1. THE KALEIDOSCOPE OF WRITING ON HIP-HOP CULTURE.
- Author
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WOLDU, GAIL HILSON
- Subjects
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RAP music , *HIP-hop culture , *MUSIC journalism , *MUSICAL criticism , *AFRICAN American music -- History & criticism , *POPULAR music , *POPULAR music, 2001-2010 ,HISTORY & criticism ,POPULAR music, 1991-2000 - Abstract
At the beginning of the second decade of the twenty-first century, writing about hip-hop is at an interesting crossroads. On the one hand, we continue to see a wealth of fine academic writing published by scholars in fields as diverse as cultural studies, musicology, and women's studies; on the other, we have noticed a dramatic decline in the quality of popular writing about hip-hop, much of which has succumbed to crude street language in an attempt to increase readership. This kaleidoscope, by turns overly pedantic and gratuitously coarse, creates a conundrum as hip-hop struggles to define—and redefine—itself. This article distinguishes three categories of writing about hip-hop—works by academics, works by journalists and cultural critics, and works by hip-hop's devotees—and discusses a handful of significant publications written between 1988 and 2008. This twenty-year written history of hip-hop is considered through a variety of lenses, with the hope that the various points of view might illuminate new directions for hip-hop's chronicled future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2010
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