Arshdeep Singh
Jennifer Huerta
MCWP 50 022
Research Proposal Final Draft
16 February 2017
Japanese-American Studies: Eastern Asia meets Mr. West
Working Claim: Although it may hold true to say that a lot of Kanye’s music is aimed towards African American culture, he has also created plenty of unique music which can be viewed from a Japanese American cultural perspective and can be aimed towards it.
Kanye West has impacted the Japanese American culture through his unique music, specifically through the music videos from his album Graduation. Songs from his album such as Flashing Lights, Good Morning, and The Good Life have influenced the way Japanese American musical culture is being shaped. Kanye West is a famous American rapper, songwriter,
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Cultural studies and Musical studies have very rare relations with each other but for my paper, they relate to each other in many ways. I am going to use them to demonstrate the Japanese musical culture in the United States. Using the authors from my sources as credible voices for my cultural studies, I will use their research to help show my readers the similarities Japanese pop culture has had with the pop culture in the United States. Not only that but the Musical studies aspect of this will be portrayed by the musical albums of Kanye, more specifically the Graduation album released in 2007. The terms that would be appropriate for me to use in my research paper would be Techno-Orientalism and Afrofuturism. The term Techno-Orientalism is considered the study of the portrayals of Asians in science fiction and has promoted an array of stereotypes and deformations about the Japanese culture. The term Afrofuturism refers to a movement in literature, music or art which incorporates some elements of black history and culture. This paper will have a lot of parts relating to Afrofuturism as well since we are using the music element of the African American culture to relate this paper to the Japanese American …show more content…
The Cultural Impact of Kanye West. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. Print.
Christian, Elizabeth Barfoot. "Kanye West: A Critical Analysis of Mass Media's Representation of a Cultural Lcfaon's Rhetoric and Celebrity." Rock Brands: Selling Sound in a Media Saturated Culture. Lanham: Lexington, 2010. 195-209. Print.
McLeod, Ken. "Afro-Samurai: Techno-Orientalism and Contemporary Hip Hop | Popular Music." Cambridge Core. N.p., 16 May 2013. Web. 03 Feb. 2017.
Melnyk, Andrew Donald. "Beats from the East: Transcultural Adaptation of Hip-Hop from North America to Eastern Asia." MUSeJournals. MacEwan University Student EJournal, 2014. Web. 11 Feb. 2017.
Mike Mullen, and January 25 by Michael Nordine. "Kanye's Right: He Is More Influential than Any Other Human Being." City Pages. N.p., 14 Apr. 2014. Web. 27 Jan. 2017.
West, Kanye. “Diamonds From Sierra Leone Remix Ft. Jay-Z.” Late Registration. Sony Music Studios,
Critical Response 4 Within his article, Simon Frith asks a question that caused me to stop and think: “The question we should be asking is not what does popular music reveal about ‘the people’ but how does it construct them? (137)” As he states, music is an individualizing form that creates an identity or self-definition that we use to give ourselves a particular place in society. The hip hop movement aided in constructing the Puerto Rican identity in New York City, allowing artists to experiment with language and race relations while challenging the traditional notions of Latinidad.
Furthermore, respectful appropriation of hip-hop goes beyond the United States, as Latin, South-East Asian, and Korean rap accurately expresses these same underlying morals with respect to their own struggles by taking inspiration from foreign musical paradigms. Regardless of demographic or origin, the human experience of hardship and desire for reform is universal. Consequently, art that spawns from these underlying issues and morals respectfully appropriate and inspire each other which accepts and exhibits Dvořák’s defense of respectful
Kanye West’s Controversial Impact Kanye West and controversy, two things that are almost synonymous with each other. It seems that most of the time Kanye is able to eventually rise higher than the controversies surrounding him and regain trust in the public. However, on rare occasions the issues are too immense for the music star to handle and lead him to face the full effects of the stress and hardship that comes as a result of his reckless behavior. Kanye West is affected by controversy because he lost brand deals, he burdened his fans and exiled himself from the public eye. Kanye West is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur and fashion designer who grew up in the city of Chicago and is often regarded
The article “Hip Hop Planet” by James McBride is about how hip hop is not his favorite type of music but, it needs to be heard. McBride shows us this by explaining that he avoided hip hop most of his life. In the article McBride says that he basically ignored “the most important cultural event in my lifetime.” James informs us that hip hop has influenced the world globally and that it has become a phenomenon. Furthermore, McBride made clear that he eventually realized that hip hop is much more than just music, it has a message.
Hip-Hop When one hears the word, “hip-hop”, images of money, drugs, violence, and provocative dancing instantly arise. Once someone hears the loud hip-hop music blasting out of a teenager’s room, they immediately criticize them for listening to what they call “nonsense”. Despite some people’s inherent distaste of hip-hop, this genre of music is actually sending an incredibly enriching and influential message. In “Hip-Hop and Shakespeare”, a TED talk, Akala, the speaker, argues that hip-hop motivates people to be intelligent and successful.
