Ideas for the project.

Summarise your idea;

- Explain who you're working with and why;

I am working with Mathew, Rohit and Kiran. This is because all of our critical investigations link together of the portrayals of black people and how they are represented within the music and film industry. 

- Make at least three links to your Critical Investigation;

The 3 links to my critical investigation is that we are doing it on representations of black people and ethnic minorities, also it will be a spoof reinforcing the stereotypes regarding black males. Furthermore the genre we have picked will also link back to my critical investigation of a crime drama.

- Explain what elements you've learnt when doing your essay that you'll apply in the production;

The elements I have learnt while doing my critical investigation includes having to be careful when reinforcing stereotypes regarding black males as people could get easily offended and we cannot talk bad about key events in the history of black culture as this may easily be seen as offensive, so we would have to make sure that we do not offended someone too majorly.

- Identify the target audience (demographics, psychographics);

The target audience will be mainly those of ethnic minority and black males/females this is due to the fact that we are reinforcing the stereotypes about them as a spoof, they will also mainly be of the CDE class so working class and the younger generation, this is also due to the comedic genre of our production as the younger generation are more likely to be able to relate to the characters as although it is a comedy, I feel that it is important for the audience to have a direct connection with not only the storyline but also with the characters in order to the movie to generate sales. 

- Explain where/which channel/when it would appear and how your text will appeal to them;

As we are doing a movie trailer, the production would most likely feature in the cinemas then on Sky Movies comedy or Film4 as these are the channels that would support our genre and film, it will also appeal to Sky comedy as they have a channel that shows only comedy movies and Film4 also shows British comedy films for example; Anuvahood or Ill Manors. 

- list ten additional genre conventions you aim to incorporate. 

Humour(dark) -Dealing with disturbing subjects such as death, drugs and violence

Costume - Commonly seen gangster clothing such as tracksuit bottoms, jeans, hoodies, trainers etc. 

Setting - Usually a bright place for example a city or town, for teen comedies mostly schools.

Camerawork - Natural shots, everyone is usually of the same status so mostly mid-shots and close ups. 

Lighting - Would usually be bright due to the comedic genre, usually natural light which make the scene look happy. 

Props - Props would be important in a comedy, so using small things which are funny in the movie 

Characters - usually a contrast between someone stupid and a group of intelligent people, shows the change in status too.

Essay Plan

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

Introduction 

Within the past 20-30 years, rap music has made a drastic change within the music industry like any other genre of music. Artists have developed into such people that make their audiences follow everything they do, how they act and what they aspire to have. This genre of music is well-known for having a huge impact mainly upon the new generation of the youth. It is said that hip-hop has not only evolved within the past few years that have passed, but has changed continuously all along. 

The contemporary factor of hip-hop, rather than having more positive values, through time, artists have evolved to put materialistic factors before anything else which is morally correct such as educating the overall target audience of the youths about being more peaceful for example; hence, instead, contemporary artists encourage the opposite of starting war instead of putting a halt to it; being one of many examples as to how the target audience of hip-hop music are being effected in a negative way. 


P1 - 1980 artists' beliefs and ideologies within their music. 

Artists such as Flava Fav, Chuck D, DJ Lord formed a group called Public Enemy famous for their 'politically charged' music. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Enemy_(group) This group formed in 1982 and targeted their own races' concerns within their music in order to get the word out as to how the African-American people felt at the time. For example, topics discussed within their music included political, social and cultural consciousness. As the racism topic was one of the worries of the African-American residents, the group was shown to attack the audience with their strong beliefs within people such as Elvis which were glorified within the music industry.

The lyric from their song of 'Fight The Power' stated "Elvis was a hero to most, But he never meant shit to me you see, Straight up racist that sucker was, Simple and plain, Mother fuck him and John Wayne,Cause I'm Black and I'm proud." Talking about how as white people such as Elvis or John Wayne believed in racism,and the members of Public Enemy believed within and were for this argument of wanting white people to be separated from the black people. This movement was called The Nation Of Islam, leading to influencing more people to create a divide between black and white people and ultimately causing more controversy within the 1980's as this era was arguably known for being heavily controversial. 

