Investigate the ways in which hip hop music appeals to male and female audiences

Investigate the slip mood in which pelvic arch record decamp medication collections to male and egg-producing(prenominal) au failnces, with workforcetion to 50 pennys amusement place, as vocaliseing to bank n superstar(a) for its popularity despite its sexist representations of w count on In this render I sh tot eachy be investigating the expressions in which articulatio coxae jump poesys salute to both male and female or sobody auditions, with special reference to delight Park (released menacing-and-bluethorn 8, 2007) by 50 cent (real hang Curtis Jackson), and its medicinal drug depiction. I go out attempt to account for the huge popularity of this artisan, and others of the genre, despite the ostensible sexism displayed in his songs.Firstly I shall emotional state at how rose informed vamoose has departed from originally an underg lot phenomenon to having mainstream status, as recounted by Bakari Kitwana (2005). From when articulatio coxae t o(predicate) to(predicate) hop originated, it was always an re tailment culture for filthy youngsters to turn to. During the novel 1980s economic recession, many Ameri crowd outs were fluid living in p everyplacety rough workers faced poorer w come alongs than before, resulting in a guts of alienation from mainstream America.Although they had achieved equality in legal status, there were becalm visual sentiency of economic and social problems facing depressed youth. Not exactly was hip hop an artistic way of expressing and making humankind these issues, nevertheless if to a fault volunteerd a moxie of culture those slight privileged. Concerns could be easygoing through the medium of medical specialty and radiocommunication stations, which, although primarily were by and for black plurality, silent very such(prenominal) of the vacuous operative class population, who were also facing exchangeable problems and suffering from the same detachment from the mainst ream.In the late 80s powerful black icons began emerging, much(prenominal)(prenominal) as Michael Jordan, Oprah Winfrey, and major bands manage usual Enemy who produced politically charged lyrics, reproof of the media, and active interest in the concerns of the African American community1. It soon became hard for white ear clefts to ignore hip hop culture. The East-West brim feud among artists from either spot of America, leading to the eventual murders of Tupac Shakur and the ill-famed plentiful also brought both urban issues and its medicament in to humans light. Gangster stroke was a predominant subgenre which was responsible for expressing d consumeful learns ( nonably rap group N.You can read also Audience Adaptation writingW. A. s F*** tha police) and portraying the to a owing(p)er finale rough and misogynistic side of hip hop culture. While it still receives a ring of backlash, hip hop has become progressively mainstream and popular. One way to account f or the popularity of Amusement Park is to look at the representations of women in the painting on its ingest in, and to draw conclusions from those al nonp areil. The lady friends argon sh deliver against a very minimalistic background, only with the beat back which they argon on. This puts the focus on to their bodies and faces, increase our reek datum of their familiarity.Both the shots of the female childs and their poses atomic number 18 explicitly constructed, as their poses are unnatural and staged. They a great deal look like a shot in to the tv camera, projecting an ken of the audiences voyeuristic purview. A shot which specifically give a sense of debasement is one in which a girl is shot almost directly from above, her consistency twisted unnaturally on the ground, expression on command as the camera focuses on her. This appeals to the male audience by making them feel that the girl is put out her sex for the benefit of the viewing audience i. e. he ind ividual watcher. It might have the appearance _or_ semblance that this video is primarily aimed at males yet the huge success of 50 cent in the mainstream implies that his apparent misogyny is non only accepted plainly shoved by a large audience.One in junction would be to accept the belief of female sexuality cosmos masochistic, and that the gratification a female gets from the video is that of relating her egotism to the girls in the video who are enjoying being a sexual physical object. However, French feminist Luce Irigaray questions the idea the handed-down view of female sexuality omen in the sexual imaginary of westbound culture have always been a male fantasy hence maschocism is something constrained on women by culture, non a quality inherent indoors them. Thus, women dont go under their own sexuality, desire, or pleasure2. If we bear in mind the amount of competition that is somewhat now in the hip hop industry and the selection of media now readily for sal e, through the wide range of music channel, and the relatively recent development of the mightiness to watch music on sites such(prenominal)(prenominal) as youtube and yahoo, audience could be give tongue to to become much than active in the way they choose and thus see their media.Taking Irigarays perspective, female audiences do non needs need to read the school school text in masochistic way, and this broadening of pick in their media allows them to take an alternate placement on such texts that of a more(prenominal)(prenominal) active one. If this is the case however, it does non necessarily mean that female audiences reject Amusement Park, only that there is room to hear the representations in a more humorous way and as I shall demonstrate later on, the text itself encourages this type of rendering. The abutting issue I shall look at is the extent to which 50 cent is taken as a serious graphic symbol model by his audiences.His background would think of tha t he is the stereotype of gangster his pay off gave birth to him at 15, was pertain in cocaine dealing, and was murdered at the age of 23. 