like break dancing, graffiti art, a unique slang vocabulary, and fashion sense. Rap started in the mid-1970s in the South Bronx area of New York City. The birth of rap originated in the African American community and was first recorded by small, independent record labels and marketed towards, mostly to a black audience. Rap music was created out of the needs for people to express their inner most feelings and emotions. The rap culture emerged after the African American Civil Rights Movement at the end of the 1960s and in the early 1970s...
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...style can express themselves in this form. Growing up I was exposed to many different genres of music. Hip-hop, which is classified as a subculture that originated from an African American community in the 1970’s, has always been intriguing to me and is a huge part of who I am. There are four elements of Hip-Hop; rapping, DJing, break-dancing, and graffiti. I will be focusing on the music aspect of Hip-Hop and the large impact religion has on some of these artists that perform Hip-Hop music. Over the years, Hip-Hop music has gained a bad reputation. Many people find the lyrics to be offensive, obscene, or even racist. A very small portion of it is, but most of it is the complete opposite. Matthew Paul Miller, better known by his Hebrew stage name Matisyahu, is known for the positive messages he delivers through his reggae-rap style music. Matisyahu says his Jewish spirituality has most, if not everything to do with the way he writes music. In his song “Jerusalem”, he raps about ancient history and religious acts that took place in Jerusalem. He also talks about “the world coming together as brothers and sisters” and waiting on “The world to come” or the afterlife in Judaism. In his song “King Without a Crown” he talks about praying to his God and getting to know him and about the moment he was saved. These are just a couple of examples of the use of religion in positive Hip-Hop form. Even though rap music is...
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...‘self’. Just as ethnic groups try to define themselves by analyzing their characteristics that mark other ethnic groups apart (Barth, 1969), female youth create their own subcultural identity. Different from other fashion trends, there is no restrictions or reservations on members of sneakerhead subculture. Female youth are free to opt for their favourite footwear which fully speak for them. In other words, ‘it doesn’t matter what you look like or where you come from - you are what is on your feet’ (Cunningham, 2008, p.10). Sneaker assists in defending female’s gender identity and place it in the subculture from negative stereotypical notions. The subculture provides a space to ‘empower them and give them a voice to speak about social life from their perspective’ (Sarantakos, 2012,...
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...of the African Diasporas as well as added beats of artist of a bygone era. The people are both drown to this strangely intoxication music as well as the troop of dancers that are a kind of visual representation of the music that exist alongside the dancers. You see the dancers but you just barely saw this square box sitting on the small bench. You can just make out the lights flashing in the midday sun. It has two oversized speakers that seem to reproduce a sound that is far greater than its size. What is this strange new device? Where did it come from? And where can I get one? Select the single cultural artifact that you believe best represents the culture in which you live today. Its 1980 and this is the beginning age of Hip Hop. Hip Hop was and is the music of the young and disenchanted. They are seeking a voice in the crowd of society that seems to want to drown them. They needed a way to raise their...
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...When people think and/or hear the word graffiti, they relate it to gangs and vandalism to property. Other people see it has a way to express and communicate with others. Graffiti artist or “writers” as they prefer to be called are passionate, skilled, community- oriented, and socially conscious in ways that profoundly contradict the way they’ve been portrayed as common criminals and vandals. Graffiti has a negative stigma that typically relates to crime. To the artist, they are not committing any crime but to outsiders they are committing illegal acts. Keywords: Graffiti, Banksy, interpretation, crime, vandalism Open interpretation of Banky’s graffiti art When people think and/or hear the word graffiti, they relate it to gangs and vandalism to property. Other people see it has a way to express and communicate with others. People may see graffiti written on walls, buildings, trains, buses, freeway and/or road signs, billboards, and any space an artist wants their work to be seen. With the many surfaces that graffiti will be written on, public or private, it is vandalism and illegal. Graffiti is writing or drawings scribbled, scratched, or sprayed illicitly on a wall or other surface in a public place (Ferrell 2006, pg. 6). Common terms for graffiti are; tagging, pieces, and throw-ups. Graffiti artist or “writers” as they prefer to be called are passionate, skilled, community- oriented, and socially conscious in ways that profoundly contradict the way they’ve been...
