Popular Music & Rap Music

This study will compare the approaches used and ideas expressed by Simon Frith in his article "The Cultural Study of Popular Music" and Tricia Rose in her book Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America. Specifically, the study will compare the authors' theoretical models, the aspects of media culture they emphasize, and the roles the indicate for the media researcher.

In general, Frith takes a far more theoretical, intellectual and sociological approach. Rose, on the other hand, is more specific in her analysis, more content-oriented, and far more involved as a researcher in her subject. Frith focuses on white rock or popular music in a number of towns in Great Britain, while Rose studies hip-hop and rap music insofar as it reflects realities within black culture in the United States. Frith is concerned far more with the general conclusions he can draw from his abstract analysis of the British rock music scene than he is with the actual lives and passions of the musicians themselves as it is reflected in their music. Rose, on the other hand, focuses with a laser-like light on the significance and passion of individual groups, musicians and rapper/songwriters as they express their concerns and obsessions in their music.

The abstract nature of Frith's approach can be seen throughout his article. He writes in a language and from the perspective of a theoretical model which, if his subjects read the piece, would appear utterly foreign. Summarizing ano

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those who are considered the upstanding leaders of that society. In specific terms, both authors recognize, for example, that whatever their socioeconomic backgrounds, success in the pop music industry inevitably propels the musician out of his or her previous lifestyle and into a new one. Many if not most musicians in the towns of Great Britain and the ghettos of the United States originated from environments financially disadvantaged. Any kind of success moves them into the middle class, as both authors note, which in turn can affect their music and their relationship with their audience. Even more importantly, both authors recognize that popular music can be the expression of individuals from any segment of society: "'Drop-out' middle-class and college-educated musicians were as important to the shaping of local musical anger as straight 'dole queue rockers'" (Frith 176). Regardless of the socioeconomic factors, the emotional expression in both British white rock and American black rap music is powerful and often addressed with anger and frustration at the forces which would stifle free expression. With both authors, then, taking a similarly sympathetic and serious perspective toward their subjects, and with both of them

Category: Arts - P