Google scholar - expanded

1) 'Hip hop is not dead but gravely ill. The beauty and life force of hip hop have been squeezed out, wrung nearly dry by the compounding factors of commercialism, distorted racial and sexual fantasy oppression and alienation.' - The Hip Hop Wars - Tricia Rose   - This will be crucial for my critical investigation as this quotation talks about how hip-hop is gravely 'ill' ill connoting negative vibes. It also gives examples of ways in which it is 'ill'; being able to help me whilst writing up my critical investigation as my topic discusses hip-hop's negative effect within today's current society. 

2) 'Queen Latifah's U.N.I.T.Y which won a Grammy in 1993, presents the perfect starting example of a black woman bringing wreck in Hip Hop.' - Check it While I Wreck it: Black Womanhood, Hip-hop Culture, and the Public ... - Gwendolyn D.Pough - From this, racial issues are brought up as stereo typically, within the hip hop industry, most of the rappers are known to be black according to today's society ever since rap originated from Brooklyn, NY. However, contemporary white artists such as Eminem and Macklemore have fit into the rap/hip-hop place claiming their places as 'brilliant rappers', linking to the cultivation  of these white rappers trying to fit into society allowing them to become more like the other successful rappers. 

3) 'The song is also an instance of outspokenness in that she calls attention to sexual harassment, domestic violence, and the influence negative images of black womanhood have on black women.' - Check it While I Wreck it: Black Womanhood, Hip-hop Culture, and the Public ... - Gwendolyn D.Pough - Linking to sexuality and sexism being an extremely controversial topic within the industry of rap and hip hop and this will help me talk about the negative impacts that rap has upon society leading back to the question asked originally.

4) 'As we categorise artists along the lines of positive and negative, good and bad, skilled and stupid, we should pause and reconsider our strategies.' - Telling the audience to reconsider judging themselves before judging other people within the music industry. 

 5) 'Many of Biggies music videos celebrated the trappings of wealth, while scantily clad women surrounded men [...] There were lyrics of hustling and lyrics of sexual exploitation.' - Again linking to sexual references, showing women to be inferior to men portraying them to be their 'bitches, hoes' usually not giving them enough respect opposed to men. Also, it shows what rap is usually about 'hustling' meaning a strive to get money usually by doing negative things such as selling drugs or stripping for example being a disadvantage and making a negative impact upon the audience for the genre on rap. - Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop. By Imani Perry


6) 'Hip-hop exposes the current punishment regime as profoundly unfair. It demonstrates this view by, if not glorifying law breakers, at least not viewing all criminals with the disgust which the law seeks to attach to them' - Much Respect: Toward a Hip-Hop Theory of Punishment - By Paul Butler - Showing a sense of more negative topic of sensitive discussion talking about how rappers are negative rapping about things such as breaking the law and how it may be 'glorified' and by doing this may encourage a sense of violence to the listeners of the lyrics as they may want to be like their idols which include rappers such as Lil Wayne for example. 

7) 'The ghetto, in all of its negative complexity, is still heralded as an idealised space for minority teens teens within rap's cultural discourses precisely because its considered as being somehow what 'real' than other spaces and places, leading Robin Kelley to the observation that "to be a 'real nigga' is to have been a product of the ghetto.' - The 'Hood Comes First: Race, Space, and Place in Rap and Hip-Hop
 By Murray Forman

8) 'This study investigated short-term effects of exposure to hip-hop music videos with varying degrees of sexual imagery on viewers' acceptance of the objectification of women, sexual permissiveness, gender attitudes, and rape myth acceptance.' - Does Exposure to Sexual Hip-Hop Music Videos Influence the Sexual Attitudes of College Students? - Michelle E. Kristler 

9) 'Potentially negative influence of rap music was found in some empirical studies summarised the literature by stressing that adolescents who preferred rap music and heavy metal were at higher risks of poor academic achievement, delinquency, anti-social behaviour and substance use than any other adolescents.' 

