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CS92PROD
Global Hip-Hop
MUSC 295
Spring 2013 not offered

Over the past two decades, hip-hop, in its various facets of rap, deejaying, dance, visual art, fashion, and attitude toward authority, has gradually taken over as a primary medium of expression for youth around the world. Used as mass entertainment, elite aesthetic statement, social and political commentary, tool for education and social change, vehicle for economic opportunity, and as the core of a cultural movement, hip-hop has proven malleable enough to thrive embedded in scores of different languages and cultures around the world and effectively speak to local needs. Yet its local manifestations have also managed to retain their membership in a global hip-hop culture, now in its second or third generation.

In this seminar we will study the global spread of hip-hop from an interdisciplinary approach, examining its congeries of expression from aesthetic, cultural, social, musical, linguistic, kinetic, economic, and technological perspectives. An overriding concern will be the classic paradox that the global dispersion of hip-hop rides on two seemingly opposing waves of authenticity: being true to its origins in contemporary African American urban youth culture and being true to oneself, that is, representing one's own locality, concerns, and culture. We will first come to an understanding of the rise and dispersion of hip-hop culture in the United States. Then, beginning with France, where it first took hold, we will move around the world examining local case studies and their more global implications.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA MUSC
Course Format: SeminarGrading Mode: Graded
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Major Requirement for: (AFST-MN)(MUSC)

Last Updated on MAR-28-2024
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