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Abstract

December 11th, 2009 by khaleddn

Abstract

Hip hop music videos are known for mainly one thing, seduction. The way they got that reputation is by repeatedly incorporating sexual images of, perfection personified women in their clips and portraying them as easily obtainable. The depiction of how people live, in music videos, is unrealistic for most people, yet is very intriguing to become a part of. The sex and violence (boys see it as resilience) is attractive for males. The perfection and confidence played by the women in the clips, is admired by females. The luxurious, rich and popular lifestyle is attractive for all audiences.

From the research I’ve looked at, I found that hip hop music videos, as people used to know it, shifted entirely to a whole new focus. Yet, in the past decade, it has not changed at all and the sex in the video clips are increasing. I am interested in exploring if we can somehow anticipate a large shift in the face of hip hop cinematography, in the future. I would like to see if there will be a change, what could cause it and what the most accurate route can be to discovering this.

One of the methodologies I will be using is a quantitative discourse analysis for music video commentary. The other methodology I will be using is an in depth analysis of music videos. Finally, I will briefly do a short historical analysis of change in music videos over time. All the studies I will complete, will be involving music videos of one consistent hip hop artist.

Youth Reactions to Hip Hop Music Video

Music videos are one of the most influential forms of entertainment effecting youth, today. They are extremely popular, contain seductive elements, the trendy thing to follow and because of that they can influence children’s self esteem & image, behavior, language, fashion sense, lifestyle and most importantly, future. This is all fine, children are easily influenced by many things and people. The problem is that, hip hop is promoting unfavorable behavior and ideologies, which children interpret and allow these aspects to lead their lives. This results in various ways and takes different forms, from acceptance of dating violence to working towards impersonating these artists and more.

The hip hop music industry does not take responsibility for these results and more-so support aspiring young hip hop artists to follow in their footsteps. This means that these actions are in fact normal and should be considered as such, by parents and the rest of the general public who do not associate with the hip hop culture. This attitude toward the shocking level of sexuality and violence in music videos is what helped the maintain the explicit face of hip hop and allowed it to boom.

If there were a strong movement toward changing the values in music videos of hip hop, there is hope in a shift happening. Yet, from the research I mention in my literature review, it states that any action taken by parents and authorities are often unwritten or applied subjectively (Jones, 1997, p 346). The last shift that has happened in hip hop music videos was one which benefited the industry by appealing to wider audiences and becoming the most popular genre today. They did not shift for ethical reasons. This makes me wonder, if hip hop’s identity will ever change from being sexually focused to positively focused messages to the world.

This mentality, the hip hop industry, possesses is selfish as is concentrated on materialistic benefits. Hip hop artists are looked up to by children and admired. They are inspirations and have every opportunity to put a positive encouraging message out there. They could create cause related marketing if they wish to, to help reduce violence and negativity. Instead, many of them are promoting these behaviors as though they are positive. Children are not only starting to follow in their footsteps but they are having difficulty distinguishing between what is wrong, what is right and what the norm is.

Clearly, there is a serious problem with hip hop music videos. Artists are not considering that children begin to admire them from a very early age, especially with the easy access of them via internet. This is becoming a problem with how children are raised and with hip hop’s reputation and what it has come to; if the industry thinks about the negatives that effect them. Will we be able to determine if and when there is a shift in the hip hop image? Which generation will lead this shift?

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Review of Literature

December 11th, 2009 by khaleddn

Review of Literature

Hip hop music videos are seen everywhere and the content in it is so common, nowadays, that its influence goes unnoticed. I am interested in exploring how hip hop music videos popularized hip hop dance and the hip hop lifestyle of today by using appealing, luxurious lifestyles and the confidence that the artists posses; as well as the seduction in the form of sexy women, wealth, alcohol, drug abuse, nightlife and so on. These characteristics that exist in music videos are the main reason why adolescents are drawn to them so much and why they have become so popular in this era. Chances are hip hop music videos today are going to effect hip hop music videos of tomorrow.

