Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Rap listener = gangsta.
People tend to judge others by the type of music they listen to. I find myself constantly stereotyping others based on the genres of music on their i-pods. I do believe that music is a way of expressing who you are as a person, but it doesn't mean that they fit all the stereotypes associated with that certain type of music. As you may have noticed in the title, the term rap in a modern viewpoint is almost always pointed towards African-American listeners, gangsters, THUG life, hate crimes, etc. I know a lot of people who listen to this type of music yet fit none of the stereotypes above. (Some are pretty extreme but work with me here). Why do people stereotype, and to what point is stereotyping alright? People shouldn't feel like they are being posers by listening to music which wasn't produced by people of their same ethnic background because music is a universal language. How messed up of a world would this be if you were only allowed to listen to music made by people of your ethnic background. Unfortunately I would be forced to listen to WHO KNOWS WHAT MUSIC JAPANESE PEOPLE MAKE. Anyway, to make a long story short, don't judge people by the type of music they listen to, because music helps define people, but not always to the extent of following stereotypes.
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2 comments:
I never really think of rap listener's being the "gangsta" stereotype. I mean, I think ganster-types listen to that music, but, for me, the stereotype liked with that type of music is the person who really follows whatevers on MTV and doesn't really search for other more interesting stuff, but settles for crappy pop R&B/rap like fifty cent and those types. I guess I stereotype the maker of the music more than the listener (i.e. gansters make rap type music, white boys make rock/metal, prissy white girls make power ballads about teenage angst, black soul food types make blues, etc). Ok that was a LOT extreme, but I was just trying to show you what I mean. and there are so many exceptions, it shouldn't be an exception any more.
Recently I started listening to this band from the UK called bloc party. They're an indie rock band; good band, but not revolutionary. They sound like the Rogue Wave/ Broken Social Scene sort of indie band. The typical "white boy" kind of thing. But what was cool, was that there was this Lenny Kravitz type looking lead singer. and he was hot. It was so refreshing to not see some skinny white boy up there. Another cool thing that I'm starting to get into is the rock/punk/indie/new wave bands with women lead singers. Examples, Shirley Manson of Garbage, Gwen Stefani of No Doubt (pre-crack-hor-pop-soloness), Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Emily Haines of Metric who's quoted saying, "But more and more I just feel like those judgments about types of people and their musical tastes are ringing untrue to me. There are lot of people who would love to listen to Feist in the morning and Death from Above on a Friday night. People don't like music according to a type." It's awesome. Good post. I've been thinking a lot about that lately.
:)
Mainstream record compaines, MTV, Clear Channel radio stations, BET makes millions off of stereotyping young urban and usually black males.
Its funny because its white or in Hawaii asian suburban kids that pay the most for these images. Because they never really meet black people or are exposed to black culture, these stupid images stick and become the only ones corporations are willing to sell. This hurts hip hop incredibly because now so many aspiring rappers think the only way to get paid is to conform to what I think is blatant racism. It limits human beings and stifles creativity.
Anyone that knows the full history of hip-hop can tell you being a gangster is only a small part of what hip-hop is. It existed for more than a decade before the whole gangster shit took off and hip hop has explored almost every other aspect of life like any other music genre.
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