Post Read Week 11

It was interesting to hear how aware the artists were of the control the industry has over their music. They release music that they know consumer will buy and are aware that they don’t have a lot of control over their creative rights once they sign with a major label.

I agree with argument one that the hyper-masculinity and violence present in hip-hop is part of the larger American culture that values and promotes violence. It’s not primarily caused by the American culture but it’s a huge contributing factor. American culture promotes the idea that men are supposed to be tough, stern, show little weakness or emotion, and that’s what these artists are trying to present in their music.

Argument two is also a good argument if you examine lyrical content and some of the ways they’re seen in videos and in pictures there’s definitely a presence of homoeroticism and homophobia. In their songs they boast about their bodies and how good they are, they make things very sexual and they are appealing to both sexes when they do this. Their lyrics also show homophobia when they either blatantly protest homosexuality or use feminine words to put down other rappers.

For the most part I agree with argument three, that the music corporations run by wealthy white men are responsible for the messages promoted in hip-hop, but I to have to say that I feel the artists that sign deal with major record companies have to take some responsibility. Now, given that these artists weren’t aware of the kind of deal the signed than it becomes hard for them to be held responsible. However, people are naïve. If people know they are only putting out music that will attract consumers not what they actually want than they should have to take some responsibility for promoting certain messages.

The genre of hip-hop is definitely denigrating to women, it puts them in hyper-sexualized positions and presents them as sexual objects.

I don’t know about argument five. It’s difficult for me to tell if stereotypes are used to sell records to primarily white audiences. I don’t know if they are selling to primarily white audiences or if that’s the type of music that they listen to. Maybe they are trying to sell to a variety of audiences.

When other artists call another artist a finmine word like bitch or when they use feminine words to describe a fellow artist they are perpetuating homoeroticism and homophobia. Whenever they boast about the amount of guns they have they’re promoting violence. You can see examples of domestic violence in Eminem’s song “Puke,” where he talks about his relationship with his on and off wife. David Banner’s song, “Play” is denigrating to women by talking sexualizing women.

When black men were represented during slavery and during Jim Crow white men controlled the images and ideas that were being presented, which is very similar to the control that is being held over artists by their labels. They don’t have much creative control.  The artists are only being represented in the way that the people in power feel is right and this is contributing to the worlds and consumers ideas of who these artists are.

Like I said when I agreed with one of the arguments earlier, hip-hop is homoerotic in that the lyrics and videos; it entices both sexes.

When major labels started to represent the hip-hop artists they changed the type of music that they wanted to be released. They wanted to sell music not make music and so they sold to the consumers. They made a product that they thought they could turn a profit on, which didn’t include music that talked about real issues.

Hip-hop can be problematic because it has such a large consumer population and these consumers listen to songs on repeat. When they hear certain lyrics and watch videos that portray certain stereotypes it becomes easier for them to see them as normal because they are everywhere. It also glamorizes certain lifestyles so people aren’t given a realistic idea of what life is like.

All music has a responsibility to be social responsibility because music has the largest consumer population that listen to it all the time. When this is the majority of information that they hear it’s the music industries responsibility to release at least some music that is socially conscious.

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