After the rapid spread of hip hop and rap music videos on television as mentioned in the statistic of, Are rap videos more violent? Style differences and the prevalence of sex and
violence in the age of MTV, “By 1986, more than 27.3 million homes in 3,100 cable systems were receiving MTV, and in 1990 that number had increased to over 52 million (Pember, 1992).
Those who watched the music videos (mostly 14- to 34-year-olds) became zealous fans of the 3- to 5-minute minifilms, whose current impact on television, film, and recording is immeasurable. Every important music recording has a video version, ranging in production cost from $40,000 to $250,000. Each year about 1,500 music videos are released in the United States alone (Ault, Agee, & Emery, 1993)” (Jones, 1997, p343).

In Children, Adolescents, and the Media, Victor C. Strasburger, MD, wrote, “Early content analyses showed that music videos were rife with sex: More than 75% contained sexual scenes, and half of all women were presented as sex objects. A content analysis of 100 videos on MTV in the early 1990s found that women are frequently portrayed as “bimbos”. One critic feels that MTV creates a “dreamworld” in which women are all nymphomaniacs, waiting to be ravaged” (Strasburger, 2004, p. 67). This supports my point in how much sex is portrayed in videos; as well as an alarming percentage of women who seem to represent luscious perfection. This explains why young girls are so dramatically effected by them and do come to grips with their sexual identity by aspiring to become like them.

In a number of books and articles, I have found, many studies carried through to prove that sexually explicit imagery is used in music videos; and it what way it is impacting youth. Girls are using music videos to come to grips with with their own sexual identity (Strasburger, 2004, p. 67) and many articles discussed how boys are more accepting of sexual violence from these music videos and its commonality in them. There is heightened sexuality now in music videos and most of them come from hip hop and rap. Some other genres have mixed some sexual content in their music videos to market it to audiences more. Not only is hip hop effecting children, but it is also effecting the re-evaluation of other genres to become more like hip hop in order to succeed. Yet many studies carried through in Image Effects and the Appreciation of Video Rock, twenty two years ago have proved that not all combinations of sex and violence were successful with fans of rock music. In fact, some viewers thought that the combination of sex and violence were less romantic and more objectionable and that was not appreciated (Zillmann and Mundorf, 1987, p.331). This allows us to say that many parts of hip hop culture is to include sex in the videos and still have it be considered normal. That is why most people who respond to it are somewhat leading a hip hop lifestyle, like African Americans.

In another section of Children, Adolescents, and the Media there were studies carried out to show how music videos and the imagery in them impacted teenagers. It discussed how girls viewed their own body image and began sexual activity. To explain what I have just mentioned Victor C. Strasburger, MD, wrote “A study of nearly 1000 ninth-grade girls in California found that hours spent watching videos correlated significantly with the girls’ weight and appearance concerns. Two studies have found a strong relation between acceptance of premarital sex for girls and exposure to music videos” (Strasburger, 2004, p. 89).

Not only is this behavior that is presented in these videos effecting the sexual activity of teenagers but is also effecting their level of sexual violence. As was written in the report, Differential Gender Effects of Exposure to Rap Music on African American Adolescents’ Accepting of Teen Dating Violence (Johnson et al, 1995):

In recent years, one issue which has received an increased amount of attention involves teen dating violence against women. There is some suggestion that this type of violence against women has become “alarmingly common” (USA Today, 1991). To support this contention, Bergman (1992) found that approximately 25% of the high school females in her sample reported experiences of sexual and/or physical violence in their dating relationships. Similarly, Stets and Henderson (1991) findings indicate that over 30% of their respondents use physical tactics to resolve disputes with their dating partner. Interestingly enough, their findings also indicate that younger respondents (18-21 years of age) were more likely to engage in such tactics than older respondents (22 years and over). (1995, p. 597)

This proves how dramatic and quick the effect of music videos are on teenagers. Especially at the age of 18-21 years when they do not have set beliefs and ideologies and are learning from MTV and other music video channels.

