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.