Sorry for the slightly late post tonight, I've been making my way back from Memphis today and it took me a bit to get back on track. That being said, it was a really interesting week of readings, and I had one point I wanted to focus on today.
In the selection from Dr. Schur’s book, the point is made, and it’s not a new one in our discussions, that "studies of 'hip-hop' focus almost exclusively on music and musicians (45)." The same point is also made by Murray Forman that "the term hip hop is often incorrectly applied only to the music, the most prominent and lucrative cultural facet (103)." Despite these arguments, when we read Perry's work, it seems that the focus is again nearly exclusively about the music itself.
As we have been working through some the literature and discussing hip hop history, we have touched on a few ideas about these other "elements." Though we have yet to have our units and discussions on graffiti or break that will come later in the course, I still am having trouble fitting these elements in. Is the b-boy anything like his counterpart 30 years ago? After a "war on graffiti," does graffiti still matter, at all as a foundational aspect of hip hop? At this point, and with an admittedly low understanding of these particular elements of hip hop. Dancing and writing on public walls seem remarkably unoriginal in many ways, weren't the Romans dancing and producing graffiti? It seems like we've been trying so hard to get a basic understanding of hip hop and hip hop studies, saying "there are four elements to hip hop, first.." and haven't really asked "why?" are these two elements so important. Is there some sort of path dependency that started with "Wild Style" that has prevented these elements from being downgraded from "elements" to "influences"?
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Tom-
ReplyDeleteReally interesting thoughts. I think that I've been guilty of the same oversight you point out in the Perry reading; after the overview at the beginning of class, I've tended to isolate music as the most important aspect of hip-hop and to focus the majority of my studying and thinking on this element. As times have chaged and hip-hop has evolved, I am also not sure how the founding elements fit into modern hip-hop culture. It's something we should keep thinking about.
Katie
Great questions! I also have questions about these other elements and hopefully they will be answered later in the semester. Can graffiti and b boying be used for political reasons? Why are these elements often ignored and looked over? Is it simply commercialization, or something more? I'm excited for discussion today to try and figure it out.
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