This research addressed two areas of interest: the contemporary role of American public diplomacy in the post-9/11 world and the formal and informal role of hip-hop music in 21st century American public diplomacy. This study examined the formal and informal role of hip-hop music in American public diplomacy to determine the degree to which the U.S. government is formally employing hip-hop music as a tool for public diplomacy. The researcher hypothesized that the U.S. government uses hip-hop music as means to champion its foreign policy objectives and American democratic values vis-à vis cultural imperialism. This study employed the case study model as its principal research method and used three data analysis techniques: content analysis, process model analysis, and voice analysis. The conclusion whether hip-hop reflects or champions American cultural imperialism is mixed. From a formal perspective, the answer is no for three reasons: the stated objectives of the Rhythm Road program, the types of artists that are chosen to serve as cultural diplomats, and the prior existence of hip-hop communities throughout the world. On the other hand, when considering informal hip-hop diplomacy from an economic and political perspective, it is feasible to argue that it does reflect what James Petras describes as American cultural imperialism. In the final analysis, the researcher concludes that the U.S. government does in fact practice and promote cultural imperialism vis-à-vis public diplomacy: however, the use of hip-hop music in the formal process plays no significant role in this process.

In 1988, rap group Public Enemy's front man Chuck D declared that hip-hop was the "black CNN." His assertion was that hip-hop music could be used as a tool to disseminate information amongst communities that traditionally have been underserved by mainstream media outlets. In the years since, several explicitly political and activist groups have formed within hip-hop communities. Most hip-hop audience members are not, however, directly involved in such groups. My dissertation investigates the links between hip-hop music and culture and politics in the lives of audience members, exploring audience member's definitions of politics and community and examining the influence of hip-hop on these definitions. This is an ethnographic project that includes participant observation as well as in-depth interviews with self-identified hip-hop fans. Participant observation took place at two National Hip-Hop Political Convention conferences, in Austin at concerts, panel discussions, and other hip-hop oriented events, and online in an email listserv devoted to hip-hop and politics. Interviews address listening and other practices that serve to connect individual members to hip-hop communities. In addition, I asked participants to explore their definitions of "politics" and to comment on connections between music and politics from their individual perspectives. Finally, participants were asked to list issues of particular concern to them. This is an interdisciplinary project that combines aspects of sociology, cultural studies, and popular music studies. I also rely upon Patricia Hill Collins' concept of intersectionality, assuming that race, class, and gender each work together to contribute to audience members' experience with hip-hop music and culture and their sense of belonging to the hip-hop community. This project contributes to understandings of music reception as well as to understanding political affiliation and practice by exploring and describing the ways in which people register and experience music and politics in the hip-hop generation. / text

<p>African American Vernacular English, AAVE, is a variant of English spoken mostly by lower-class black citizens in the US. Since the most popular music genre among African Americans today is rap, this paper will describe what characterizes AAVE and rap music, and explore the use of AAVE in rap lyrics of both black and white rappers.</p><p>AAVE is different from Standard English in several respects; grammatically, phonologically and lexically. Examples of grammatical features in AAVE are invariant be, double negations and the differing use of possessive pronouns.</p><p>The hip hop industry has been, and still is, largely dominated by black performers, and white artists make up only a minority of rappers in the line of business today. Rappers being part of a larger culture, the hip hop nation, they have a language in common, and that language is AAVE. In this paper, a number of lyrics performed both by black and white rap artists have been compared and analyzed, in search of linguistic features of AAVE. This study provides evidence that AAVE is indeed used in rap lyrics, although the use of its features is often inconsistent. It is also shown that AAVE-presence in white rappers’ lyrics exists, but is sparser than in the works of their black equivalents.</p>

African American Vernacular English, AAVE, is a variant of English spoken mostly by lower-class black citizens in the US. Since the most popular music genre among African Americans today is rap, this paper will describe what characterizes AAVE and rap music, and explore the use of AAVE in rap lyrics of both black and white rappers. AAVE is different from Standard English in several respects; grammatically, phonologically and lexically. Examples of grammatical features in AAVE are invariant be, double negations and the differing use of possessive pronouns. The hip hop industry has been, and still is, largely dominated by black performers, and white artists make up only a minority of rappers in the line of business today. Rappers being part of a larger culture, the hip hop nation, they have a language in common, and that language is AAVE. In this paper, a number of lyrics performed both by black and white rap artists have been compared and analyzed, in search of linguistic features of AAVE. This study provides evidence that AAVE is indeed used in rap lyrics, although the use of its features is often inconsistent. It is also shown that AAVE-presence in white rappers’ lyrics exists, but is sparser than in the works of their black equivalents.

