The healing power of hip hop. (2017). The Conversation. Retrieved from: https://theconversation.com/the-healing-power-of-hip-hop-81556

The article provided talks about how society labels rap music. The way that rap music has an impact in young peoples lives. But it focuses’ it’s main points on how rap music has a very positive impact overall. The article gives us different ways on how rap music is said to heal people. It proves the point that rap music does not only portray misogyny, drugs, and violence; rap music provides encouragement towards justice, happiness, and a better way of life.

Policy Statement- Impact of Music, Music Lyrics, and Music Videos on Children and Youth. (2009). American Academy of Pediatrics.

Retrieved from: https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/pediatrics/124/5/1488.full.pdf

The article provided talks about the different impacts the music industry has on people, particularly in the younger ones. The article specifies the ways in which the music content has influenced certain behaviors and actions the life of these individuals. It additionally adds different ways parents and pediatricians can get involved in order to be a support for these young people.

Rap music has evolved overtime, and over the years new artists have risen up, many who come from a non-Black culture. It’s true that the rap industry has always been surrounded by African American figures, but times are and have been changing, allowing the convergence of different nationalities to create a new phase of rap music. The increase of rap music production outside of non-Black communities reflects the adaption to this form of music. But with different nationalities coming together, there has been a huge controversy with the usage of the n-word within these non-Black rap artists in the rap industry. Priester (2018) emphasizes the idea that non-Black people should have respect to the usage of the n-word while creating music and while singing along to any lyrics that includes this word. In the other hand, unlike Priester others believe that the usage of the n-word has become so common in rap music that the usage of this word does not cause any type of offense. Just like the words “bro” and “dude” are used to refer to someone who one is associated with, the n-word holds almost the same purpose. Overall, the steady rise of rap music production outside the African American culture is the result that rap music itself, holds within people’s lives disregarding their sex and nationality. Although the n-word is said to be offensive to the African American community, times have changed and the meaning of this word holds a less offensive purpose when referring to someone.

Rap is a very popular and widely listened form of music. In order to understand the impact rap music has in society, determine the listening habits of people who listen to it, and analyze the connections to sexual content and machismo a survey was conducted. The survey consisted of an audience of sixty-three percent women and thirty-seven percent male; with an eighty-three percent age range of eighteen through twenty and a seventeen percent age range of twenty through twenty-five. To begin with question four, which said “How old were you when you first listened to rap music?”, had a percentage of fifty-five under the age of ten years old. This results proved that most of these people either grew in a home where rap music was listened to, or grew around people who encouraged the rap music culture. Additionally, question eight asked “Do you think women’s involvement in rap music brings empowerment to women?”, ninety percent of these people responded yes. The results for question eight brought to light the transition of rap music, and the new role of women within the rap industry. As the last point, question ten asked “In your own words explain why you think women often appear as a sexual/nudity figures in rap music videos?”, the responses to this question gave us the answer to the connections to sexual content and machismo. Two of the responses that stood out the most were “The male rappers want to show that they have women attracted to them which makes them look “cool”.” and “Because guys usually just see women as objects not respected humans.”. Overall, this survey answered many more questions than the ones implied within the actual survey, clearly younger people are more commonly exposed to rap music, women bring more empowerment to rap music, and women are viewed as “sexual objects” instead of “humans”.

Although hip hop music has evolved, high schools and colleges still refuse to study the lyrics of this type of music because they consider it to be too vulgar and it conveys certain ideas not supported in educational environments. To begin with, hip hop lyrics is labeled as vulgar due to the vague language used within its music. But, have high schools and colleges thought about the fact that in order to be vulgar you don’t necessarily have to curse or use disrespectful words. For example, some of the common poems and readings that are studied in these high schools and colleges can be even more offensive and indecent than hip hop lyrics due to the indirect thoughts they might send within its words. Additionally, hip hop lyrics conveys the idea of drugs, sex, and violence and these things interfere with the educational purposes, which is why teachers/professors choose not to study this lyrics. Educational environments stay away from setting that example on students which is the reason why they don’t choose to treat hip hop lyrics as form of literature. Overall, the way that hip hop music has evolved has set a negative imprint that uses vulgar language and suggests ideas that are not educationally appropriate.

It is important to study how music affects society because it helps a person understand the meaning of the different discourse communities of music and it helps that person understand people’s feelings and their perspective to the different types of music. To begin with, there are many types of music artists and music genres out in today’s world, most of which have different crowds they attract; also known as the different discourse communities of music. It is important to know the background details within these different groups because they all have a different style of music, and whether others like it or not, each discourse community should be respected equally. To add on, not only is it important to study music in order to understand the meaning of each discourse community. It is also important to fully understand how music affects each individual separately. This is important because it provides a bigger picture of why a certain person is attracted to that specific type of music. For example, studying rap music gives us the full picture as to why the artist or the listener is the person they are, past experiences or even just motivations might have encouraged them to either create the content or listen to it. In the other hand, someone who doesn’t take the time to study rap music might just think of it as something that carries on the idea of drugs, sex, guns, etc. To sum up, the study of music is very important in order to understand the full meaning of the discourse communities within the industry of music and to acknowledge the true meaning of an individual’s feelings and perspectives when it comes to music.

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In my English class we were supposed to learn about a specific discourse community, in my case football. Two of the terms I learned about were corner-back and line of scrimmage, and the concept I learned was pick six. The corner-back’s responsibility is to cover the white receiver during the plays. The line of scrimmage is the line in which the ball sits in order to be ready to snap, it is important to keep in mind that this line can not be crossed until the ball has been snapped. Finally, the concept pick six pretty much means that the defense intercepts the ball and scores a touchdown. Now that I have explained the terms and concept I will be talking about certain positions and how they are connected to my discourse community.

During the line of scrimmage there is a specific player who gets to snap the ball. I will be using the Dallas Cowboys as my example. Travis Frederick and Cody Wichmann position is the ‘center’, they are responsible for snapping the ball in order to either start the game or a new play. The corner-back in the Cowboys team are Byron Jones and Chidobe Awuzie. Their position is important in preventing any players to go pass them in order to make a play. During the pick six play the defender intercepts the ball and returns it for a touchdown. In the Cowboys team that means that any of their defenders, such as Demarcus Lawrence and Randy Gregory, will have to intercept the ball and return it in order to be able to score a touchdown. The concept is known as a pick six because the end result is scoring a touchdown which is worth six points.

Two discourse communities that I’m a part of are at work and among my family. To begin with, a discourse community is a group of people who share certain language-using practices. Working at Chick Fil A has pushed me into becoming part of a discourse community without even trying to. For example, a thing that my coworkers and I are supposed to say all the time is “my pleasure”. And although that is a courteous thing to say even outside of work, it’s something only part of my discourse community at work. Another good example of a type of language we use at work is a elbow. Giving someone an elbow is pretty much like giving them a high five or a handshake, most of the time you say “hey” and follow it with an elbow handshake. Finally, the second discourse community I am a part of is in my family. We all have different nicknames for most of the people in our family, for example my sister is “Sissa”, my dad’s good friend is “El Pollo”, my dad is “Zarco”, and my aunt and her husband are “El Burro/Burra. Different nicknames and words make my family a discourse community. Overall, these two discourse communities are not the only ones I’m a part of, they all shape the person I am.