Unfortunately hip hop videos depict negative and offensive imagery that effects adolescents negatively; but on the other hand, these depictions are the main reason why they are so appealing to teenagers. Will hip hop still be as appealing if they did not contain alcohol, women, nightlife, wealth and so on? Is this why music video producers insist on keeping these
aspects present in them? If it was possible to keep the appeal of hip hop yet shift its messages to something more positive, this has potential to benefit our children to the better and make a world of difference in their lives. Children look at hip hop videos and extract from them beliefs and ideologies. Specifically, the “at risk” adolescents are the ones who are effected by these videos because they are surrounded by MTV and other music video networks and view rappers and hip hop artists as role models. These children are “at risk” because they live in an environment where poverty and unemployment are high and drug abuse is common (McLean, 1997, p.2). Some of the reason for that would be because at one stage, those hip hop singers were in their situation and they managed to move upwards from there. The article, Age Ain’t nothing but a number: A cross-cultural reading of popular music in the construction of sexual expression among at-risk adolescents states:

Through the use of ethnographic research techniques, this study looks at how at-risk, coitally active African American and Latino adolescents use music texts to construct ideas of sexual expression. There are several assumptions guiding this inquiry. First, music, as one of several cultural discourses, influences the development of adolescents as they are learning new ways of thinking and behaving. Nevertheless, adolescents are not one-dimensional, blindly assimilating meaning without exercising human autonomy and agency in the signification process. Second, even though adolescent participation increasingly revolves around music and other sound-enhanced products (e.g. music video clips, films), adolescents are not necessarily the authors of their own meaning; the words, utterances, and texts are the products of others and are not     necessarily produced from or by the imagination and disposition of adolescents. (McLean, 1997, p.2)

This identifies where the children pick up certain, explicit behavior from. The lyrics, the interaction and the atmosphere in video clips is interpreted by children to be their own version of the American dream and they aspire to one day become like these artists.

When parents are unaware of what their children are being exposed to as well as not being hands on in how they raise their children, this will help lead children to be effected even more. As was concluded in the previous study:

There is a need for increased attention to how the quality of at-risk adolescents’ lives and the environmental context in which they live influence their use of music and other cultural products. A 17-year-old Latina, who lived in a sexually promiscuous home setting, reported that “Pop that Coochie” was helping to empower her by giving her ideas about making money from “prostitution or stripping” as a way out of her immediate situation. Overall, music seems to function as a “rite of passage” into the adult world, serving as either foreground or background. For some respondents music was a mood enhancer. For others, music provoked thought and debate. For still others, it was fodder for their sexual fantasies. For yet another group, it served as a source of learning about coitus and sexual consummation”. (McLean, 1997, p. 12)

So as mentioned, not all adolescents are necessarily impacted by the negativity of hip hop music videos, in the same way this review has demonstrated earlier. Most studies fail to mention this or mention it very briefly as though it is insignificant. But looking at this side of research can open up many options for researchers study how and why these teenagers are not effected and how artists can integrate these methods in their music videos to not influence the next few generations negatively. This could open up a world of options to help keep hip hop music videos popular and appealing as well as being ‘family friendly’. Or we can concentrate on the more direct route of solving the problem yet could completely change the image of hip hop. The majority of groups are effected negatively, as shown in the study, which indeed concerns us enough to take a quicker and more active approach to change the messages that are delivered through music videos.

Despite the fact that not all children are effected negatively, there still needed to be a law to limit videos from crossing the line; especially with the internet’s recent boom and how almost everything is within children’s reach. It is getting more challenging to censor music videos to children.

This increased spread of music videos has frightening outcomes, such as effecting who children grow up to be and how they are currently identifying themselves, sexually. This raised a red flag with many authorities as well as parents when they began attacking the hip hop music video production companies so they could pressure them into censoring their content more in hopes of lessening the negative effect on children. A movement was finally made towards censoring these videos and more specifically, “In early 1994 some of the nation’s most highly visible Black leaders began to take an aggressive stance against record companies that produce and promote rap records and videos, or music deemed in general to be too violent, culturally degrading, or negative in its depiction of women (Staff, New York Post 1993). New policies instituted by BET and MTV involve active censorship of videos with guns and offensive sexuality (personal communication, G. Diggs, BET music director, July 20, 1994)” (Jones, 1997, p 346). After this so called action was taken towards changing the face of hip hop music videos, these policies are unfortunately often unwritten and applied subjectively (Jones, 1997, p 346).

