Essay Plan

Essay Plan

Introduction (100 – 150 words)

·         Quote used to introduce the topic: ‘16 year old African American female “they ain’t ‘bout it if they don’t listen to it”’. (Possibly need to a more significant quote – statement)

·         This will introduce the topic and the media text ‘how does hip hop represent black people, with specific reference to the track ‘Plug’ by Rich the Kid?’

·         Background story of the song

·         Background story of the artists

·         The self-representation this ethnic group has portrayed using generic conventions and the issues this leads to (moral panics)

Section 1: this will be used to analyse the primary text (400-500 words)

·         Mini intro to the section with key information about the primary text like institution

·         Generic conventions of hip hop music videos and the correlation with the primary text

·         Using migrain to identity the key conventions – language and forms

·         Self-representation these rappers have constructed of themselves and the similarities with other rappers of this generation

·         The issues these self-representations have had on society in general – reinforce ideologies

Quotes:

1. ·         Keepin’ it real journal by Andreana Clay: ‘Exactly how hip hop culture maps out these real and imagined relations between people and the tools used to bring people together is an important question to explore in the discussion of black youth identity, cultural capital and hip hop culture’
2. ·         Keepin’ it real journal by Andreana Clay: ‘There also was constant pressure to perform: to have the right clothes, listen to the right music and speak the right language – all of which were based on hip hop’
3. ·         Can Hip Hop make Jesus cool? Article Luan Goldie: ‘There is no better way of marketing something to youth than to link it with hip hop’

·          Other quotes 

      Keepin' it real journal by Andreana Clay: 'Hip Hop music exploded onto the music scene in the late 70's which marked a time when both the black middle and working classes had been moving out of poor, segregated black communities for two decades. As blacks moved out of the inner city, drugs such as heroin and crack moved in'

      

      Keepin it real journal Andreana Clay: 'Rap music's evolution in cities such New York spoke to black and Latino youth who were being channelled into vocationally trained and subsequently obsolete jobs, giving them both hope and recognition by telling their stories'

      

      DJ Akademiks YouTube video of rap artists ASAP Rocky: 'We need to stop black on black crime before we consider the black lives matter campaign'

  

      Hip Hop honey or video ho journal  Dionne P: 'Among males aged 12-18 the rates of sexual activity and sexuality transmitted diseases are highest among African American, followed by Latinos and Euro-Americans'.

   

   The global hip hop Diaspora journal Carol M: 'hip hop culture influences styles of behaviour and dress: from sagging pants to oversized tees, hip hop style is important business venture for not only the recording industry but also clothing fashion accessories and beauty industries worldwide. For example, the fashion of droopy oversized pants, baseball caps and Nike sneakers are leading style for teenage boys in the United States Tokyo. 

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Theories:

·         Uses and Gratification

·         Two step flow model

·         Hypodermic needle model

·         Representation theory

Key words (all link wider context):

·         American dream vs American nightmare – inequality (Malcolm X) amongst race and the opportunity for black people. These terms act as binary oppositions

·         Documentary elements – rappers use hip hop to tell their story

·         Liberal values – how will people’s ideologies of black people be subverted with these hip hop videos?

·         Binary oppositions

·         Cultural competence – the education system could be the reason behind why ethnic minorities  

Wider context:

·         Black Lives Matter

·         Education system – discrimination (Cultural competence)

Section 2: historical text (350 – 400 words)

·         Background of historical text (Mobb Deep)

·         Hip Hop in the 90s in contrast with hip hop of this generation

·         Compare key conventions

·         Representations are similar – depending on the perspective an audience views this. Hip Hop audiences would argue that hip hop has slightly changed with artists becoming  less masculine but middle class white and some black people would counter argue that and say rappers are still criminals and menaces to society

·         Documentary elements – artists of the past were telling stories about their upbringing with better English that most audiences would be able to understand. But rap now in the UK and US has changed where mainly hip hop audiences (dominant reader) whom understand the slang would have the ability to make sense of the lyrics

Quotes:

1. ·         Youth, Popular culture and Moral panics book by John Springhall: ‘Prime Minister John Major told the Conservative Central Council on 1993 that those who made and distributed films and videos should “think whether a relentless diet of violence won’t have serious effect on the young”. He was responding to the abduction and murder a week before in Mereyside of two year old James Bulger’.  Copy Cat crimes.
2. ·         Youth, Popular culture and Moral panics books by John Springhall: ‘You can’t listen to all that language and film without it affecting you’

• The global hip hop Diaspora journal Carol M: 'In addition to serving as a form of entertainment, some musicians used hip hop to channel the anger of young people in the South Bronx away from gang fighting'.
• The Guardian reporting on female rappers in Mexico: 'We are using rap to fight for equality' 
• How poetry feeds on urban life

Theories:

·         Laura Mulvey  - Male Gaze. Rappers in past were either focused on gangster lifestyle of women. So male audiences would be forced to view these women in an objectified way. Rosalind Gill female gaze can be applied to rappers now as they can view some of them for their pleasure.