10) Preference for French rap had the strongest links to deviant behaviors, whereas preference for hip hop/soul was linked to less deviant behaviors. Results are discussed within the psychosocial and sociocognitive perspectives on music influence in adolescence and also within the perspective of normative deviant behaviors in adolescence. 
-- Rap Music Genres and Deviant Behaviours in French-Canadian Adolescents - 

Dave Miranda, 

 

Michel Claes

Self evaluation

Critical investigation

WWW: Previously set targets have been met. 

More notes have been added to the blog. 

Healthy progress in terms of note taking. 

EBI: 

1) Complete everything off  including most of the proposal

2) Make more notes

3) Use a wide range of resources rather than just the internet such as more books, newspaper articles, magazines i.e. media magazine which can be accessed both online and by borrowing  Mr Bush's copies. 

4) Use different websites compared to just sticking to the mainstream websites such as the Daily Mail. 

5) More use of a range of articles. 

5 links.

1) http://www.ehow.com/about_5418679_negative-rap-hip-hop-music.html

Glorifying Violence

Sexualization

• The popularity of music videos has reinforced the overt sexuality found in hip-hop music.

Misconceptions

2) http://www.collegenet.com/elect/app/app?service=external/Forum&sp=3940

People's views on Hip-hop being both positive and negative.

The principal said that artists like Cam'ron were such huge influences on the kids' lives that when the artists included subjects such as "pimpin' and b****es" in their music, and glamourized violence and street life, that the children were quick to follow.

3) http://www.ehow.com/facts_5589579_effects-rap-music-teen-society.html

Racial Stereotypes

• We would like to think that America has healed from its harsh racial past, but that's not so. Rap music reinforces racial stereotypes by projecting black males as primarily criminals or unfaithful partners who lack character. This makes it harder for young black men who do the right thing to get noticed.

Degrading

• Teenage boys should be raised to treat all women with respect, but when they see constant images of women dancing in a raunchy manner or as going along with the mistreatment from men in the video, they learn to adopt this belief.

4) http://www.ehow.com/facts_5761873_rap-music-bad-influence-children_.html 

Drugs

• Over the past 20 years there has been an increase in lyrics that reference drugs in rap music, according to a study published in Addiction Research & Theory.

Grades

• Parents admit that rock music and rap have had a bad influence on their sons' grades, according to an article in Adolescence. The article also noted that the adolescent boys had a poor academic record before they started listening to rap and rock.

5) http://voices.yahoo.com/african-american-art-influence-hip-hop-community-67979.html 

It's amazing that music can have that type of influential ability. Even more amazing when you dissect a particular song and strip it down to it's lyrical form

The influence of Hip-Hop is tremendous! At one point in the decade of the 1990s era, two particular rappers had two sides of the United States hating each other. Perhaps because many of those participants were misinformed about the influence of music. Many Artists have gone on record to tell their fans to 'not do what I do.' In other words, don't follow the same steps as the music.

But younger and less informed crowds still continue to do the same. After 27 years of successful music producing throughout the hip-hop industry, many listeners still haven't gotten the clearer the picture that the people they admire are artists. An artist is a person who is a performer, a character or a creator of something unique. Rap artists are paid millions of dollars to express themselves on top of flashy percussions and rhythm.

Tutorial Targets 5.11.13

• Read and make notes on media magazine article on hip-hop
• Copy more notes onto blog and include page references 
• Check other students' blogs for more references
• Use Amazon to research more books

Notes 1000+ words

To what extent can it be argued that contemporary hip hop music is a negative influence on its target audience?

Media magazine: September 2013

Gangnam Style

Now the most watched video on YouTube with over 1 billion and a half views 

Consists of a catchy sense of humour 

Become a global sensation -> Globalisation 

Silly dance moves imitated by famous people such as Boris Johnson and David Cameron

Big Hollywood stars such as Tom Cruise Tweeted about Gangnam Style -> Being a way in which he raised awareness about this song to the general public

Inspired thousands of people to attend dancing flash mobs in cities around the world -> showing how everyone can relate to this song going with the concept of people all being able to relate through their love of music. 

WORLD PEACE

The United Nations Secretary General even went as far to suggest that "Gangnam Style" could lead to world peace. With having that said, Psy stated "I think that music can play a very important role. I hope that we can work together using your global reach."