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...History of Rap Rap Music, a genre of R&B that includes rhythmic poetry put over a musical background. The background consists of beats combined with digitally isolated sound bites from other recordings. The first recording of rap was made in 1979 and the genre began to take notice in the U.S. in the mid-1980s. Though the name rap is often used back and forth with hip hop. The name hip-hop comes from one of the earliest phrases used in rap on the song “Rapper’s Delight” by Sugarhill Gang. “I said a hip hop, hippie to the hippie, the hip, hip a hop, and you don't stop, a rock it to the bang bang boogie, say, up jump the boogie, to the rhythm of the boogie, the beat.”. In addition to rap music, the hip-hop subculture also formed other methods of expression like break dancing, graffiti art, a unique slang vocabulary, and fashion sense. Rap started in the mid-1970s in the South Bronx area of New York City. The birth of rap is, in many ways, like the birth of rock and roll. Both originated in the African American community and both were first recorded by small, independent record labels and marketed towards, mostly to a black audience. And in both cases, the new style soon attracted white musicians that began performing it. For rock and roll it was a white American from Mississippi, Elvis Presley. For rap it was a young white group from New York, the Beastie Boys. Their release “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)” (1986) was one of the first two rap records to reach...
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...movement. For the music genre, see Hip hop music. For other uses, see Hip hop (disambiguation). Graffiti of "hip hop" in Eugene, Oregon Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic subculture that originated in African-American and Hispanic-American communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx.[1][2][3] DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, B-boying and graffiti writing.[4][5][6][7] [8] Since its emergence in the South Bronx, hip hop culture has spread to both urban and suburban communities throughout the world.[9] Hip hop music first emerged with disc jockeys creating rhythmic beats by looping breaks (small portions of songs emphasizing a percussive pattern) on two turntables, more commonly referred to as sampling. This was later accompanied by "rap", a rhythmic style of chanting or poetry presented in 16 bar measures or time frames, and beatboxing, a vocal technique mainly used to imitate percussive elements of the music and various technical effects of hip hop DJ's. An original form of dancing and particular styles of dress arose among fans of this new music. These elements experienced considerable refinement and development over the course of the history of the culture. The relationship between graffiti and hip hop culture arises from the appearance of new and increasingly elaborate and pervasive forms of the practice in areas where other elements of hip hop were evolving as art forms, with a...
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...society is eager and anxious to find and remove all causes of these cultural ills. All the blame can not be put on one particular thing but a heavier degree of blame can be put on one thing. Some of the violent acts listed above are expressed through music. Gangster rap, which followed rap music, developed in the 1980's. Though the immaturity and lack of teaching morals has an impact on how we view and take in things, the context of gangster rap presents a negative image for people in society. Rap music has derived from other music categories. One of the first musical influences on rap music is hip hop. Hip hop is comprised of graffiti, break dancing, attitude and the dress of the people who listened to it. The start of hip hop, along with rap, can be located in the Bronx of New York. There were three major events that occurred in the Bronx that contributed to the hip hop subculture. The first event was the building of an expressway through the Bronx. This plan was carried out by the 1959 Parks Commissioner, Rober Moses. This expressway ran through the heart of the Bronx. Italians, Germans, Irish and Jews disappeared from the Bronx. They were replaced by poor blacks and Hispanics. As a result, crime, drug addiction, and unemployment sky rocketed. Rober Moses continued to put out projects that slowly changed the Bronx as it was previously known. He built a...
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...writes, genres have certain conventions by which audiences recognize them, and particular genres attract particular audiences (p. 32-33). A rap artist, then, necessarily follows certain conventions that allow the artist and the listeners to call the music “rap”. At the same time, a rap artist’s interaction with the established conventions of the genre will determine how he, or she, is perceived by audiences. Macklemore, then, is acknowledged to make music in a historically black genre whose conventions, for many audience members, mandate superficiality and various forms of violence. An interpretation of Macklemore must begin with fixing this artist’s relationship to the genre in which he works, in an attempt to understand his own position in hip-hop and how the audience fixes him in relation to their understanding of rap...
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