There is a method that has proven to be successful in changing the content of hip hop music videos and lyrics. As the article, Rap and Race It’s Got a Nice Beat, But What About the Message? mentions, “Rappers and rap fans were often portrayed as menacing Black adolescents, and rap music was vilified as violent and misogynistic (Feagin, Vera, & Batur, 2001; Rose, 1994). As Rose (1994) noted, rap music has both overt and covert political dimensions: “Rap’s poetic voice is deeply political in content and spirit, but its hidden struggle—that of access to public space and community resources and the interpretation of Black expression—constitutes rap’s hidden politics” (p. 145)” (Sullivan, 2003, p. 607). The inception of hip hop music and videos revolved around the struggles African Americans went through and the politics involving them. This genre was initially targeted to African Americans and was identified to belong to a certain culture. After the criticism that was received by many politicians, the people in the music business decided to make a change in the perception of hip hop music and moved towards focusing more on money and sexuality; also for the additional motive of expanding their fan base and as Sullivan puts it, “To reach a “wider and Whiter” audience” (Sullivan, 2003, p. 608). The upper class, caucasian Americans are the ones who viewed rappers menacing Black adolescents. Producers have tried to widen their horizons and multiply artist’s fan base by making a major change in the identity of hip hop. This proves to us that hip hop has been changed before, over a period of time, and could change again. But the catch is it needs to benefit the people in the business as well.

This change from rapping about the politics of African Americans to showing them in a more lavish context, where the singer partakes in mental masturbation and has access to the hottest women (who are ethnically mysterious and have sensual curvy bodies) is what Fitts believes could have changed how children interpret these images and rethink their own priorities (Fitts, 2008, p.212). Did this shift change children’s mentality or did it force some children to lose interest in the genre because its authenticity is fading and now it’s focusing on more shallow matters, such as luxury, sex, etc? Some would say this is what attracted children of all backgrounds to this genre. This genre and the clothes, dialect an characteristics that emerged from it is now spread amongst the youth today. Bakari Kitwana, in his book, Why White Kids Love Hip Hop (2006), explains to us the different degrees to which caucasian people are involved in hip hop. They now listen to it regularly and integrate it into their daily lives, through fashion, lifestyle, speech and even attitude. Because these music videos are now concentrating on sex and partying, which they can relate to, they are more likely to listen to it and view their videos. This is so popular with caucasian and other ethnicities nowadays that some of them have completely adapted to this lifestyle and speech, despite them  having any racial background that relates to African Americans. There is even a term given to the street talk of hip hop which is known as African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and the internet has a largely used source for people to be able to search in a dictionary and chat online to improve their  hip hop repertoires (Cutler, 1999, p. 434).

Bakari Kitwana has also written a book called The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the crisis in African American culture. Here he discusses how hip hop so far covered political issues of racism and politics as well as poverty and the struggle  African American citizens have gone through. He a posed a question which relates to what I am studying in my research paper. It revolves around the idea that with the shift of aspects portrayed in hip hop music videos and what is being shown about African Americans today, what will hip hop be like in the next few generations? Especially with all the damage that has been done to the face of hip hop, today, in popular culture. Depictions, as he mentions, of “Inadequate parenting, resentment-filled interpersonal relationships, and inferior educational performances, which stands counter to traditional ideas of Blackness” (Kitwana, 2002, p.xii). This is basically him asking about the singers in the future who are the children today. In other words, whatever the children are viewing today and aspiring to, they will become tomorrow and will use their music and videos to inspire the generations after them, to either do something positive or continue in the unfavorable behaviors of the present.

All these studies have led me to think about many unanswered questions of the future. Effects of hip hop music videos on children today will be the result of what form most hip hop videos will take in the future. To anticipate what the future will be like for hip hop music videos, studies must be carried to understand what children would be motivated to do with their lives from viewing these videos. From seeing how children were effected by hip hop in the past, we could have a more accurate observation on what the future could look like. Questions have also risen to help shape what my study should reveal. How will African Americans be viewed in the future? Will the next generations be educated about the political struggle of African Americans through hip hop, or will this message be completely extinct by that time? Now that the US is extremely multicultural as Kitwana mentions in his book, will hip hop culture belong to more than one ethnicity? If so, will there messages be targeted to their own ethnicities or to all other ethnicities and most importantly will it be more positively delivered and perceived? and if hip hop will take a dramatic shift towards other ethnicities, will it succeed without all the seductive aspects that hip hop is known for?