REACTING RAP -> How do people interpret rap? 

Music is one of those things in life that we all interpret differently. It has the power to bring people together whilst simultaneously segregating us. 

'Harsh Tweets' are sent on social networks such as Twitter, for example, presenting 'battles' fought be rival fan bases. 'Chris Brown vs Tyler The Creator' Twitter feed exemplifies this. 

Because of social networks such as these, it creates a gap between different generations such as old vs young. 

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER 

Is it the lyrics, the rhymes, the beat or the intensity of the emotion created in the listener? 

Does music have meanings you can analyse or is it an experience you feel? 

EMINEM - WITHOUT ME - Eminem likes to cause controversy 

"Now this looks like a job for me, so everybody just follow me, cause we need a little controversy, cause it feels to empty without me."

Allows a sense of humour within his character of Slim Shady, however, as he is a master in disguise, controversial topics are bought up. 

He also promotes a sense of violence from his "venom-fuelled tirades against his ex-wife which are legendary." 

As humour is talked about within his music, it allows a sense of 'between- the lines' violence. 

Bakhtin's theory of intertextuality talks about how Eminem has many identities. e.g. Slim Shady - Loud mouth, arrogant, misogynistic. Eminem who is the creation of Marshall Mathers III, Stan - Homicidal stalker, who murders his 'baby momma'. Many of Eminem's album names further endorses his sense of identity as of performance e.g. Slim Shady, The Eminem Show, Curtain Call and Encore. 

According to Bakhtin, every person is influenced by others in an inescapably in an intertwined way, consequently no voice can be said to be isolated. 

NEGATIVE INFLUENCES/HISTORY

Rap artists such as Lil Wayne who make lifestyle choices such as drinking cough syrup is a negative as it influences people who listen to his music to also do the same as he mentions drinking cough syrup in some of his lyrics. 

The common stereotypes of hip-hops artists are that they 'treat women like bitches', 'drug addicts' and 'breaking the law which is considered as '"bad-ass" in order to maintain a tough appearance within the music industry as that is what hip-hop artists are portrayed as. 

Kids are dancing to the latest Hip-Hop beats at an early age, and when a catchy tune comes on, some people might be surprised to find their musically-challenged mothers and fathers nodding their heads as well.

Hip-Hop is said to endanger the minds of students with thoughts of violence, the exploitation of women, lots of jewellery, and arrogance.

Hip-Hop was created to describe a style of dancing, clothing, and music created in urban neighborhoods.
 It was originally based around five elements and none of the above are one of them. 

The elements were Djing, MCing, beatboxing, graffiti, and breakdancing.

 Hip-Hop just described the incredible new form of art invented.

Much of main stream hip hop and rap mostly contains themes of immoral activity. Yes, the bad words are bleeped out, but the message is still there, and it is the younger teens (12-16) that listen to the radio more often. Therefore, they are more easily put in to the mindset that if Weezy is doing it, we can too, and even assume they are cool doing so. (http://hiphopvtheworld.edublogs.org/2011/03/28/negative-effects-of-rap-and-hip-hop/)

Hip hop and rap lyrics are so catchy, and they become embedded in our minds, to the extent where they potentially motivate our actions. Gangster rap usually reflects inner city life, glorifying criminal activity and degrading women. 

Rap and Hip Hop also promotes a thug lifestyle, one that centers on not fulfilling an education, but instead doing drugs, and spitting rhymes while doing so.

History

Hip hop began in the 1970s. The art form, which originated in New York, provided Black and Latino youth with an outlet to express themselves, often speaking out about the poor conditions that exist within their communities. The development of the hip-hop culture created a movement that influenced the way we dress, speak and socialize. The emergence of "gangsta rap" in the 1980s marked the beginning of some disintegration of the positive images in hip-hop culture.

