Sunday, January 23, 2011
Meaning of Hip Hop
After reading the article for this week about the culture of Hip Hop, it reminded me of topics I'm discussing in my pop culture class. In this class, we are discussing what pop culture is and how it is created. Institutions create the ideas we see in everyday life that we recognize as "popular" because they are dominant. In these terms, hip hop dancers are almost a subordinate culture, fighting against the norm. They are constantly reinventing and adding to their styles with their groups and dance moves. Since they have some historical connection to gangs, hip hop dance is "looked down upon" by society in some ways, but the B-boys are constantly fighting and proving themselves capable; they are in a constant struggle and battle for survival. I thought it was powerful when the dance was described in the article as telling a story. While the dance may be improvised and seem like a random set of moves, the B-boys are actually making "clear statements about who they are and their relationship to the world"; there is a purpose and meaning behind every move they make, and it is up to the viewer to interpret the text of dance (Aesthetics, 91). I have to give B-boys a lot of credit for constantly fighting and wanting to prove their identity, even when higher powers are against them.
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Hi Karen,
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting point. Oftentimes, we think of pop culture as being a top-down affair: institutions or businesses coming up with some cultural product that they can sell to us. But the example of b-boying clearly shows how popular culture can also emerge "from below," or in a bottom-up fashion. Hip hop has become a dominant form of popular culture but it emerged in very intimate, local contexts, through face-to-face interactions. Knowing that, do we need to redefine our notion of "popular culture"? Or are "pop culture" and "popular culture" two different things?
I agree. I think a large part of the hip hop culture is taken from popular culture. The most interesting part of hip hop is that it incorporates as much culture as it can, evolving and changing as culture changes. I agree that b-boying especially allowed itself to evolve in more intimate settings, allowing more personal likes and dislikes of popular culture to be infused in it. It's interesting how similar all dancing is, and how people add their own personal style to it in order to make it their own, and ultimately create a new dance. I'll be interested to see how this dance is similar to the others we follow.
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