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Historical Background

December 11th, 2009 by khaleddn

I decided to study the career of a hip hop artist who was once in the same situation as the  children are in today. I needed to study someone who followed in the same footsteps as hip hop stars whom he aspired to, when growing up. It would also be interesting to see how big hip hop stars react to this new aspiring artist, when he is very young and trying to gain a fan base. This is why I chose hip hop artist, Bow Wow. Bow Wow has a history of being the young, innocent little rapper, whereas he’s always tried to imitate his role models and break out of that soft and cute exterior of is into something more tough and “gangsta”.

I have researched and gathered a historical background that overlooks how this artist has changed during his career, in terms of behavior, attitude, priorities, image and music. The artist whom I will be studying is Bow Wow, previously known as Lil’ Bow Wow.

Lil’ Bow Wow officially started off his career at the age of thirteen, when he made his first debut on Beware of Dog, in 2000. When he was younger, hip hop star, Snoop Dog, discovered him and featured in his hits and participated in his music videos. The interest that Snoop Dog invested in Lil’ Bow Wow is what peaked the public’s love for him and started his fan base. Throughout Lil’ Bow Wow’s career, he had many famous hip hop artists and rappers feature in his singles. This shows us that he received the support of older generation artists and was mentored by them, even being a couple of generations after them. This mentoring and Lil’ Bow Wow’s ambition to become like them, is what made him follow in their footsteps from such an early age. Lil’ Bow Wow resembles the older artists and is keeping their style, attitude and lingo alive with today’s younger fans (Biography Website 1, 2009). Fig. 1 shows the innocent looking Lil’ Bow Wow, when he first started and how innocent he is.

LIL BOW WOW TYRA

Fig. 1. Lil Bow Wow in the beginning of his career. (Bow Wow Image 1, August 2008)

Lil’ Bow Wow, started off with somewhat acceptably appropriate music videos, for his age, at thirteen. A couple of hits later, and as he became more popular, he began to shift away from the cute and innocent Lil’ Bow Wow to a shocking, “gangsta”, “badass” Bow Wow, and dropped the Lil’ in 2003. He changed his look, his fashion style, covered himself with tattoos and as street hip hop language would have it, started rolling with the big dogs now. The Fig.2 image shows the major shift in Bow Wow’s image, to fit into the new identity and look he has.

Bow Wow TodayFig. 2 Bow Wow with Soulja Boy (Bow Wow Image 2, April 2009)

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Methodologies

December 11th, 2009 by khaleddn

Methodologies

First, Quantitative Discourse Analysis

In this method, I used three music videos to try and study how viewers are reacting to the clips, when they are first posted. I chose to look at the oldest one hundred comments versus a random hundred or the latest hundred because that shows me their initial reaction of the clip. I would definitely want to have the first reaction and opinion of viewers, because the latest comments could be out dated and not near the time of when the music video was first out and what people’s fresh thought’s were on it.

When I was looking for music videos to do my studies, not all of them had enough commentary to study. I had to choose certain songs that had enough commentary, that was in english for me to have in my research. Another set of choices, I had to make, were what categories I will have for my quantitative analysis.

I had to include a category that allows positive, negative or neutral comments for todays as well as ones for the past. From overviewing the comments, I realized many people mention the young Lil’ Bow Wow, and were comparing him to what he became, now. Another important category to have was the ‘Other’ section. Other would include anything like, comments that do not necessarily mean anything e.g. “15 cents” (Youtube.com Comment 1, 2009), people arguing with each other e.g. “Megababy0825 r u retarded? it’s ment to be spelt Soulja idiot” (Youtube.com Comment 2, 2009), people who express envy e.g. “he should had let me b n that video i look better then all dem lil girlz” (Youtube.com Comment 3, 2009) and anything else that doesn’t fall under a clear positive or negative category about the content in the music videos without personal agendas, like envy. The difference between ‘Other’ and ‘Neutral’ is that neutral  comments relate to the actual clip, whether they are general questions or facts; ‘Other’ could be general information which does not relate to the clip and would also include things like arguing or conversations.