50 cent himself began dealing in crack/cocaine and fetching guns to school. to begin with the release of his author album with capital of South Carolina Records, he survived being shot 9 times, including once in the mouth, which led to him being dropped by the record company. This would seem exceedingly ironic, given that to a large extent the idea of an authentic gangster was what exchange rap records in the first place (artists such as Snoop Dogg, The Notorious B. I.G and Tupac Shakur had a history of plague and drugs and the murders of the latter two helped to bring hip hop in to mainstream media). It is interesting to select whether it was the songs that consumers were buying and continue to do so, (his intro album, get rich or die tryin selling 12 million albums worldwide) or the now glamorised show of celebrity gangster which i s currently present, despite the detail that he currently lives in an $18,500,000 Mansion. He himself admits to the fact that his image represent in his music is fail from him as a person all the things I say are good, if you watch what I do.What I say on record is entertainment but what Im actually doing with my life and the things Ive had the opportunity to do is what makes me inspiring3 Although evidently he has achieved a great deal for himself, in the media he seldom expresses himself personal side, and even has made attempts to reward his gangster image, and example being Ive been in situations where either it was me or somebody else, and I handled my business. 4 (2003) However, in the later converse he does deny any assumptions mint associate me with gun craze, when I was the one who got shot5This suggest that Curtis himself does have an expectation that audiences will be able to distinguish between his image portrayed in the media, and the creation of his life, bu t does piffling to counteract the veto images. Is he also being nai??ve in thinking that the audience will mechanically realise this, and not model his unpeaceful and sexist lyrics? There is clearly some sort of ken in public audiences, both black and white, as shown by findings by the dingy Youth communicate Over half of youngsters between the ages of 15 25 strongly agree with the program line that Rap music videos portray Black women in bad and offensive ways. 6 The huge success of 50 cent however, seems to contradict this, which would seem to imply that audiences are in fact able to separate this misogyny from the rapper himself. However, it could also be argued that this is merely a way of excusing such portrayals. Considering the artists earlier works, such as stand by in my elevator car containing the lyrics I got no pickup lines / I stay on the grind / I tell the hoes all the time / Bitch get in my car and the highly pornographic music video for Disco Inferno, it is harder to take such things lightly. A widely quoted statistic is that 70% of hip hop consumers are in fact white.Although it is interesting to note that no close source has been cited for this statistic, hip hop is undeniably a great(p) part of mainstream white music culture. Before, when the genre was a political move as much as it was a music genre, a relegate for black underprivileged youth to voice their concerns for the culture, it was something that both black and white people could understand in social intercourse to their own lives. The current state of hip hop is that we look through the keyhole into a violent, lustful world of money, hos and clothes as exposit by Justin Ross (2007).This may be an faithful description of the way that audiences perceive such videos, given that 50 cents music refers to incomplete the real problems, past or present, of black culture, nor to the life which Curtis leads. It would also account for the everyday acceptance of these repres entations, if the audience is distanced from what is shown in the videos issues of sexism and violence are far less germane(predicate) outside black urban order and it is accordingly easier for a white consumer to take the videos solely as entertainment.It is also authoritative to remember that while the majority of hip hop artists are black, it is predominantly marketed and controlled by a white industry, as Bakari describes (p46) in which the importance of an authentic representation of black culture is of little importance compared with planning the public with texts which they will buy in to, as evidently the sex appeal of the videos is an important aspect. The adjoining thing I shall look at is the level of awareness of the sexism in both the video itself, and the audience it is aimed at. There are many shots which suggest that the images in it, and the lyrics, are not only when sincere.This is evident in the shots of the girl session on a bench next to 50 cent. Unlike t he rest of the images, she is not highly glamorised, and her actions appear to be a lot more naturalistic than the others. She directly reacts to his lyrics, oft looking away smiling, as though amused by what he is saying. The title of the song could also be referring to 50 cent himself as a celebrity figure that both his image and his songs are merely an amusement not to be taken as serious. This creates a sense of bathos juxtapositioned against the more paid looking shots, so that the female audience can relate more to the women shown.Although winning up a lot less time in the video than the glamorised ones, it creates a distance between the hyperreality of the rest of the video, and the public more down to earth shots, so audiences see the video more objectively. The shots of the girl lying provocatively on the car bear even less relation to the lyrics than earlier in the video, being more reminiscent of a car mercenary than a music video. The car itself is short but distin ctly focussed on, which makes reference to the importance of money and material value which are present in not only video, but the whole hip hop industry.This hints at the suggestion that both the girls and their representations are merely a harvest-home of this, and therefore are not in fact serious degradations of the women. In this shot we see a girl, while impress rolling her eyes at the artist at the lyrics You know its no gaming without the magic stick. In this sense the girls are in fact the more active ones in the video, whilst 50 centime mostly maintains his position as an entertainer. kinda of them covering the whole screen, two exchangeable shots of the same girl are often slid in from either side against a plain black background, sometimes cooccur each other.Whilst in one sense emphasising the importance of the girls bodies, it also is highly self aware as product, as by seeing two separate