Theories: 

• Alvarado - As the members of this group are black, and as they may be seen as intimidating within society, it links to the idea of them being two of the four things that Alvarado mentioned of pitied and dangerous. 
• (Going against) - Fanon - 'Hiding behind a white mask.' - This group goes against this theory and instead of trying to 'fit-in' within the white society, as the lyric of their song goes "Cause I'm black and I'm proud." showing how they are proud of who they are, linking to what they believe in of 'The Nation of Islam' which is the division between certain countries and the idea of if the countries did not have their own land, they would always be oppressed by white people. 

P2 - Developing technology within the  era of music

Thanks to YouTube, you can revisit the press conferences and see how painful it was listening to their misinterpretations. Sites such as Rap Genius allow the public to suggest the meaning behind song verses of any genre. Misinterpretations of rap are usually what helps to portray artists of being negative however, beneficial websites such as Rap Genius explains what each sentence actually means so that the misunderstandings and the negative portrayals of artists disappear being one section of how quickly technology has changed within the past few years as within the past, old hip-hop would not have this problem occurring as much as not as many negative topics would be up for discussion as much as today's contemporary artists which include Lil Wayne, Drake, A$ap Rocky etc. 

Quotes: 

• 'The elder generation have an inclination of blaming rap for much of the violence that goes on within the younger world.' - Eminem: hip-hop’s Lord of Misrule (media magazine) - Going with my question of negative portrayals within the music industry and of contemporary artists being a factor of violence. 
• 'Thanks to YouTube, you can revisit the press conferences and see how painful it was listening to their misinterpretations. Sites such as Rap Genius allow the public to suggest the meaning behind song verses of any genre.' - Eminem: hip-hop's Lord of Misrule (media magazine)

Theories: 

• Perkin's theory of how there is some element of truth within things linking to the first quotation used. 
• Medhurst's theory of short-hand stereotypes and how the stereotype of teenagers being seen as violent within the views of the elder generation as they associate rap with violence and link it to young people. Also dependant on their backgrounds for example, if they were born and raised within a black family, then this may lead more people to link them to rap and violence and stereotypically, most rap artists within the music industry are black and rap originally started off with a black person, DJ Kool Herc. 

P3 - Gender roles within music videos 

Although some artists within the music industry talk about the positive representations of women within their songs such as Usher for example on the basis of love, there also a lot of negative representations within not only the rap, but the whole music industry talking about the negative representations of women. For example, Eminem's old days of Slim Shady, his lyrics were easy to hear, hence, easy to interpret by the audience and as he did this, he would make women such as Kim Kardashian or Paris Hilton look like rich yet very 'slutty' women within the  industry being one of the many negative representations for women being portrayed within a undesirable manner.'Rather than viewing this imagery as misogyny, it could be argued that Eminem is ridiculing them in a bid to show us how unrealistic some modern representations of femininity are: robotic, aggressively sexual and objectified.' This leads to the misleading representation of today's society showing women to be of a less importance and more of objects for men in order to meet their needs of sexual satisfaction. 

Quotes: 

•   'Rather than viewing this imagery as misogyny, it could be argued that Eminem is ridiculing them in a bid to show us how unrealistic some modern representations of femininity are: robotic, aggressively sexual and objectified.' -Eminem: hip-hop’s Lord of Misrule (media magazine)

Theories: 

• Hegemony - This theory can be used within this section as the target audience of young men listening to music which ridicules women and portrays them to be objects, may influence this target audience, who may want to be like artists such as Eminem to also treat the women in the negative ways. For example, domestic violence also plays a big role within this, as within Eminem's very violent song called 'Kim', senseless lyrics are used such as 'Bleed b*tch, bleeeeeeeed.'. The song also talks about violent factors such as slitting his ex-wife's throat due to his anger being very sadistic and ultimately cruel leading to the encouragement of (domestic) violence and violence in general. 
• Gender - The differentiation between men and women and how men are seen to look more superior compared to women within the music industry. 

