...Imagine living in a Puritan society 330 years ago. Religious zeal and devotion are the basis of the community. Ministers and pastors promote male supremacy and women are looked down upon. The fundamental rule in society is to follow God’s law and obey His commandments. Harsh, remorseless punishment is inflicted on those who stray from God’s laws. Now compare the Puritan society to today’s society. The American culture is ruled by momentary yet popular trends. Colored skinny jeans, snap-backs, unnecessary fashion glasses and neon clothing can be seen almost anywhere on the street (Lutz). Also modern culture has astronomically altered social norms. Women used to be the ideal caretaker of innocence and purity, but now women dress in revealing clothing and are preyed on by the indecent society. Proper mannerisms have vanished and young people have become straightforward and sometimes even rude. Respect for elders and wisdom has dwindled (The Revolution in Manners and Morals). What is the cause of this cultural shift? In Boston during 1684, a group of strict Puritan religious leaders wrote a letter to the community addressing the issue of dancing. Men could dance together and women could dance together, which was viewed as a natural expression of joy. Also children could dance with their parents’ permission. However if a male and female danced together it was seen as an inexcusable sin before God (An Arrow Against Profane and Promiscuous Dancing). Puritan religious leaders warned...
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...1990's, he or she is considered a part of the "Hip Hop Generation". Music is a gift that has been given to us, but the question is, "where is hip hop music going?" Hip-hop is now one of the biggest and fastest growing businesses in the world. It's creativity in sound, and its lyrics has empowered many of today's youth. Lyrically, some of hip-hop's most popular songs and musicians have negatively influenced violence, drugs, alcohol, sex, disrespect for authority, and disrespect for women. For many young children and teenagers, this type of music can create an environment that can become very interfering to their lives and education. Parents always teach their children to “say no” to drugs but the rappers that children look up to are rapping mostly about using drugs and implying to children that it's okay to use them. Therefore, children will listen to the side that has the most influential power to them. Many children, who constantly rewinds songs and memorize the lyrics, are just as equally influenced just as if they were placed directly in front of the violence and sex and observed them. Statistics has proven that many nightclubs that have had violence occur in them have been playing "violent" hip-hop music. Hip-hop is like a strong tornado that constantly sweeps us up and spits us back out. But whom it's sweeping up are the ones who cannot handle the fall once they are thrown back out. Although rap and hip-hop music can be a force for good, they can also have an extremely negative...
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...Many people believe rap music encourages violence amongst women as well as gang violence. While research has found that a preference for rap music is associated with higher rates of drug and alcohol use, arrests, and sexual promiscuity, but these problems often begin before young people start listening to rap. Not all rap music has bad content within them. In Marseille, France, rap and hip hop are thriving musical forms, and many residents believe that the positive effects of this music are the reason why poor North African neighborhoods in the region didn't suffer the rioting seen in other areas of Paris, There's no factual proof of it making kids violent. Some rap songs display a good message about life. Many people speculate that rap music...
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...Music is a soulful way to gain insight on personal relationships, emotions, fashion and even new slang that is being used in today’s society. Music is also one main form of entertainment that is used daily. Some use music as a gateway to mentally leave the harsh realities that life can sometimes bring to us, while others use music as a form of communication. Music has a philosophical effect on one’s emotions allowing happiness or sadness to rise. Throughout time, music has the characteristic of fluidity, shaping to society as new facets of life emerge. All-in-all, music has the capability to incite emotions of sadness, grief, joy, and even ecstasy. Since music can invoke these emotions, is it possible for music, more specifically rap or “gangsta...
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...Rap/Hip-Hop: The Effects on Today’s Youth Brenda L. Williams-Capers Columbia Southern University English Composition II Professor Dana Taylor December 11, 2011 Abstract Rap/Hip-Hop first became popular among African American and Latinos among youth in the streets of New York during the 1970’s. It was their way of expressing themselves in a friendly manner in the form of speech, fashion, and personal style. Rap/Hip-Hop music was a way for them to get their message out, by telling stories of their lifestyles. However, over the years Rap/Hip-Hop music has become much more popular for its explicit lyrics, reference of drugs, alcohol and sexual explicit videos. Many may ask “Could Rap/Hip-Hop music have a negative influence on today’s youth, because of its unhealthy messages”? This research paper will examine the effects of rap/hip-hop music on today’s youth and whether or not it has a negative influence. Brenda L. Williams-Capers Professor Dana Taylor English Composition II December 11, 2011 Over the year’s many researchers have conducted studies on the effects of rap/hip-hop on today’s youth. The results have been mixed; however there are indications that some forms of Rap/Hip-Hop music could have negative influence on today’s youth. This is due to the fact that youth start to adapt the negative aspects of the gangster rap, by displaying aggressive behaviors and committing crimes of violence. Rap gets a bad rap because some songs contain explicit lyrics...
