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Halloo! When I found out I could go to med school with a Humanities degree with an Ethnomusicology emphasis, I almost peed myself. Here's to me holding it in.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Annotated Source

2...


Dennis, Christopher. Afro-Colombian Hip-hop: Globalization, Transcultural Music, and Ethnic Identities. Lanham, MD: Lexington, 2012. Print.

Here's some Afro-Colombian Hip-hop for context. Let the music play.


This just dropped, a great book about a vibrant hip-hop community. Here are a few relevant quotes (remember that stuff about this being for me, not you? Yeah, this is that. The videos, though, are for both of us.)

Generally speaking, hip-hop is defined as the culture, while rap is the music considered to be one of the four pillars of hip-hop culture: breakdancing, DJing (turntables), MCin (rap), and graffiti. From a cultural and musical practice originating among African American, Caribbean, and Hispanic youth in the Bronx, it has become a global signifying practice providing new parameters of meaning to locally and/or nationally diverse social groups. Beyond U.S. borders, hip-hop has become a vehicle for youth affiliations in parts of Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America. 2

All too frequently the media, politicians, and scholars use globalization to describe intercultural and international contact and economic exchange, which, in that case, would simply imply a new term used to define older processes that have a very long history. 10

In the end, most agree that globalization has definitely led to a fundamental acceleration of the pace of the social, cultural, and economic change around the world, greatly aided by technological advances in communication systems that permit the instantaneous movement of information and finance capital in a way that local events are influenced by events that take place at great distances and vice versa... It is vital to consider whether and in what ways has globalization been negative or positive for Afro-Colombian urban youth. What challenges and benefits has globalization presented and how are they manifested through Afro-Colombian hip-hop? 13

Together, globalization and postmodern theories have contributed to a dramatic shift of the terrain of culture toward the popular, toward everyday practices and local narratives - often from the margins of society - which, in turn, challenge the privilege historically bestowed on "high culture." (Hall, "What Is This 'Black' in Black Popular Culture?"124) 15

Hip-hop's worldwide appeal can greatly be attributed to the global fetishization of black peoples as a way for non-blacks to experience "real" or "exotic" culture. And naturally, the understanding of U.S hip-hop as an expression of African American culture has played a critical role in its spread and assimilation among black youth of the diaspora... Nevertheless, hip-hop has also migrated so extensively among the world's youth due to its associations with lower-class urban environments and its strategic marketing as music by and for marginalized groups who live in ghettoized, often violent, worlds, providing an imaginary with which inner-city youth can identify regardless of their ethnic-racial background, nationality, or language. 43-44


Dig.

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