Week 4

I was watching BET today, when a news update came on highlighting the rap group Slum Village’s new song. What was so interesting about this was the new song is focused on the use of child safety restraints in cars. I felt this was relevant because it showed a positive use of hip-hop. The song is targeted towards young children and encourages them to always buckle-up.

The song and video, titled "4 Steps," was written by Slum Village members T3 and Elzhi, urges young children (especially those between the ages of 8 and 10) to travel safely. It will be made available through a CD distributed by Safe Kids Worldwide and through web downloads. The group met with representatives from Chevorlet and Safe Kids before going into the studio, to hone the song's message.

Realizing how respected Slum Village is throughout the entire music industry, they will be appearing in nationally televised spots for Chevrolet and there new line of 2006 Impala and HHR automobiles. The homegrown union will include an integrated campaign with a music video feel, using Slum’s “Ez Up” single; which will include an “Ez Up” Motor City remix and remixed lyrics. as Chevy and Slum Village bring the American Revolution home to Detroit. According to the Slum Village Web site “this deal is a very hip one for Chevrolet and one that will warrant intensive media coverage; radio spots will start airing in mid-October, with national TV spots running in early November.”

On the Xzibitcentral.com web site, Slum Village group member Elzhi said “it's good to take a safety message and put it into a Hip-Hop song, because Hip-Hop is youthful.” “Hip-Hop holds a lot of influence over kids. Some kids even want to be like us - to do what we do - so we hope they will listen to our message.” This just shows the power of hip-hop music and its potential to impact the lives of children.

Week 3

Today, hip-hop and rap is the fastest growing music genre in the U.S. Because of its widespread appeal, the hip-hop culture is has a significant impact on diverse populations. In Decoding hip-hop's cultural impact, Ronald Roach states “as a cultural movement, hip-hop manages to get billed as both a positive and negative influence on young people.” Although created by inner-city African Americans, hip hop's influence has become worldwide. Approximately 75% of the rap and hip hop audience is non-black. It has gone from the streets to the suburbs and into the corporate boardrooms. Indeed, McDonald's, Chevrolet, Sprite, Nike, and other corporate giants have made billions of dollars by investing and endorsing the hip-hop community. Although critics of rap music and the hip-hop culture seem argue that it promotes messages of sex, violence, and harsh language, this genre offers us a paradigm of what can be. This musical genre is very important to our society and has the ability to shape ethnic relations in our society.

Furthermore they also have had huge impact on mainstream White America's music. For year's African-Americans have been innovative in what is known to be popular music in our society. In Music - influence of Black music on White America, Lynn Norment examines the effects that African-Americans have had in the music industry. She presents an interesting argument on how blacks have been able to shape the music arena and the trends in music. Furthermore its shows how music has the ability to transform the way a society thinks because even during the days of segregation African-Americans were still able to be successful and create music that was appreciated by all races.

Everyday you see hip-hop artists such as T.I. and Ludacris branch off into different fields of entertainment creating commercial appeal. These artists have huge masses of fans who follow their every actions and support everything they do. Because of this, what they say has a huge impact on what millions do. These artists not only shape the lifestyle of blacks, but everyone. Hip-hop artists do not fit into in a specific demographic instead they are all different types of people. Because of this they are opinion leaders in our society and have the ability to mold the youth generation.

Week 2

Does allowing your children to listen to rap at an early age make you a bad parent?

Many people feel that rap music is negative and if a parent allows their child to listen to it, than that parent is a bad parent. This is because many rap songs condone the use of drugs, sex and violence. If the child is expose to this at a very young age, then there is a greater chance that the child will engage in those activities later on in their life.

By exposing toddlers through kindergartners to rap music or allowing others to expose them to it, they often start to conform to what they think is cool or funny. Some young kids might hear a rap song, start to dance and try to sing to it and people will comment about how funny or cute it is, often enough and so that child might be inclined to want to listen to it because of the attention they get.

I was on youtube.com and I came across a video of some young kids rapping the song Grillz by Nelly. Although the song isn’t really referring to violence or drug, it does discuss sex. The kids in the video are also dressed up with jewelry and fake “grills” in their mouths. This showed how the parents seemed to encourage the children to mock hi-hop artists without careful consideration of their actions. They also seemed to encourage and make fun of many of the stereotypes of the African-American and hip-hop community. I’m not saying they are bad parents, it just seems that the parents were contributing to the negative stigma that many people have towards the hip-hop community.

However, allowing your child to listen to rap music does not always have to be bad. Listening to diverse music is actually beneficial to your child’s social and cognitive learning. Parents just should monitor what exactly their child is listening to and make sure there isn’t any profanity and obscure language. Because children often tend to listen to what they hear, a parent should try to use the music to teach the child about different cultures and how to be more acceptable of those cultures. Furthermore, the parent should try to find kids appropriate songs such as those produced by Kidz Bop, which recreates popular songs and have children sing them.

So with this I ask again: does allowing your children to listen to rap at an early age make you a bad parent?

Week 1

My name is Lamar Johnson and I am a 3rd year public relations student at the University of Florida. I created this blog to discuss the different thoughts and views on the effects of the music industry on society.

As a public relations writing student at the University of Florida, I am working on a communication plan for a new product that I am suggesting to BET. My proposed idea is a children’s sing-a-long DVD/video, featuring current hip-hop and R&B artists, singing the alphabets, numbers, and also different childhood stories. I’ve noticed that many young children know the lyrics to many of the popular hip-hop and R&B songs, however they do not know how to spell the words or what the words actually mean. They just imitate what the artists are saying. I feel this DVD can be used in pre-kindergarten and daycare schools to stimulate early childhood learning. It can also be used to help students who are mentally handicapped learn in a fun way.

I choose BET because it has a broad and diverse audience and it is very influential in the entertainment industry. Furthermore it has a very resourceful network with several partnering corporations.

I recently found an article published about The Influence of Music and Music Videos and thought it was pretty cool. It supports the idea that music plays a significant role in the learning process of children. Check it out and tell me what you think:
The Influence of Music and Music Videos on Society