Traditionally, music has aided in the accompaniment of both religious and social customs in the Palestinian society. To these people, music is not only a form of entertainment and pleasure; it is a way of living. Hip hop developed in the United States in the 1970’s by African Americans in the New York area by generating a new cultural illustration of their issues and experiences. “The globalization of the US popular culture and the diffusion of hip hop into the Arab world has been accompanied by the mainstream of hip hop in the United States and its increasing embracement by new groups of young people…who have used it as a medium to express their political and cultural concerns” (Osumare 2007). Whether its conflicts between nations, living conditions, racism, poverty, drugs, or violence, their lyrics were used to verbally express both past and present issues.
Hip Hop was the wildfire that started in the South Bronx and whose flames leapt up around the world crying out for change. James McBride’s Hip Hop Planet focuses on his personal interactions with the development of Hip Hop culture and his changing interpretations of the world wide movement. Many of his encounters and mentions in the text concern young black males and his writing follows an evolution in the representation of this specific social group. He initially portrays them as arrogant, poor, and uneducated but eventually develops their image to include the positive effects of their culture in an attempt to negate their historical misrepresentation.
This cultural revolution is now a part of everyday life in today’s society. Many famous hip-hop artists like Drake, Jay Z, Eminem, and Nicki Minaj are frequently played on the radio and loved by many. Hip-hop has evolved throughout the years and continues to change. While people continue to enjoy this art form, it is essential to know how hip-hop
Hip Hop is seen as something inspiring, but most people see it as a way to speak out the truth about a problem. As in “Hip Hop planet” being able say the truth can sometimes worsen any situation because sometimes what we say can promote violence and whatever happens after is not in our control. The essay is about how hip hop has changed into speaking out the issues that need to be taken care of in order to maintain a proper society. McBride talked about how rappers use violent lyrics to degrade women and gays and because of this it shows how the music has evolved into something entirely different that no one would have ever expected to have changed. In James McBride's essay “Hip Hop Planet,” he argues that hip hop has a negative influence on American Culture despite people thinking of it as inspirational and how people live through different experiences in life despite of your race.
The block parties, graffiti art, rapping, disc jockeying and diverse forms of dancing built Hip Hop by the black youth. They expressed their feelings, thoughts, but most importantly the problems they had to face, which were related to their race, gender and social positions. The rights that were given to black people during and after the Civil Rights Movement left the following generations at a lack of how to continue the fight for black rights. Hip Hop gave them this platform and with the usage of black nationalism, Hip Hop can explore the challenges that confront American-Americans in the post-Civil Rights Movement era. In the 1990’s Hip Hop lived its prime, sub genres started to appear and famous groups, MCs led the whole community, providing a voice to a group of people trying to deliver their message.
Hip hop culture was embraced worldwide, it created loyal fans to hip hop and also those despise it. The question is who has embraced it and why it's important to them. For example, in Chengdu China hip hop circled the media in 2017 and it exploded with many young people lining up to see their favourite hip hop artist in music festivals or in night clubs. In the article With
Nowadays, everyone wears the identity with pride. The genre was a testament to triumphing over hardships, to having enough confidence in oneself not to let the world drag you down, and to rising above the struggle, even when things seem hopeless. Violence in rap did not begin as an affective agent that threatened to harm America 's youth; rather, it was the outcry of an already-existing problem from youth whose world views have been shaped by the inequalities and prejudice they have experienced. The relentless wave of heroic new rappers arriving on the scene formed the golden age of hip hop in the 1980s, a newfound voice which rose from the impoverished ghettos during the 1980s and inspiring a generation of black youth to fight the police brutality they faced on a daily basis.
Some of the main cores of Beat Street are the music, dancing, and graffiti art works – all of which are part of hip-hop culture. Scholars note that hip-hop as a movement originated in roots from African American traditions and are mainly used to express their culture as well as identity (Blanchard 24). Rap music, for example, comes from West Africa’s “nommo.” This idea refers to the power to deliver words to act upon objects and to bring it to life. The historical and traditional underpinning of rap, therefore, becomes representative of the rich and distinctive culture of African Americans.
The contributions and experiences of ‘homegirls’ as well as the experiences of the group characterize the hip-hop generation. Furthermore, an essential part of the hip-hop generation is the appropriation of Black youth culture. It is a new form of racism in the sense that many White people, notably White college age males, appropriate the culture, by listening to the music and adopting the style meanwhile ignoring or discrediting the people who created it. There is an ‘illusion of inclusion’ in the sense that people accept and like the culture, but do not aid in the fight against discrimination and instead use it as a fashion (Lindsey, 2015).
“Beyond Beats and Rhymes” Summary This movie was a broad discussion about hip-hop music (or more specifically gangster rap) and what kind of social issues the music not only showcases but seems to promote. The producer of this film, Byron Hunt, interviewed people involved in all aspects of the hip-hop industry, including famous rappers, to try to get to the bottom of this. Some of the most prominent issues discussed in the film were the over-sexualization of women, gun violence, and anti- homophobic attitudes. Hunt would ask those involved in the industry about why they think these themes are so prevalent.