·         Tesa Perkins – stereotypes of black people being reinforced from 90’s up to now

Section 3: issues/debates (relative to black representations and wider context; 500–400 words)

·         Black lives matter campaign

·         Police brutality amongst black people

·         Hip Hop only reinforcing the ideologies of opinion leaders/middle and upper class people

·         Cultural imperialism leading to ethnic minority being targeted by racists

Quotes:

1. ·         Youth, Popular culture and moral panics by John Springhall: ‘Did “Penny Dreadfuls” by glamourising criminals, make crime attractive to youthful audiences? Miss Martineau’s thesis, shared by many in authority, that cheap fiction for working class juveniles encouraged and even instigated delinquency’.
2. ·         The Global hip hop Diaspora understanding the culture By Carol Motley: ‘In addition to serving as a form of entertainment, some musicians used hip hop to “channel the anger of young people in the south Bronx away from gang fighting”’.

Theories:

·         Tricia Rose – hip hop gives black female rappers a voice introducing female empowerment

·         Michael Eric Dyson – Political rap didn’t get the support that it deserved when it was prominent in the 80’s or 90’s so it reverted to the flashy, sexualised, criminal rap which we know today, as through displaying this it became more prominent and more mainstream

·         Jacques Lacan – infants see reflections in the mirror and see it as a superior reflection of themselves that they must aspire to. Seeing iconic rappers who are successful young black males may see them as a superior reflection of themselves.

·         Tesa Perkins – some of these stereotypes could be true

·         Andy Medhurst – shorthand stereotypes

Section 4: media technology and the opportunities it provides (350 – 400 words)

·         The way digital media has allowed hip hop and any music fans to publish their own work with beats or songs

·         Gives ethnic minority struggling in deprived areas  a chance

Conclusion (150 words)

·         Bring the main argument back into the conclusion, it will have my opinions of the topic question.
      Consider the wider context and how the influence of this can impact on particular representations.
      Possible quote with significance to reinforce my opinion.
      Manipulation of media content diversifying people's ideologies

d 

Key words:

·         Semiotics – non-verbal codes, denotation/connotation

·         Generic conventions – iconography, style, setting, narrative, characters, themes

·         Documentary elements – observational documentary, actuality

·         Mediation – constructed, mis-representation

·         Liberal values – progressive values, anti-racism, multi-culturalism

·         Patriarchy – system of society which men hold power

·         Matriarchy – system of society which women hold power

·         Narrative elements, sequences – strands, multi stranded narrative

·         American dream – cultural myth based on the belief that the USA is a land of promise and opportunity where anyone who works hard can achieve all the good things in life (love, esteem, wealth)

·         American nightmare – Malcolm X used this term to express the inequalities particularly with race and opportunity experienced by black people

·         Audience theory – hypodermic needle model, cultivation theory, effects theory, reception theory, two step flow model and uses and gratification

·         Cultivation theory – examines the long term effects of television, the longer people send ‘living’ in the television world, the more likely they are to believe social reality

·         Barthes and Roland – action codes and enigma codes

·         Binary opposition – Levis strauss, narratives are structured around oppositional elements in human culture

·         Blaxploitation film – films of the 60s and 70s had black actors featured in principal roles usually with whites

·         Bootleg – illegal copies of CD or film

·         Bricolage – French term for the random assembly by culture groups of various cultural signifiers to form new and often unintended meanings (skinheads with shaved heads)

·         Copy-cat crimes – crimes committed by individuals who appear to have imitated crimes either reported in the media or fictional crimes represented in film or television programs

·         Cultural competence – describes the advantage given to middle class children in the education system as a result of their parental and cultural background

·         Cultural imperialism – the dominance of Western, particularly US, cultural values and ideology across the world

·         Demonisation – media portrays groups of people as evil and makes them a focus of moral panic