P4 - Censorship within music videos

Due to today's society of rap music developing into having lots of swear words, it could be argued that culture is evolving into portraying artists to lacking creativity. For example songs such as 'F**kin' Problems' it is shown that the song has two versions one being explicit and one being clean this is because as the song turned out to be so popular, it tended to be broadcasted upon the radio, mainly on hip-hop channels such as 89.5 FM - Ghetto Radio, this song would be played often and in order to be allowed to play, it needed a clean version. Further more, within the music video, there are a lot of women dancing around wearing clothing which may come across as provocative to men, leading to theorists such as Laura Mulvey to discuss that male gaze is one of the main reasons for the success of many explicit music videos some of which include F**kin' Problems, Dance A$$ ft Nicki Minaj, 23 etc. It can be argued that within today's contemporary Hip-Hop genre, the music videos try to relate to the category of pornography and due to this, it may encourage more people to be astounded and shocked by not only the explicit lyrics but also the scenery that is being displayed within the music video; by doing this creates a huge discussion and causes a lot of controversy as, as well as adults viewing the explicit music videos, the younger generation of children can also access and view the videos raising questions such as: 

• Is technology evolving for the worst? 
• Are children being brainwashed and encouraged to watch more videos which contain explicit content?
• Is it fair for the younger generation to be an audience of this kind of music?

Conclusion

Historical Text - 1980's - Public Enemy - ways in which this subverts my original question

The nation of Islam - this included separatism and the members of Public Enemy believed in this; with their strong controversial points within their songs with the famous quote of 'Elvis was a hero to most But he never meant shit to me you see Straight up racist that sucker was Simple and plain Mother fuck him and John Wayne Cause I'm Black and I'm proud'

Talking about how as white people such as Elvis or John Wayne believe in racism, black people such as the members of Public Enemy believed within and were for this argument of wanting white people to be separate from the black people. This movement was called The Nation Of Islam, leading to influencing more people to create a divide between black and white people. This goes with my case study as it links to a direct contrast between the negative portrayals of rappers influencing negative things such as drugs, alcohol, violence etc. within society. However, Public Enemy were a heavily influential group upon the political problems within society and would try to start a 'war' leading to the 

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 The Hip Hop Wars - Tricia Rose

Check it While I Wreck it: Black Womanhood, Hip-hop Culture, and the Public ... - Gwendolyn D.Pough

Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop. By Imani Perry 






Much Respect: Toward a Hip-Hop Theory of Punishment - By Paul Butler

The 'Hood Comes First: Race, Space, and Place in Rap and Hip-Hop


Does Exposure to Sexual Hip-Hop Music Videos Influence the Sexual Attitudes of College Students? - Michelle E. Kristler 

Rap Music Genres and Deviant Behaviours in French-Canadian Adolescents - Dave Miranda,Michael Claes

Textual Analysis - Angels - ASAP ROCKY

Reinforces stereotypes - drugs smoking within the video as at the beginning of the video and all throughout he is seen smoking a lot of 'joints'. Being a very controversial topic highlighting and glorifying the conventions of smoking drugs.There is also a lot of bass on the song, other soft instruments such as bells and the editing of the soft voices of a choir are overpowered by big bass beats and other fast beats showing the stereotypes of a typical rap video of the new ages. 

Also,  

Mosaic of camera movement 

Audiences relate to this - as some of A$ap Rocky's target audience may aspire to be like him and he is negatively influencing them to do crimes such as drugs, mugging and harming people in order to make him and his 'clique' look more superior. - going with the Bobo Doll experiment 

they call me young drug dealer, they call me young thug nigga

shows the stereotypes of black people and how they would usually mug stores and get money rather than making money by themselves. Also goes with alvarado's theory of them being both poor and pitied within society. 

How they are 'jumping' people and taking their personal belongings being another stereotype in which black people are represented negatively 

Fashion sense of A$ap Rocky being good and 'thuggish' with his golden grills in his teeth showing that he comes straight from the ghetto. 