I included Neutral, in there because there were general comments with no opinion like, “I think 8 years old he started rappin’ or 6 or 5 or 3 he started rhymin’ he was known when he was 13” (Youtube.com Comment 4, 2009). With all these categories, the same comment could fall under two categories at the same time, which has happened quite often. An example would be, “I miss Lil’ Bow Wow…too bad he had to grow up and become Boo Wow!” (Youtube.com Comment 5, 2009). This comment would fall under the categories, ‘His History’ as a positive and also, ‘Bad’ for him currently.

The limitations that I faced with this study is that I wasn’t sure exactly what the age group was of the people commenting. From the slang language used and Bow Wow’s younger fan base, we can be on the safe side about, most of the people commentating are in their teenage years or early twenties, but there is no solid evidence to prove this.

The first music video’s commentary I looked at was his first single, when he was thirteen years old. It is called “Bounce With Me” and received many comments on the young Lil’ Bow Wow; yet these comments are only one year ago, when the video was posted. As you can see in the table, out of one hundred comments, as well as out of 100 percent, the most comments received were 33 past positive comments and 32 present-day positive comments. That is a third positive comments about his initial clip and many of them addressed how cute he was and their great memories of it, when it first came out.

The second music video I looked at was, “Take Ya Home”. It came out in 2002, before Lil’ Bow Wow, changed his stage name to Bow Wow. The video here was posted two years ago and the last one hundred comments are two years old. As you can see the majority of the results were present-day positive ones of 55 percent versus only ten percent of present-day negative comments.

The final video clip I reviewed the commentary for was, “Marco Polo” featuring Soulja Boy (very well known hip hop artist of today). This music video was released in 2008 and posted that year. The last hundred comments here are a year old. You will find that the majority, thirty percent, of the results here were found in ‘Other’ and in the present day positive category. The reason for this was because many people were arguing about the song and attacking it as well as the artists in it. This also explains why the second highest percentage, twenty nine percent, was the negative commentary, from the attacks. There was hardly any positive commentary except for the fans who were defending the artists from all the verbal attacks they were getting, this fell into other, because they weren’t clear positive comments. It was basically answering back and saying things like, everyone is jealous of the artists. This music video was very sexual and cheap in concept and low in class, in many people’s opinions, which is what created all the controversy. Fans were not impressed at all with this clip because of its repetitive shallow scenes; nor were they to happy about the song and lyrics, because of its empty meaning.

Second, In-Depth Video Analysis

I carried out an in-depth video analysis, studying what content these music videos had and what behavior was seen in them. To do this study, I can connect what people mean by their comments with what they’re seeing. Why people are resistant to these scenes and what provoked all the arguments that took place on the commentary walls.

“Bounce With Me” in-depth analysis:

“Bow Wow-Bounce With Me”, posted 2008 on Youtube.com

Overall, there are many young girls in the music video acting their age by playing outside and dancing without any sexual gestures or insinuations (this should be the norm). Yet there had to be behavior of sex appeal with the first woman in slow motion, being slightly sprayed with the sprinklers and sexually watching the camera. There is some footage which relates to minor violence in the clip and a lot of gesturing of wealth.

He has many older male role models, in the clip, showing their support and adding to Lil’ Bow Wow’s popularity in the clip. He has an older rapper featured in his song, which puts him in a more mature perspective. This is a more innocent music video that suits his age in comparison to his other music videos. This is considered PG 13 it’s song is created for a family movie, “Big Momma’s House”.

“Take Ya Home” In-Depth Analysis:

“Lil Bow Wow – Take Ya Home (Official Music Video)”, posted 2007 on Youtube.com

There is repeated sexual imagery here from numerous older women. It is inappropriate yet is treated as though it was normal for a young boy to be wanted by older women. Women who portray a facade of perfection.

“Marco Polo” In-Depth Analysis

“Bow Wow & Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em – Marco Polo [Music Video]“, posted 2008 on Youtube.com

Many women in bikinis being objectified and represent perfection throughout the music video. The artists pay no respect to the women or other people in the clip and take an authoritative stance, by standing on a higher platform and talking down at them, in the beach waters. You could see here that Bow Wow is covered in tattoos, to make him look more raw and “gangsta”; this is a part of his new, grown up look.

