Media Frames and Hip Hop Culture

Saunders describes the generalized version of hip hop culture as a group of thieves, graffiti artists, vandals, drugdealers, sex-obsessed men, objectified women and joyriders (37-134), and unfortunately although this is a part of the underground culture of both the hip hop artist and the people listening to the music, the author accepts that there is more to it than this perception. Although it has been correctly noted that these themes are recurrent in rap music, an individual listener could easily fail to notice these same themes – or any other recurrent themes, for that matter – inherent in other types of music or even literature and film.

The media has honed in on the negative themes in rap and hip hop music, however, and uses such sensationalist aspects of the culture and music to deliver a message of negativity, and create fear. The attentions unrelated groups of people have tried to intervene and have such songs and music videos censored. This has not generally had a positive effect on hip hop lyrics, and in fact has actually helped to raise the popularity of such music and the culture surrounding it (Davidson 74).

The media frames hip hop and rap artists in an unfavorable light the vast majority of the time, citing them in one all encompassing category that is violent, untrustworthy and obsessed with material possessions. Unless a person is directly involved in the hip hop scene, they are very unlikely to hear about positive things going on within the culture. The media on the whole simply reports on negativity within the hip hop world, something that many artists are understandably frustrated with.

What this media framing is proving to the hip hop culture is merely an ignorance on behalf of media and the general viewing audience towards black American society. With very few years – relatively speaking – of freedom andequalitybetween black people as a minority group in America and the majority whites, black Americans have found themselves grouped together in poor areas still facing huge difficulties in achieving better standards of living. These societal factors have had a huge impact on the subculture of blacks themselves, resulting in part in hip hop music as both a rebellious act and a validation of black survival in an often hostile largerenvironment.

The average youth experiences difficulties that are thematically similar to that of the oppressed and underprivileged black American who is a part of the hip hop culture, and kids are able to make this connection when they take a look at the music coming out of such groups. Rap and hip hop were born out of frustration and the need for freedom of expression, which is just what the average teenager is looking for as well. With this fundamental likeness, youths turn to hip hop music as a way to bond with each other and feel validated in their opinions and feelings of loneliness and desperation.

Lyrics about gangviolencecan represent the need to fit into a group, while songs featuring bling and ownership can represent the ultimate triumph overadversity. Kids can really relate to this kind of music despite media imagery that portrays it as negative, because they are used to having themselves portrayed in a negative way by their parents, schoolteachers and other authority figures.

Both papers solidify the notion that the media has a great impact on hip hop portrayal throughout America in every aspect, particularly in music and consumerism. Researchers are in agreement with statistical evidence that proves children in America are incredibly susceptible to media influence, although it is clear that there are other factors that determine just how a young person will react to the same media frames in hip hop.

Works Cited

Neil, Mark. Sold Out on Soul: The Corporate Annexation of Black Popular Music.

Ramsey, Guthrie. Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2003.