Essay Sample on Hip Hop Celebrity Culture

Introduction

If there is a trend that is suddenly taking young people by storm, it has to be the hip-hop celebrity culture. From the 1970's hip-hop culture has been promoted and viewed as a cool and youthful trend that all youths should strive to emulate. Due to this trend, hip-hop has been recognized as the world's favorite youth culture (nationalgeographic.com). The media has certainly played a huge role in popularizing this culture. Right now, about every country in the world seems to have developed its genre of hip-hop music and culture (Androutsopoulos & Scholz 2003, pg. 684).

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I have seen a surge in the number of youths who emulate our hip-hop artists and whatever they seem to promote. A great example would be the growing of dreadlocks among men as strongly influenced by influential artists like Snoop Dog and Lil Wayne. Hip-hop culture seems to have found its way into almost all aspects of our lives. To be able to rap and breakdance have been glorified as admirable and great qualities in a person. Hip-hop has also influenced even the dressing of most young people in the society. A new crop of clothes designers has also emerged who seem to borrow and mix ideas from the hip-hop culture with those of what is considered 'decent' and acceptable dressing.

The hip-hop culture has grown from being a preserve of black artists and people with white artists such as Eminem building an unshakeable legacy for himself in the hip-hop culture. The hip-hop culture serves several purposes in the society. First, it was used as a means of rebellion and self-assertion by subjugated black youths in America. Though still used to spread a message of liberation and revolution, popular modern hip-hop music is used to show off wealth, promote anomie and brag about violence. The media seems to have used the domestication theory to integrate the hip-hop culture into our everyday activities.

Three steps are applied in the domestication theory. The first step includes integrating the culture into daily practices. The second step includes the user and the respective environment conforming accordingly and adapting to the new culture. The final step is that of the conformities achieved is used to shape the next change in the culture (Berker et al. 2005, pg.4). The media is admittedly doing a lot to integrate the hip-hop culture into our everyday lives. The primary target of their influence seems to be the young people.

Hip-hop artists are usually portrayed as demigods by the media. This has been achieved by the emergence of television and radio stations like MTV that are dedicated to playing music only. Such media avenues tend to lean on popularizing hip-hop music and its associated culture (Hepp & Krotz 2014, pg.10). When Kanye West, a major fashion icon, released his fashion designs to the world a little over a year ago, some if not most of the people might have laughed at the ridiculousness of the designs. However, through the media, the designs have received so much popularity that almost all major designers seek to incorporate some of Kanye's designs into their own.

Currently, almost all major news blogs, and magazines have a feature where they showcase the latest hip-hop fashion. Also, huge giants in diverse industries such as Nike, Adidas, Samsung, and Puma are collaborating with hip-hop giants, like Jay-Z, Rihanna, and others to push their brands. The high media coverage and attention such artist receive has led to them being idolized by many people in the society to a near point of worship. As a result, any action or lifestyle trend that is associated with hip-hop musicians is perceived by many to be right and worth copying.

The second step of the domestication theory is the adaptation. Although almost every country in the world has developed its rap scene in its native language, some aspects of hip-hop are universal and rarely vary from one geographical location to another (Couldry 2012, pg. 10). Such elements include street art better known as graffiti. Since its spread in America in the early 1970s, graffiti has gained root in many countries as far as Africa. Also, long hair and tattoos have been a constant feature of the hip-hop culture. As a result, many youths of today will spot dreadlocks and inked bodies as a means of conformity to the hip-hop culture. Those that conform to the culture are considered by some people to be in a way better than those that resist the change. The media has also reinforced the idea that for one to be modern and live the hip-hop culture, one must wear certain brands of clothes or shoes. Due to conformity to this notion, specific shoe brands have become popular than others.

The last step involves using the conformities to influence the next change of culture. A good instance here will be the colored dreadlocks. For centuries, colored hair was considered a preserve of women and the boldest fashion people. However, with the entry of influential artists like Lil Pump, who popularized the colored dreadlocks, there has been a change of perception. The conformity to dreadlocks has been used to introduce a new idea of colored dreads. The media has thus played the biggest role in advancing the hip-hop culture.

References

"Hip Hop: National Geographic World Music". Worldmusic.nationalgeographic.com. October 17, 2002. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
Androutsopoulos, J. and Scholz, A., 2003. Spaghetti funk: appropriations of hip-hop culture and rap music in Europe. Popular Music and Society, 26(4), pp.463-479.
Berker, T., Hartmann, M. and Punie, Y., 2005. Domestication of media and technology. McGraw-Hill Education (UK).Couldry, Nick. Media, society, world: Social theory and digital media practice. Polity, 2012.
Hepp, A. and Krotz, F., 2014. Mediatized worlds-Understanding everyday mediatization. In Mediatized Worlds (pp. 1-15). Palgrave Macmillan, London.