essay plan

hypothesis : representation and stereotype of rap music manipulate teenagers in a certain way

brief description of my critical investigation...

- my critcal investigation will be focusing on the stereotypes and representation of two rap stars Eminem and Lil Wayne. I will be investigating whether rap music challenges or reinforces the represenation and stereotypes. I will also be investigating to see whether rap music influences teenagers in a negative way and if so how it does that, I will back my points with eveidence from the three of my texts which are eminem's 'love the way you lie' and 'no love' and also using lil wayne's video 'drop the world'.

brief descripition of the main characters that i am looking at...

- Marshall Bruce Marthers III who is better known by the stage name of Eminem is an american actor, record producer and rapper. Eminem gained popularity with his album 'the slim shady LP' which he wona grammy award for the best rap album. He had started performing rap at the age of 14. He repeated 9th grade due to trauncy and near-dailing the grades. He left studies at the age of 17. He released an album 'recovery' which was very different to Eminem's style and even then the album sold 741,000 in it's first week.

- Dwayne Micheal Carter Jr. who is better known by the stage name Lil Wayne is an american rapper. At the age of 9 Lil Wayne signed with cash 'money records' as the youngest member on the label. In 1999 he released a platinum album which sold over one million in the U.S alone. His most successful album was 'the carter III' released in 2008 which sold over one million in its first week. The album contained the top selling single 'lollipop'. He was then later convicted in march 2010 for criminal weapons. When in jail he released another album 'i am not a human being' in september 2010 feteauring Drake, nicki minaj, lil twist and many others.

society and representations of men in the society...

-'Men nurture their society by shedding their blood, their sweat, and their semen, by bringing home food for both child and mother, by producing children, and by dying if necessary in faraway places to provide a safe haven for their people. This, too, is nurturing in the sense of endowing or increasing'
pg 10 (Gilmore, 1990, p. 230)

This quote is saying that men are supposed to be dominant and going out to work while women are supposed to sit at home and do the housework and look after the children. This reinforces the stereotypes of males and females both. This quote was believed by many back in the 80's, although the idea of men being dominant and women being passive have know changed and both males and females have been given almost the same rights.

teenagers listening to rap cause moral panics...

-'Rap stars are encouraging early sexual activity among teenagers by promoting a degrading view of women, research shows.'

'Some lyrics can be quite provocative and insensitive and they hear these lyrics and want to do exactly what it's saying...For example: If they hear music about having sex...They wanna go out and do it..'

Research shows that teenagers listening to rap have had an influence on them and that teenagers are doing what they see and hear. Rap music mostly talks about sex, drugs, alcohol etc and so when teenagers listen to rap, they would act in the same manner. Research also shows that tenagers aged 13-18 act like the artists they see on TV etc, they would talk in the same manner, dress in the same sense and even act in a particular way. Studies show that violence has increased as hip hop has become more popluar also artist don't act in apositive way which effects teens behaviour.

hip hop from the 80's compared with contemporary hip hop and stereotypes...

The text that I researched from the 80's was Big Daddy Kane who also was known for the same genre music, hip hop.Big Daddy Kane hit it big for a short period of time but left a lasting impact on the rap scene, which influenced many rappers of the '90s. Kane released "Long Live the Kane" in 1988 with the single "Ain't No Half Steppin'" but found even bigger success in 1989 when he released "It's a Big Daddy Thing", which spawned the hits "Smooth Operator" and "I Get the Job Done". As the '80s crested into the '90s, Big Daddy Kane continued to release albums, but fell victim to a changing era of music with the emergence of Grunge and such new rappers as Snoop and Tupac. The difference compared to my contemporary music video is that in this video 'Big Daddy Kane' is wearing more of the 'bling' whereas in Eminem's video he is not wearing any bling. In Big Daddy Kane's video there is no swearing whereas in Eminem's video he's got more swearing and also his video is more aggressive. This shows that the society has changed in a more negative role.

'stereotype has entered public life as a term that is used to describe how fixed qualities or traits may be attributed to groups in the way they are represented in various media'

The quote above explains how different stereotypes are shown through various media and that audience has a different interprtation of each. Most common stereotypes of teenagers are that teeangers are thought to be having/thinking about sex all the time, that they are lazy, rude etc.

audience theory...

audience theory such as the hypodermic needle theory can be well linked to hip hop and teenagers because research shows that teenagers take in whatever they hear in the lyrics of rap. This means that the teenagers get injected by a certain thing that they see/hear and they accept it without having to do any further research.

conclusion...

From all the research done it can be seen that rap definately influences teenagers in a negative way and males are surely shown to be dominant in rap music videos. Rap music reinforces the ideologies of masculinity by using the hypodermic needle theory. It shows how the media has developed our mind in a way that they want us to.

I will discuss the representations is shown in my historic text compared to my contemporary text and how the society has accepted the similarities in both males and females. I will close it by making a point on how artist are not trying to send out a negative message and that the media shows in such a way that it effects teenagers in a negative way.