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...of the Portrayals of Violence Against Women in Rap Music 1987-1993” serve a purpose to change the way women are portrayed in popular culture. These pieces effectively point out the fact that women are looked upon in a very negative light, though one is conducted as a study and the other is satire. The satirical piece also pokes fun at other aspects in popular culture. Beginning with the title, “Study Confirms That Bitches, As Suspected, Ain’t Shit But Hoes and Tricks” the piece pokes fun at common culture as well as academia because of the outlandish study. However, looking deeper into the article it is apparent that the piece exploits the way that society displays women as its main topic. The piece points out that this negative view isn’t a new idea as “Shakespeare used the sentence “Wenches art naut beside harlots and strumpets” in his private works, but it had never been presented publicly.” This gives a timeframe to the crisis. This piece really brings up the issue, however it lacks the resolve and seriousness needed to make a change. The study: “Gangsta Misogyny: A Content Analysis of the Portrayals of Violence Against Women in Rap Music 1987-1993” gives a better analysis of the same problem brought up in the satirical piece. This work is presented in a much different way and offers much more evidence and explanation supporting its claims. This piece states that, “a deconstructive interpretation is offered in which gangsta rap music's violent and misogynist lyrics are explicated...
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...English 10 Hip Hop Music And Culture Although rap music is stereotyped as being violent and a bad influence, it may surprise you that the album The Marshall Mathers LP by Eminem, was one of the fastest selling albums ever. It dropped in 2000 and sold 1.76 million albums in the first week. Rap , also called hip hop ( a term coined by Keith the Cowboy) is defined as not only being a type of music but also as being a culture or a way of life. As music its defined as talking in rhyme to the rhythm of the beat. As a culture hip hop is defined as “ A culture, a way of life for a society of people who identify, love, and cherish rap, breakdancing, DJing, and graffiti(The History of Rap, 1). Rappers are also called MC’s, which stands for master of ceremonies. The are four elements to rap music, rapping, Djing/scratching, sampling, and beatboxing. The last three more pertain to the beats and background music. Rap is very important to many people not only is it their way of life, but it is also one of their emotional outlets. Hip hop started to rise in popularity in the late 1960’s in the Bronx of New York. It was said to be started in clubs and at block parties when Dj’s started to break down and loop percussion breaks of popular disco songs, but they also used funk and souls songs. At this time rappers were predominantly African Americans and Puerto Ricans. One of the first Dj’s was Dj Kool Herc. Where he performed is sometimes called the birth place of rap; 1520 Sedgewick Avenue...
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...Music itself by definition means the expression of oneself through either your voice or an instrument. It is the most well liked art form. The music industry is a bit different though, it is run by these big companies and people who try to make money off creating catchy songs and concerts. It is often seen as either something that just about everyone wants to be involved in or something negative due to the large amount of child stars going in a downward spiral adults. Many people overlook the bad messages the music industry, specifically rap music gives to the adolescents and children, it influences them to have sex at an early age, become drug addicts, and engage in violence. Music is apart of life, it brings people together and brings people apart, in a sense that they get so lost in a tone of a song that they mentally escape reality, thus bringing people apart in a way. Even though this is a fact not many people listen to the lyrics of the song they love so much. Adolescents, are usually those who do not think about the message about their favorite song. Teenagers in today’s generation would say that the music they hear does not effect them in any way shape or form. On the contrary it affects them without them without noticing with subliminal messages. Rap music in particular has the greatest impact on young people to this day....
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...approach three main areas. First: to place music of the orchestras of Auschwitz and Terezin in a historical, sociological and cultural context. Second: to investigate how music was a form of healing and a form of torture. Thirdly: to study the remarkable lives of Viktor Ullmann and Alma Rose (Gustave Mahler’s niece). Viktor Ullmann was in the Terezin camp in which he composed a great deal, some of which this essay will discuss. Alma Rose was in Auschwitz and survived. Both composed music during their time in the different concentration camps. They found healing in music in the traumatic and horrifying time that was the Holocaust....