Also as they are on bikes, wearing masks it could be seen as intimidating as none of their faces are seen whilst hiding behind a mask going with the theory of Fanon of hiding behind a white mask especially because they are black.  

As they are also tatted, it shows that they are thugs 'from the hood' and may connote how tough they are. 

A$ap Rocky bringing out a gun within the music video may encourage a lot of negative gun violence to his fans. 

Camera movements such as montage shots are shown throughout the video bringing a montage of shots of different crimes such as gun crimes, violence, drugs etc. 

Textual Analysis - B*itches Love Me - Lil Wayne ft. Drake, Future

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

Being a very sexual song with provocative lyrics such as 'I got some down b*tches I can call', 'B*tches Love Me' is also a very controversial song. It highlights the typical negative stereotypes of a rap music video talking about the main things within any other negative rap video such as women for sexual satisfactions and drugs; which in this case is 'Kush', a type of weed. 

The first example of this cleverly lyrical song, portraying rappers such as Lil Wayne in a negative light is one of his lyrics of 'Can't treat these h*es like ladies, man...' connoting putting a negative view on women overall not to look at them as 'ladies' but to view them as 'h*es' with an overall lower domination compared to the male gender. 

Furthermore, the camera work within this particular music video is very quick moving, showing-off a range of shots some of which include having a montage of shots all throughout the video showing multi-narratives to the audience and still allows the audience to follow what is going on within each scene. Many close ups of Lil Wayne's face to emphasise the words he is saying to the camera are used such as curse words or any clever lyrics phrases that he is using. Long shots are used to get the full view of Lil Wayne sitting on a bed surrounded by women as well as many mid-shots used for Future and Drake as they are standing up singing into the camera.

As the women within the music video are seen to be portrayed as 'animals' as throughout the song they are referred to as 'bitches' meaning dogs, this shows how overall, Lil Wayne, Future and Drake are dominant over these women displaying them within the lower spotlight compared to the other gender. Due to this negative representation overall of women, they are made to look like snakes wearing rubber/latex bikinis which are colourful and appealing to the viewers. As the music video has a lot of colours such as yellow, blue and red, the contrast with that is that the lighting for the music video was also very low-key, setting the scene and connoting mystery. 

The sound used within the music video was mainly diegetic sound due to the music; being a music video. For the editing of the music video a few fade outs were used whilst putting the camera on the different artists such as a fade out from Lil Wayne's frame leading to a fade in, into Future's frame whilst it was his turn to sing when Lil Wayne's verse finished. Furthermore, the song was promoted by Cash Money Records,Young Money Entertainment and Republic records which, having a big name helped to sell the music video and due to the video having three contemporary favourite rap artists of the music industry. 

Also, this video leads to people talking about the sexual exploitation of women within the video wearing less clothing and it being very tight in order to lead to the sex appeal of more people, males in particular, being attracted to watching the video. The factor of 'dumbing down' the lyrics of the song such as mentioning typical representations of a rap song having factors such as drugs, alcohol and 'b*tches' reinforces the stereotypes of a typical rap video. 

Furthermore, binary opposition, plays a big element within the video as due to both of the sexes of both males and females. For example, the domination of males is portrayed throughout the music video as the females are caged up like animals and are heavily made over to look like animals to look like snakes as this leads to the personification of animals turning into humans. 

Media Magazine

1) 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. This is more apparent in the social networking world of harsh tweets and hashtag battles fought by rival fan bases – the ‘Chris Brown vs Tyler The Creator’ Twitter feud exemplified this. - Talking about how social networks which the younger generation mostly uses starts wars using twitter to show favouritism within who the fans of either Tyler The Creator or Chris Brown is better than the other.

2) Thanks to YouTube, you can revisit the press conferences and see how painful it was listening to their misinterpretations. Sites such as Rap Genius allow the public to suggest the meaning behind song verses of any genre. - Misinterpretations of rap are usually what helps to portray artists of being negative however, beneficial websites such as Rap Genius explains what each sentence actually means so that the misunderstandings and the negative portrayals of artists disappear. 