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Conclusion

December 11th, 2009 by khaleddn

Conclusion

As shown in the studies and analysis, most fans agree that Lil’ Bow Wow was more loved, in the past, than Bow Wow is, today. He was respected and created great memories for people in their childhood. From the commentary I reviewed, I can see that a large part of the fan base following Lil’ Bow Wow  was lost when he grew up; and his demographic changed. He reached many diverse demographics when he was younger. Now, with his raw, rough “gangsta” attitude he possesses, he limited his own audience. What this means is that, over fifty percent of the people who are watching these music videos do not appreciate the content and language in it, which is contrary to what many people think.

Most comments about the women who are inappropriately behaving in the videos came from more maturely written comments, which lead me to believe that older people wrote that, rather than young teenagers. Many historical comments were stating that they loved Lil’ Bow Wow, when they were younger and as they grew up listening to him; but don’t like what he has become anymore, which explains how there are many positive historical comments as well as current negative ones for the same comment. Obviously, they are still watching and listening to him because that is what is available to them and it’s easily accessible, but this could allow us to believe that there could possibly be a significant change in the image of hip hop music videos, in the future because people are now thinking of what they do not want to become when looking at artists like Bow Wow, instead of just following in his footsteps.

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References

December 11th, 2009 by khaleddn

References

Biography Website 1, 2009
http://www.starpulse.com/Music/Lil_Bow_Wow/Biography/

Bow Wow Image 1, August 2008

community.livejournal.com/…/2008/08/07/

Bow Wow Image 2, April 2009

blackarazzi.com/…/category/tags/souljah-boy

Cutler, C. A. (1999). Yorkville crossing: White teens, hip hop and african american english. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 3(4), 428-442.

Fitts, M. (2008). “Drop it like it’s hot”: Culture industry laborers and their perspectives on rap music video production. Meridians, 8(1), 211-235. Retrieved from Humanities Abstracts @ Scholars Portal database.

Johnson, J. D., Adams, M. S., Ashburn, L., & Reed, W. (1995). Differential gender effects of exposure to rap music on african american adolescents’ acceptance of teen dating violence. Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, 33(7-8), 597(9)-606. Retrieved from Expanded Academic ASAP @ Scholars Portal database.

Jones, K. (1997). Are rap videos more violent? style differences and the prevalence of sex and violence in the age of MTV. Howard Journal of Communications, 8(4), 343-356. Retrieved from Communication Abstracts database.

Kitwana, B. (2003). The hip hop generation: Young blacks and the crisis in african american culture Basic Civitas Books.

Kitwana, B. (2006). Why white kids love hip hop: Wankstas, wiggers, wannabes, and the new reality of race in america Basic Civitas Books.

McLean, P. E. (1997). Age ain’t nothing but a number: A cross-cultural reading of popular music in the construction of sexual expression among at-risk adolescents. Popular Music and Society, 21(2), 1(16)-17. Retrieved from Expanded Academic ASAP @ Scholars Portal database.

Strasburger, V. C. Children, adolescents, and the media. Current Problems in Pediatric and Adolescent Health Care, 34(2), 54-113. Retrieved from  HYPERLINK “http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/15385442/v34i0002/54_caatm” \t “_blank” http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/15385442/v34i0002/54_caatm

Sullivan, R. E. (. (2003). Rap and race: It’s got a nice beat, but what about the message? Journal of Black Studies, 33(5), 605-622. doi:10.1177/0021934703033005004

Youtube Comment 1, 2009

http://www.youtube.com/comment_servlet?all_comments&v=bi40powiPrc&page=46

Youtube Comment 2, 2009

http://www.youtube.com/comment_servlet?all_comments&v=bi40powiPrc&page=46

Youtube Comment 3, 2009

http://www.youtube.com/comment_servlet?all_comments&v=VRVsbOJK0CY&page=6

Youtube Comment 4, 2009

http://www.youtube.com/comment_servlet?all_comments&v=VRVsbOJK0CY&page=6

Youtube Comment 5, 2009

http://www.youtube.com/comment_servlet?all_comments&v=VRVsbOJK0CY&page=1

Zillman, D., & Mundorf, N. (1987). Image effects in the appreciation of video rock. Communication Research, 14(3), 316-334. Retrieved from Communication Abstracts database.

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