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...For as long as people have been making rap music, people have been challenging the content found therein. Dating back to the days of groups such as NWA, Geto Boys, and 2 Live Crew in the 1980s and 1990s, rap music has faced repeated challenges because of its violent, misogynistic lyrics. Law enforcement groups, such as the FBI, have taken exception to songs like NWA’s controversial “Fuck Tha Police” because of the lyrics, which explicitly accuse police of racial profiling, and later in the song, apparently advocate the murder of members of the Los Angeles police community. Supporters of “gangsta rap” have argued that many of the lyrics found within the genre are protected under the 1st Amendment, and that “no reasonable person” would go out...
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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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...Compare and Contrast Essay: Classical and Rap Music Kristin Conway COM/155 - UNIVERSITY COMPOSITION AND COMMUNICATION I March 15, 2014 Instructor: Kathleen Case In contrary to common thought, classical and rap music have as many similarities as they do differences. The sound may be completely different, but there is a way to show emotion that will affect the listeners. For example, they both have ways to bring emotion and feeling into both performance and their audience’s effectiveness. Classical has an effect on the listeners that makes them cry, laugh and be happy. Rap music has an effect on a person that makes them get up and dance to the beat of the song. Classical and rap music are different in many ways but are also the same, especially in musical influences, musical evolution, and the musician’s techniques. Classical music is the first type of music performed. Classical music started in the year 1150, with the development of Medieval music, where according to Naxos.com, where 1“The earliest written secular music dates from the 12th century troubadours (in the form of virelais, estampies, ballades, etc.), but most notated manuscripts emanate from places of learning usually connected with the church, and therefore inevitably have a religious basis. Gregorian chant and plainsong developed during the 11th and 13th centuries into organum (example: two or three lines moving simultaneously but independently, almost inadvertently representing the beginnings...
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...I’ve never been a person to listen to rap music or any kind of music like that. I just don’t realize what the point of it is, what is it trying to tell you? It doesn’t have any message behind it and if they do then it a worthless message. Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying that the music is terrible it just doesn’t appeal to me and it doesn’t seem interesting. To me, it all sounds the same. My friends find my taste in music weird because it isn’t a bunch of words strung together carelessly. My friend Astrid and I were waiting for my parents to come pick us up. “Do you know this song?” Astrid asked me. I shook my head, “No” I replied bluntly. “Oh my god you are sooo,” she didn’t finish her sentence, she tends to do that a lot. I still knew that...
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...Music has been an object of wonder, amazement, and even fear since the beginning of its existence. It has been used as a tool to shape culture and society throughout history and continues to do so with no signs of waning. New musical genres are formed seemingly daily as the industry grows in popularity, commercial activity, and number of artists. The appeal of rhythmic beats and noises to the human mind has fueled the evolution of music from sticks hitting rocks to complex electronic compilations. And not only do people influence the development of music, but music influences the development of society. Ceremonial music was and still is a focal point of Indian culture. Teenagers flock to concerts to hear the newest and the most famous tunes. What do these mere two examples of musical events have in common? Music and it’s entrepreneurs affecting the lives and actions of society. Is this a good thing? Most would say yes. Can it be manipulated to carry a destructive outcome? Many, thinking of such variations as rap, would say yes. Does rap steer the young and easily impressionable to violent tendencies? This is a matter of current controversy that worries numerous parents, authorities, and even youths. Is rap a violence-inducing demon, persuading inner-city teenagers to hurt, kill and steal in the name of one’s race or social class or is it a preaching promoting such ideals as honor, respect and unity? With the growing popularity of rap music through such means as music television...
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...Rap music is undoubtedly a standout amongst the most prevalent music genres to date however how well do you know the history of rap? Go along with me as I bring a walk down the memory lane and return to the origin of what we know today as Hip-Hop. Number of years back in Africa "griots", where town story tellers who played basic handmade instruments while they told stories of their family and local occasions. This style of talking while music is playing is rap music at ots root structure. The griot is still a noteworthy type of correspondence in Africa still right up 'til the present time. This griot tradition extended when Africans were caught without wanting to, transported to America and constrained into subjugation. One way they would...
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