xviii, 510 p. : ill. (some col.) This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- ShareAlike 3.0 License (United States). / This study analyzes the culture, history, and technology of the hip hop DJ in order to tease out the relationships between industrial and cultural practices. The following research questions structured the investigation: 1) What historical developments in intellectual property rights and music playback and delivery formats contribute to a political economy of the hip hop DJ; 2) what has been the role of intellectual property exchange and standardization in the DJ product industry relevant to hip hop DJs; 3) how are the meanings involved in the consumption of and production with analog and digital technologies related; and 4) does hip hop DJ culture represent convergence and collective intelligence? Employing various qualitative methods, the research includes interviews with influential hip hop DJs, executives at record labels, distributors, retailers, and DJ technology manufacturers. The study also reviews the histories of music playback technologies and standardization in relation to intellectual property laws. With political economic, cultural Marxism and new media theories as its framework, this study analyzes hip hop DJs as the intersection of corporate culture and youth culture. The research broadly addresses the hip hop DJ's role in building the industries that cater to hip hop DJing. Specifically, the study analyzes the politics of how hip hop DJs' intellectual properties and subcultural capital have been harnessed by companies in various industries as a way to authenticate, improve, and sell product. The study also examines consumption as production, collective intelligence, and how digital technologies are negotiated within this culture. The research suggests that hip hop DJ culture and the DJ technology and recording industries are not necessarily discrete entities that exert force upon one another. Rather, they are involved in a cultural economy governed by technocultural synergism, which is a complex interplay between agency and determinism guided by both corporate and cultural priorities. The study also offers a networked theory of innovation and creation over the individual genius emphasized in U.S. intellectual property laws to suggest that hip hop DJ culture is an open source culture. / Committee in charge: Dr. Janet Wasko, Chairperson; Dr. Julianne Newton, Member; Dr. Biswarup Sen, Member; Dr. Daniel Wojcik, Outside Member

Orientador: Rita de Cassia Lahoz Morelli / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciencias Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-10T15:23:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Sunega_FernandaAlves_M.pdf: 1198744 bytes, checksum: 05e2319aaf71dd5f21e0a9447eade0c0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / Resumo: De acordo com Néstor Garcia Canclini, em ¿Cidades e cidadãos imaginados pelos meios de comunicação¿, a sociedade está submetida a uma ¿urbanização que desurbaniza¿, onde os meios de comunicação atuam de maneira a criar vínculos entre os bairros, periferias e centro. Diante da heterogeneidade urbana, para este autor, a mídia apresenta um espetáculo reconfortante onde a população sente-se incluída nas mais diversas manifestações da cidade. Surge então a questão principal que será abordada neste trabalho: a rádio comunitária assume o papel das mídias, na definição de Canclini, estabelecendo um elo com a cidade ou reforça a localidade em que está inserida? A partir da pesquisa em rádio comunitária do Jardim das Bandeiras, periferia da cidade de Campinas, é possível analisar o fluxo de informações originado nessa territorialidade focalizando a experiência local de um programa de rap e seus atores sociais / Abstract: According to Néstor Garcia Canclini, in "Cities and citizens imagined by media", the society is submitted to a "urbanização que desurbaniza", where media acts in order to create links among districts, peripheries and downtown. Canclini believes that due to the urban heterogeneity, the media presents a reinvigorating show where the population is included in several city manifestations. Then appears the ultimate issue which will be treated in this work: does community radio take over the media¿s role, as defined by Canclini, establishing a link with the city or does it reinforce the place where it is inserted? Starting from the research in community radio of the Jardim das Bandeiras, periphery of the Campinas city, it is possible to analyze the information flow originated in that territoriality focusing the local experience of a rap program and their social actors / Mestrado / Antropologia Social / Mestre em Antropologia Social