Thursday, November 8, 2012

Week 11 Post Reading Questions


From this week’s discussion and video, I have definitely found some interesting points that I did not know.  I think one of the most interesting points I found out was that 70% of the consumers of hip hop music is white males. I know the statistics have changed from when hip hop first arrived on the scene in the 70’s, but was surprised to find out that it changed from a primarily black audience to a white audience.  Furthermore, something I noticed in the film that bothered me was that no female hip hop artist was interviewed throughout the whole process. I know the film was primarily talking about male masculinity, but I thought it could have been enhanced by having interview Queen Latifah maybe, or even Missy Elliot. I think Queen Latifah could have offered some good insight on hip hop, the idea of masculinity, and homosexuality.  Before the film, I thought of hip hop as being an outlet for artist to express themselves, with most of the lyrics being about the hard struggles of their lives. Through the video though, I then found out that once the record label changed and white people took over, the hip hop lyrics became more violent and derogative towards women because it “was something people never heard before.”

When it comes to the film makers arguments, I definitely agree with statement one. To me, the film had some glimpses of the movie Bowling for Columbine, the Michael Moore talking about gun violence in America., which I feel connects with statement the film maker argues. I think in America guns and destruction are portrayed so highly as a thrill in pop culture, movies, media, etc. that it is only nature for music to be the same.

For the second statement, I don’t know if I see homophobia portrayed in the hip hop lyrics or music video, or if it is me just not reading too much into what is being said, but this was something I never thought about. As for degrading to women though, I have heard several arguments before about it and agree that it is, but also feel like there may be more to the story that we are not thinking about. Like when the question was brought up about “why women don’t stop themselves from being in those music videos?”  I think there are different ways of looking at it. I thought the two different statements that were written on the board showed a great example of that. Depending on how you looked at it, there was always someone who was the victim. Overall, I think it is important to remember there are always two sides to a story.
word count: 450

1 comment:

  1. Hi Alyce,
    I agree with you completely about the lack of females in the film- while the point of the film was to discuss masculinity- I think that the female voices you pointed out would have been greatly beneficial. Le sigh, we get left out again. The two readings for this week both feature female voices, so hopefully that will give us some additional insight.
    I also appreciate how reflective you are about the discussion: "why don't women stop being in these videos"- both your commentary here and the way you re-phrased the question in class were awesome- thanks!
    --eas

    ReplyDelete