This dissertation contributes to the body of literature on consumer behavior and marketing communication by exploring how brand mentions in music influence memory, attitudes, and purchase intentions. Even though the definitions of product placement have expanded to include a variety of media, there is no scholarly literature that explores this phenomena. More importantly, there are conceptual differences between product placement and brand mentions that differentiate this form of promotion. Thus, two studies were conducted to test the influence of brand mentions on hip-hop consumers ages 18-36. Study One (n=204) used a hip-hop song created specifically for this research with four brands in the lyrics with varying degrees of prominence in the song and congruence with hip-hop culture. Three fictitious press releases were also used to manipulate perceived initiator. A 3x2x2x2 repeated measures with between subjects design was employed to analyze the effects of the executional factors (prominence and congruence), perceived initiator and primary beneficiary, along with involvement on the dependent variables. In Study Two, 30 in-depth interviews were conducted to gain a deeper understanding of the phenomena in Study One. The overall findings suggests that brand mentions may be an effective tool to increase brand awareness. In Study One, highly prominent, incongruent brands were remembered more in comparison to high prominent congruent brands, but this effect was reversed in the low prominent conditions. In addition, 87% of the subjects were able to recall at least one brand mentioned in the song. Highly involved participants had more favorable attitudes towards the brands than low involved participants. However, the difference was most evident in the rating of congruent brands. The hypothesized interaction between perceived initiator and involvement was not supported. Additionally, the findings did not support the predicted effects of perceived primary beneficiary. However, findings in Study Two reveal possible explanations. Study Two also revealed four emergent themes that influence the effectiveness of brand mentions in hip-hop music: third person effect, authenticity, consumer skepticism, and ethics. The current research is the first attempt to tackle this phenomena empirically. Thus, there were some limitations as well as many future research directions. / text

<p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal" / mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0 / mso-tstyle-colband-size:0 / mso-style-noshow:yes / mso-style-parent:"" / mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt / mso-para-margin:0in / mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt / mso-pagination:widow-orphan / font-size:10.0pt / font-family:"Times New Roman" / mso-ansi-language:#0400 / mso-fareast-language:#0400 / mso-bidi-language:#0400 / } </style> <![endif]-->This thesis explores the ways in which Cape Town rap group Prophets of da City articulate their resistance to apartheid and, in particular, the ways in which they attempted to intervene in politicians' attempts to pacify the black electorate during the build- up to South Africa's first democratic elections. Initially, I attempt to clear a space from which one could discuss POC's work as postmodern and postcolonial. I then theorise POC's use of sampling as a postmodern strategy whilst, at the same time, pointing out that rap has its origins in the African- American tradition of Signifyin(g). Through my discussion sampling, I suggest that rap, as postmodern cultural practice, challenges concepts of originality as well as uniqueness. I also discuss POC's work as part of subculture and analyse Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing in order to explore the black artist's struggle for space* within the public sphere. Finally, I contend that both Lee and POC's texts are flawed because they marginalise gender politics. I briefly discuss Queen Latifa's rap music to suggest that the discourses of race and gender are inseparable.</p>

The main focus of hip hop music is on the beats and the lyrics. Hip hop lyrics. performed as 'rap' (fast poetic rhymes) address topics such as self-portrayal, roots, life, location, time and space. From its beginnings, hip hop music in KwaZulu-Natal has been bilingual with artists performing in isiZulu and English. In addition, expressions from isiTsotsi or other forms of youth language are used in performances as well as on records and mixtapes. Therefore, hip hop music from KwaZulu-Natal offers excellent material for the analysis of the relation between language choice and construction of identity amongst urban youth. This treatise investigates this matter, taking the question of ethnicity in post-apartheid South Africa into account. Five artists who rap and perform predominantly in isiZulu provide their lyrics for the sociolinguistic analysis which takes a close look at the content and translatability of each text. Certain topics addressed in hip hop lyrics in isiZulu are languagespecific and seem to be (almost) untranslatable. These topics may be related to cultural concepts and 'common knowledge' which are based in Zulu traditions. Moreover, the analysis of the lyrics shows that isiZulu-speaking hip hop artists from KwaZulu-Natal who rap in their mother tongue merge common hip hop themes with traditional concepts of Zulu culture. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2007.

This ethnographic study concerns itself with the role that local rap performance plays in either reinforcing or challenging perceptions of 'race' amongst the participants of hip-hop culture in Durban, South Africa, and what this implies for the prospects of reconciliation. Using Cohen's (1989) theory of community and Grossberg's (1996) theory of affective alliances, I explore the ways in which music may create and maintain differences and commonalities between groups of people. It is my hypothesis that genre conventions and connotations, and the discourses that circulate about rap music (for example, rap music as a form of expression particular to the 'black Atlantic' diaspora and conditioned by a racially segregated society [Rose 1994]), allow hip-hop to either reinforce or challenge participants' perceptions of 'race'. I examine how musical and lyrical utterances thrust into a semantic historical and socio-political context limit how rap performance can mean and how, as a dialogic speech genre, rap can uphold, subvert or negotiate its genre associations, including, through the use of double-voiced discourse, dominant ideas concerning 'race' and cultural identity. Acknowledging the idiom as of a form of black cultural expression (Rose 1994), interviewees mention narratives of hip-hop's historical origins, rap artists' use of Five Percenter and Black Nationalist ideologies, and poverty, as factors that either reinforce or challenge notions of 'race'. The simultaneous transgression of and/or adherence to, racialized space and spatialized 'race' (Forman 2002) by different 'races', as well as the presence or absence of multilingualism, are viewed as indicators of the level of commitment to the notion of a democratic place for all 'race' and language groups in post-apartheid South Africa. It is the aim of this thesis to add to the body of knowledge concerning the nature of our post-apartheid identities, what influences them and in what way. And in a broader context, to explore the role of music in societies in transition and the role it might play in facilitating an ability to 'imagine culture beyond the colour line' (Gilroy 2000). / Thesis (M.Mus.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2008.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on March 25, 2008) Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Texas at El Paso, 2009. / Title from title screen. Vita. CD-ROM. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1996. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-91). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1996. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-91). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2009. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 260-274).

Thesis (M.A.)--The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2010. / Directed by Noelle Morrisette; submitted to the Dept. of English. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Jul. 16, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 48-49).