3) The elder generation have an inclination of blaming rap for much of the violence that goes on within the younger world. - Links to my critical investigation of negative portrayal of contemporary artists one factor being violence. 

4) However, rather than viewing this imagery as misogyny, it could be argued that Eminem is ridiculing them in a bid to show us how unrealistic some modern representations of femininity are: robotic, aggressively sexual and objectified. - Ways in which artists are negative within the rap and hip-hop industry such as Eminem having negative qualities such as objectifying women within the music industry such as Kin Kardashian for example. 

5) Eminem entwines his voice with a myriad of voices from popular culture. His intertextual links to other voices are firmly entrenched in his work casting a shrewd eye over the banality of contemporary culture. 
-Eminem: hip-hop’s Lord of Misrule

6) The media obsession with female celebrities and their weight is mocked through the use of a chubby Jessica Simpson look-alike singing whilst munching on a hamburger, whereas the Sarah Palin impersonator (played by an apparently well-known porn actress) could be seen as showing us the commonly-held belief that women are only seen to be creditable if they can be sexually objectified. 
-Eminem: hip-hop’s Lord of Misrule - Linking back to the point of objectifying women to make men look more dominant and superior over women. 

7) Indeed, looking at some aspects of his life and work it is almost impossible to refute these allegations; his venom-fuelled tirades against his ex-wife Kim are legendary, whilst his own mother launched a $10m lawsuit against him for using the lyrics ‘my mom smokes more dope than I do’ on the hit ‘My Name Is’.
-Eminem: hip-hop’s Lord of Misrule - Showing the negative lifestyle of Eminem's life before he was famous and talks about drugs and violence linking to his wife and all of the negatives that he has done within his song about his wife called 'Kim' projecting all of his intense hatred and anger towards his wife spitting spiteful lyrics such as 'Bleed, bitch! Bleed!' being a sense of violence as throughout the song he talks about slitting her throat continuously. 

8) Though hip-hop is now a dominant force within mainstream youth culture, with artists such as Jay-Z or the British Plan B finding success far beyond traditional rap/r’n’b audiences, the stereotypical ‘rapper’ exists in a largely fixed form in the public consciousness.
 - Odd Future, Stranger Past – Issues of Representation in Contemporary Hip-Hop 

9) As the popularity of the genre grew, however, there also rose a dominant stereotype among hip-hop artists, and by association of young black males; traditionally masculine, unemotional, aggressive, violent and often misogynistic. - Odd Future, Stranger Past – Issues of Representation in Contemporary Hip-Hop - The negative stereotypes of hip-hop artists of being young and black being violent is currently very dominant in music with artists such as Chief Keef being a classic example of being a negative influence for it's target audience encouraging them to treat women disrespectfully labelling them with nicknames such as 'bitches' and 'hoes' and also encourages people to be more violent using power phrases such as 'bang bang' being a major trend within today's society. 

10) Odd Future... Most of the press coverage surrounding the group has focused on the deliberately shocking nature of their lyrics, with graphic violence, homophobia, misogyny and references to suicide and rape. 

- Odd Future, Stranger Past – Issues of Representation in Contemporary Hip-Hop - OFWGKTA being a prime example of being a very negative influence towards their target audience and mainly the contemporary more younger generation of people and linking to Alvarado's theory talking about black people being violent, humorous and pitied.  

11) What Odd Future do is push the violence and aggression common in hip-hop’s representations of young black men to its logical conclusion. Even then they could be seen as using the stereotypical violence of the lyrics as a window to an introspection and vulnerability similar to that seen in the work of Childish Gambino.

- - Odd Future, Stranger Past – Issues of Representation in Contemporary Hip-Hop

12) In his solo work, Tyler, the Creator hints at honest psychological wounds. Lines such as

'let’s buy guns and kill kids with dads and mom, and nice homes with 401Ks and nice-ass lawns'

express real hurt, venting the jealousy of an alienated kid still stinging from the rejection of an absentee father. 

-  - Odd Future, Stranger Past – Issues of Representation in Contemporary Hip-Hop