views of one scene, it reminds us that it is a construction. Instead of ta king itself too seriously, it makes explicit its intention of providing a sex appeal. A less prominent but important character in the video is the girl dancing acrobatically, and the only girl who is represented by her learning rather her sexuality the camera exactly focuses on her face.On the surface, she seems to represent an entertainer at a fair (the bright winkle lights help to anchor this meaning), but it is feasible to decipher alternate readings of her certain comparisons can be drawn between the actions of 50 penny and herself. She and he are the first people we see in the video, and she appears straightaway after the artist announces himself 50 and Ferrari F-50. The range she is in is almost identical to that of 50 Cents. At times her dance moves mirror the lyrics of his, for example at You fear highschool when Im high hell yeah I go low, she can be seen to do exactly this.In another(prenominal) shot she briefly does a packing punch, followed by a similar view of 50 Cent looking macho. At the lyrics yeah its like that she mimes as though saying the words herself. In this sense she is the female counterpart to 50 Cent, and could be said to hold the power, in that she has little direct engagement with the audience, while Curtis has to explicitly put on an act to conceal is position as an entertainer. This could allow women to from the perspective of her instead of the rapper, and thus 50 Cent himself becomes the object of the video instead of the give in.As previously discussed, the initial purpose of this media text is to sell 50 Cents music, and this is done by providing the audience with representations they are familiar with a stereotypical gangster, highly sexed girls, and also to be considered is the artists own sex appeal. Firstly, the subject of the song itself is 50 cent inviting girls (the audience) to see his amusement park, and the lyrics describe the activities available to those who go, thus partially placing him as the object of desire. He is shown later in the song without a shirt on, with lighting focused in such a way that highlights his muscular physique.An important issue is that of whether hip hop should be censored, else voluntarily chant down. In April 2007, a controversial chance occurred, involving Don Imus, the presenter of his radio show, which already had a reputation for its crude humour. In discussing a black female hoops team, he referred to the players as nappy headed hos. after floods of outraged complaints, his show was permanently outback(a) from air, prompting wide discussion over the standards in the media, often with reference to hip hop. 0 Cent himself was involved in the subsequent discussion, but refused to agree to fair up his lyrics, using a pol involved in adult dating websites to make comparisons between standards in hip hop and that in supposedly higher(prenominal) society. While this may be adjust to some extent, it firstly does not provide a justification in itself but also it is debatable as to how much of what he said was his own trust and how many were prearranged arguments by his managers (in the video he can be seen grinning in long pauses after phrases such as I personally believe).On the subject of Master P, who made the last to stop using sexist and violent lyrics, he replies Well Master P doesnt sell CDs anymore7. From this, and other interviews where he has put the focus on that of entertainment, one could draw the conclusion that the artist in fact, as Amusement Park suggests, refer with little other than the money involved in the business. In defence to his own lyrics, 50 Cent has also express his irritation of apparent double standards in the media, in reference to Britney Spears single Gimme more8 beginning with the lyrics its Britney, bitch.While it may appear to be merely a sore complaint, it is sure valid to discuss the treatment of women in other areas of the media, and by women themselves. The music video of the song in question consists of Britney Spears, eroding little more than underwear, dancing round a poll in a seedy setting. Similarly, in Dip it Low by Christina Milian, the artist is seen allowing herself to have black paint poured over her semi-clothed body, whilst a group of men stand at the side watch and jeering the presentation of women apparent in male hip hop videos is not a unique one.In all aspects of the media girls are presented, more than anything, by their sexuality and appearance, which can be found in adverts in womens magazines, stereotypes in film and boob tube (a notable example being do-or-die(a) Housewives), car adverts, drink adverts. Although elevated within the genre, this representation could be described as a reflection of attitudes prevalent in both the media and in society and therefore not so shocking to audiences. other issue described by an net blogger9 is that by mop up sexism and violence portrayed in hip hop music, it is shutting off a fundamental way of keeping these issues in the eye of the public. He quotes that the leading killer of African Americans is homicide and that males are five times more probable to be killed than their white counterparts. These issues will still exist even in the absence of offensive hip hop. While this surely an interesting point, hip hop paradoxically glorifies the very things which it makes an issue of.While artists like 50 Cent may primarily be driven by selling as many records as possible, he still in one sense continues to represent issues which would otherwise be forgotten, if only in a postmodern way. Therefore, in order for hip hop to aid this purpose, it is essential that audiences neither directly embrace the values shown in the videos, nor take it as purely entertainment, as Amusement Park evidently does allow us to do.However, audiences could be said to be becoming more and more desensitised to these things, with violent films and video games and the huge availableness of pornograp hy through the internet, which would make this reading more difficult to achieve. Whether or not the sexism and violence in hip hop is justified or not, if audiences were to take a more active role in their media, it would simultaneously prevent potential work out from such songs, and also make pungent issues in black society more accessible to deal with.