• http://www.ehow.com/about_5418679_negative-rap-hip-hop-music.html#ixzz2iMRHWScC

  
  

  This genre of hip-hop has been a source of tremendous controversy and is often cited as the cause of the increase in violence. This is particularly true amongst black youth. According to federal statistics cited by the "Charlottesville Daily Progress," homicide is the leading cause of death for black men between the ages of 15 and 34

  However, close analysis of the song lyrics often reveals a plethora of curse words and no substance. According to commentators such as those found on Urban Dictionary.com, many artists have been forced to create artificial 'gangsta' images for the sake of a lucrative career. Many young people idolize these artists and imitate their behavior.
  

  Young women are surrounded by these negative images, and many have adapted their lifestyles to fit them. Black Entertainment Television (BET) broadcasts approximately 15 hours of music video each day. According to the research of Carolyn West (University of Washington), as reported in the "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette," many of the young women who watch these videos do not believe they can be successful without using their bodies. 

  
  

  More negative influences

  
  

  Chief Keef promotes songs such as 'I don't like' and this may encourage things such as gun violence within his particular target audience and phrases such as 'bang bang' may encourage this as they may want to be more like their 'role model' who is known for being an artist to promote negative factors such as treating women badly by calling them names such as 'bitches' portraying them in a was, less superior to men in general. 
  
  
  On the other hand...
  
  Artists such as J.Cole rap about other, more sensitive topics which include factors such as abortion and life in his song of 'Lost ones  compared to stereotypical artists which talk about things of recreational use such as Lil Wayne and his song of 'Pussy Money Weed' showing how narrow the topics are that he's going to discuss within the song.
  
  Also, artists such as Drake talk about money but in a positive way as he quotes from his song 'From Time' "I like when money makes a difference but don't make you different." showing how unlike Lil Wayne, he shows his moralistic side within his music. 
  
  
  Icons in the hood - media magazine - september 2012 
  
  

  Plan B talks about Chavs - "British rapper has criticised the label for being ' a derogatory phrase, no different to ones concerning race or sex.' But some argue that being a 'chav' is about attitude and behaviour not race and sex.

  
  
  
  
  

Proposal

Working title

The working title of my critical investigation is "To what extent can it be argued that contemporary hip hop music is a negative influence on its target audience?" I chose to research about this question as I am interested within the topic of the music industry and it allows me to show my passion for it; it is a different question as it targets many key factors of the media world such as race, gender, age.. etc. 

Angle

Has a both positive and negative impact upon the audience. Positive: if a song in particular talks about ending gun violence and to be peaceful, more people might be influenced not to use guns. Negatives: artists e.g. influence people to use guns for example phrases such as 'bang bang' are used to make people be influenced into using guns leading to increased violence.
Is this simply a moral panic of the 21st century or is further regulation required?
A moral panic is an intense feeling expressed in a population about an issue that appears to threaten the social order.^[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_panic
This issue can be seen as a moral panic as my question consists words such as 'negative' connoting the fact that this could be a threat towards society within the 21st century, I know that it is fairly recent due to the word 'contemporary' which means that there would be a lot of research for new hip hop music that I would have to carry out for my work. 

Hypothesis

Music is influencing would influence people to be more negative as in the current generation, references to sex, drugs and violence are made opposed to things such as peace or love as much. Artists such as Chief Keef, Lil Wayne, Kanye West influence violence within their songs such as 'No Church in Wild', 'I Don't Like' etc. And due to this, as the target audience of the young generation aged from 16-25 (http://tsmithchs.wordpress.com/2013/01/10/rbhip-hop-music-magazine-target-audience/) and as they may look up to some of these artists as to being their role models, people may try to be more like them and therefore be more violence, for example, or whatever more their artists talk about within their songs.

Linked production piece

http://musicmagic.wordpress.com/2008/07/10/music-in-society/ article showing how music has an impact upon society. 


MIGRAIN

Apply the Key Concepts to your texts/topic by using the questions from the Summer Research Project to help you. (Include at least five bullet point/key concept). Include as many media keywords as you can.

Media Representations: 


SHEP

Apply the Wider Contexts to your text/topic, including at least three bullet points on each one.

