Popular culture as oppositional culture: Rap as resistance

Journal/Book: Sociol Perspect. 1997; 40: 55 Old Post RD-#2, PO Box 1678, Greenwich, CT 06836-1678. Jai Press Inc. 265-286.

Abstract: Bonnie Mitchell and Joe Feagin (1995) build on the theory of oppositional culture, arguing that African Americans, American Indians, and Mexican Americans draw on their own cultural resources to resist oppression under internal colonialism. In this paper, rap music is identified as all important African American popular cultural from that also emerges as a form of oppositional culture. A brief analysis of the lyrics of political and gangsta rappers of the late 1980s and early 1990s, provides key themes of distrust, anger, resistance, and critique of a perceived racist and discriminatory society. Rap music is discussed as music with a message of resistance, empowerment, and social critique, and as a herald of the Los Angeles riots of 1992.

Note: Article Martinez TA, Univ Utah, Dept Sociol, Salt Lake City,UT 84112 USA

Keyword(s): POLITICS; MUSIC

Zurück | Weiter