Rituals & Stereotpyes in Hip Hop Music

Hip-hop Music: Rituals and Stereotypes

            Having been around since the inception back in the 70s, hip-hop music has created rituals and  stereotypes with some being positive and some negative. I will explain some rituals of hip-hop music and some of the stereotypes people have with hip-hop music.

            One ritual that came from the pop culture hip-hop music is the annual BET awards program. The awards program began in 2001 by the Black Entertainment Network. This award program celebrates music and other venues by African Americans. Among the many attendees is a large population of hip-hop artists where awards are presented for their contributions to hip-hop music industry (BET Awards, 2016).  Another ritual is the yearly World Hip-hop Dance Championship which is an international hip-hop dance competition with many international companies. In 2015 about 3,000 people participated from all over the world (World Hip-hop Dance Championship, 2016).

            Even though both positive and negative stereotypes have been associated with hip-hop music, there are more negative stereotypes than positive stereotypes.  One positive stereotype is hip-hop is filled with stories about personal and professional struggles and how the artist overcomes them. Unfortunately many people stereotype hip-hop music into categories that degrade women and encourage drugs, violence, and sex. Some videos portray African American women only as booty poppin people and men as gangsters and criminals (Simmons, n.d.).    

In conclusion, yes hip-hop has rituals and stereotypes. The insight I have gained from applying the theories of stereotypes to hip-hop music is that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. I always considered hip-hop music BAD music but the more I learn about its history and positive impact the more I am open to listening to it. 

References

BET Awards (Wikipedia, 2016). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BET_Awards

Simmons, R. (n.d.). Six Reasons You Should Let Your Child Listen to Hip-hop. Retrieved from

            http://rosssimmonds.com/leadership/children-hip-hop/

World Hip-hop Dance Championship (Wikipedia, 2016). Retrieved from 

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Hip_Hop_Dance_Championship

Icon Analysis Blog

            The three pop culture icons I selected are a coke bottle, Apple Inc., and Kim Kardashian West. All of these represent pop icons which by definition are a celebrity, character, or object whose exposure in pop culture constitutes a defining characteristic of a given society or era. The categorization is usually associated with elements such as longevity, ubiquity, and distinction.  In 1915, the Coca-Cola Company gave a brief to its design team, a brief that was so simple it became history: “a bottle which a person could recognize even if they felt it in the dark, and so shaped that, even if broken, a person could tell at a glance what it was.” In 2015, Coca-Cola celebrated the 100 years of its iconic Contour coke bottle, its timeless and most famous brand ambassador. Apple Inc. Apple, Inc. engages in the design, manufacture, and marketing of mobile communication, media devices, personal computers, and portable digital music players. The firm offers products and services under the iPhone, iPad, Mac, iPod, Apple Watch, and Apple TV brands. And Kim Kardashian West is an American reality television personality, actress, socialite, businesswoman and model.

            I choose the coke bottle because it is timeless and people of all ages recognize it. Even though now coke is sold in cans everyone has memories for the coke bottle. For many, Coca-Cola is indeed the brand that comes to mind when getting into the holiday spirit. This is more than reasonable, if not completely understandable, since Coca-Cola has been hard at work on branding themselves for the holidays since 1931. The Coke bottle icon brings back memories of Christmas to me and reminds me of fun times in my childhood. As children we were not allowed to drink pop but at Christmas but since it is such a special time we were allowed to drink coke with our cousins, grandparents and aunts and uncles. And I looked forward every year to getting to drink coke. So the coke bottle represents a part of my childhood and Christmas memories.

Next I choose Apple Inc. because Apple has changed everyone’s daily lives. Apple has produced products that have changed the way people around the world communicate, obtain information and entertain themselves.  Whether it’s iPods, iPhones or iPads, they have become a part of daily life for people around the world. Even when you travel, everybody’s got a device including little kids, parents, and older adults. When was the last time you were somewhere and you did not see someone with an iPAd, ipod or cell phone? For me Apple has made a huge impact on my life. I use an iPad at work and is so much lighter than the laptop I used to carry to meetings. I also use an iPhone  to be connected to work, family in friends wherever I go to keep up with emails, texts, phone calls and the world. My children also use Apple iPads and download games from their App Store. So everyone in my family would say they could not live without Apple.

Lastly I chose Kim Kardashian West as my last icon because Kim Kardashian is a marketing genius. And what she markets is herself. Yes she did have family connects (her father was Robert Kardashian - O J Simpson’s lawyer ) but she always leveraged her connections to put herself in the spotlight at the correct time. She is photogenic and she has no shame exploiting her beauty. But she is the master at marketing herself and is worth over $150 million but never went to college. To me Kim Kardashian West represents the opportunities in America – you can be whatever you want to be.  Yes, she came from some money but she has gone well beyond her beginnings and to me is truly an inspiration for me that if you work hard and can accomplish your dreams.  

Popular Culture Blog

What is popular culture, and what does it mean to you?

Popular culture is culture based on the collection of ideas, thoughts, attitudes, images preferred by the mainstream population. It is the contemporary lifestyle and items that are well known and generally accepted, cultural patterns that are widespread within a population. This can be the music we listen, the clothes we buy, the hair color and style of hair we wear, because they are the trend that is in right now, the most popular movie that is showing today. 

Why is an understanding of popular culture relevant to you in a business environment and in your present and future career?

Understanding popular culture is very relevant in a business environment today.  If your business sells merchandise to the mass population it is critical to know what people are interested in or want these days because it helps decide how to market the product or service offered. A business staying up to date with the popular culture can be the difference in staying in business or going out of business or how well a business performs and how profitable a business is for a time period. Also, Human Resource departments must understand popular culture in creating policies such as dress code because of the age and talent of employees the company is trying to attract.

What would you consider to be an example of a pop culture artifact? And why would you choose it? 

I chose the XBox One as my pop culture artifact. I chose this because today this video game system is very popular and there are many kids as well as and adults alike who own a XBox One system. What fascinates me the most is that not only do kids love to play the Xbox One but also adults plan nights to play this game interactively through the internet. So not only game you play games on Xbox One but you can also access Netflix, Facebook and watch movies. So it is more than just a system to play games.