Issues/Debates

Select at least five and say how each relates to your study, using the Media A-Z to help you think about this:

• Representation and stereotyping - how black people influence violence, how white people are represented not to rap as much as black people, how women are portrayed in a lower way than men showing a sense of how men are more dominant.
• Media effects
• Reality TV - The lives of artists within the music industry e.g. chief keef at such a young age to achieve what he did or Eminem who started from nothing and ended up becoming one of the world's top selling artists.
• News Values - Paparazzi and how they feed off the artists' lives and what they do.
• Ownership and control...
• Regulation and censorship...
• Media technology and the digital revolution – changing technologies in the 21st century - Changing technology influences people to stream more videos on their iPads or their android phones  etc.
• The effect of globalisation on the media - How the US music industry has taken over the world compared to the UK who have made it big, but not as big as the artists who are located within the US.

Theories

Select at least five and say how each relates to your study, using keywords/specific theorists' names from the Media A-Z:

• Semiotics
• Structuralism and post-structuralism
• Postmodernism and its critiques
• Gender and ethnicity - Race e.g. black people vs white people, representation in music videos
• Marxism and hegemony
• Liberal Pluralism
• Colonialism and Post-colonialism -
• Audience theories - Different audiences for different genres e.g. classical = older generation vs Rap = younger, ghetto generation.
• Genre theories - Rap vs Pop
• Contemporary Media Landscape

Explain how your study fits into this.

Research plan (media texts, academic texts and websites)

Media texts
What your main focus will be, E.g.:
Hip-Hop vs Pop
Artists such as Chief Keef, Eminem, A$ap Rocky, Miley Cyrus, Rihanna, Beyonce.

Other media texts
(at least five related examples) such as the older generation artists, places the music is listened in e.g. the US vs the UK, Grime vs US rap, instituitions
TV documentaries
Research videos online, e.g.:
BBC One - Panorama, Addicted to Games? http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wlmj0

Academic texts/books
(a minimum of five, including author/full title/year, e.g.:)
Nancy Signorielli: Violence in the media: a reference handbook (2005)


Internet Links
www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog
http://www.theguardian.com/music/video/2013/oct/13/jay-z-london-underground-tube-o2-arena-video
http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2013/oct/11/wiley-statue
http://www.capitalfm.com/artists/girls-aloud/news/nadine-coyle-jason-bell-father/
http://www.capitalfm.com/artists/rihanna/news/new-tattoo-chris-brown/


Newspaper articles
http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=KiHcllqdzl4C&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=how+does+music+influence+society%3F+&ots=C3Pp0ZGK-U&sig=OXAyltG1dgve4fkdpy6U8isphck#v=onepage&q=how%20does%20music%20influence%20society%3F&f=false
http://thepoint.gm/africa/gambia/article/black-african-music-and-society

Daily Mail Article

The atrocious article posted the day after the Olympics opening ceremony, attacked different gender roles and races being a very controversial article and by the man writing the article posting remarks such as 'This was supposed to be a representation of modern life in England but it is likely to be a challenge for the organisers to find an educated white middle-aged mother and black father living together with a happy family in such a set-up.' showed a very one-sided argument upon society as an overall and the phrase 'set-up' made it seem as if a white mother and a black father would never be seen anywhere.

I believe that this man is very racist and biased and as bold as that statement is, it may be seen as very much true. Why would no one ever see a white, middle-aged mother and black father living together? I know I have; but due to this man's delusional mind from all the luxury that he may be living in, as he is living in his own world, he may not have seen the world through other people's lives. What I believe is that the Olympics presented a white woman, living with a black man as they may be promoting diversity within the UK which may connote that everyone is equal.

Furthermore, as said before, the article draws sympathy towards a boy's life and almost makes the audience feel responsible for his death; this may be a technique that the author uses in order to get more people to read the article, however, due to the death of that young child, I don't believe that the audience reading the news article should be held responsible and as this is a very controversial topic, it may get people to start riots. Whether this is what the author of the article, Rick Dewsbury was planning or not, I don't know for sure, however, a political war and disagreements against the NHS have already begun to take place. I believe that Rick is taking an almost 'cheap shot' to target racism upon society.

Word Count: 348 words.