Hip-Hop 4/24

Hip Hop- A style of music that combines rhymes with different beats

Five Hip- Hop Artists I have never heard-

1. Talib Kweli

2. Gorilla Zoe

3. Savage

4. Rick Ross

5. Mr. Lif

Videos:

Talib Kweli- More or Less

http://music.aol.com/video/more-or-less/talib-kweli/1859336

Beastie Boys-Right Right Now Now

http://music.aol.com/video/beastie-boys-right-right-now-now/beastie-boys/1206888

Soulja Boy- Turn My Swag On

http://music.aol.com/video/turn-my-swag-on/soulja-boy-tellem/2311919

Pitbull- I Know You Want Me

http://music.aol.com/video/i-know-you-want-me/pitbull/bc:18414027001

Eminem- Mockingbird

http://music.aol.com/video/mockingbird/eminem/1336623

Hip-Hop Radio Stations-

103.5

93.9

Corporations Utilizing Hip-Hop:

Apple iPod-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aga5AISSxv0

Gap-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hXoNIXZmDg

Hip-Hop in the Media:

Cable TV – MTV/VH1/BET

Spot Advertising

Mainstream Words Derived from Hip-Hop:

Fo-Shizzle

Tussel

Crunk

Grill

Shawty

Music genres my parents listened to:

Rock & Roll- Aerosmith

Pop- Elton John/ Billy Joel

Disco- Bee Gees

Reflection:

This assignment definitely got my out of my musical comfort zone. I rarely listen to Hip- Hop or any type of rap for that matter so this was a whole new experience for me. It was interesting to see the different videos and how each artist attempted to deliver a different message. Some messages were political, others were self reflection. There were some messages that I could not understand at all, but I can say this for several types of genres of music. I was also offended by some of the videos I watched. The video portrayed women to be merely sexual objects. Although, I believe this happens in several other types of music. Unfortunately, portraying women in a sexually explicit way happens in country, pop, and rock and roll music. I believe all genres should take a stand against this type of behavior. Overall this assignment was a good learning experience and exposed me to a different culture of music that otherwise, I would not have been exposed to.

Video Reflections-

Talib Kweli- More or Less

This video was more inspirational and political than most Hip-Hop videos. Talib was the only person featured in the video. This goes against other Hip-Hop video because it does not feature any women in the video. Overall, I like this video and enjoyed the song.

Beastie Boys-Right Right Now Now

This video was also political. They are basically begging for political change. The video is set in Times Square. The three male band members are the only people featured in video. Overall, I did not enjoy this video. It was hard for me to understand lyrics of the song.

Soulja Boy- Turn My Swag On

The emphasis of the entire video was about money and material possessions. The video/song was about Soulja Boy’s progression in fame and fortune. I did not feel that there was much of a message in this song or video. It seemed like he was just flaunting his money the entire time.

Pitbull- I Know You Want Me

The emphasis of this video was women and their sexuality and money. This has become a fairly popular song on the radio, but I had never seen the video. The video featured several women dancing and showing off their bodies. I thought this video was offensive to women.

Eminem- Mockingbird

This video is about a reflection on Eminem’s life. I usually hate Eminem’s music, but this song was actually heartfelt and I could understand the words. There was no sexuality in this video. Out of all of the videos this is the one I understood the most. This video was very heartfelt and had a message to portray to the general public. There was an emphasis on money, but merely the necessity of money.

Diversity in Advertising 4/3/09

Most of Americans would say advertising does not affect them. They do not see it, they do not listen to it, and it definitely does not make buy something, but we know that is not the case. Advertising works. Why else would companies spend millions of dollars every year trying to make people aware of their products and the benefits that come along with it? Advertising, without a doubt, is effective in all aspects. It makes people question their current brand loyalty, it urges them to try new things, and ultimately makes them buy new products.

Because people do not think advertising affects them, I would say most of them do not put much thought in to how people, in regards to race and gender, are represented. I can honestly say, I have never thought about a person race or the amount of diversity in an ad; it never entered my mind that some people are not being represented. For this assignment I decided to research along four parameters, the total number of ads, the number of ads that I considered to be diverse, and the amount of African American, Asian, and Hispanic women featured in the ads.

(1) Glamour

• Total number of advertisements-56
• Total number of advertisements that are diverse-14
• Total number ads featuring African Americans- 9
• Total number ads featuring Asians or Hispanics- 5

(2) Prime Time TV (Millionaire Matchmaker-BRAVO 8:00)

• Total number of advertisements- 11
• Total number of advertisements that are diverse-5

• Total number ads featuring African Americans- 5
• Total number ads featuring Asians or Hispanics-0

(3) The Oklahoma Daily-

• Total number of advertisements- 19
• Total number of advertisements that are diverse- 1

• Total number ads featuring African Americans- 0
• Total number ads featuring Asians or Hispanics- 1

This was probably the most surprising of the all the mediums I have researched. We as college students are supposed to be aware of the need for diversity. The Oklahoma Daily did not fulfill the need of diversity. There was only one ad throughout the entire paper and it was of an Asian female; she was accompanied with three other white individuals.

(4) Elle-

• Total number of advertisements -98
• Total number of advertisements that are diverse-16
• Total number ads featuring African Americans- 13 (three were of Rihanna)
• Total number ads featuring Asians or Hispanics- 3 (two were of Penelope Cruz and the other was Kimora Lee)

I knew this magazine was going to feature predominately white women because this is the target for this magazine. It was very interesting to see that the ads that did not feature white women the featured famous black or Hispanic women. I am unaware of either Penelope Cruz’s or Rihanna’s official race so I am only going off of what my eyes can see. The magazine rarely featured non famous women of color.

(5) Vogue-

• Total number of advertisements-89
• Total number of advertisements that are diverse-10

• Total number ads featuring African Americans- 7 (Iman and Halle Berry)
• Total number ads featuring Asians or Hispanics- Asians/2 -Hispanics/1 (Eva Mendes)

When I decided to go through this magazine I had it in my mind that this one would be more diverse than most fashion magazines. I though Vogue would be the most diverse and excepting of all beautiful models. I was wrong. Vogue, along with Elle, only featured ten ads of colored women and three were of high-profile actresses. It was rare to see an everyday black model posing in any of the ads.

(6) Self-

• Total number of advertisements-29
• Total number of advertisements that are diverse-7

• Total number ads featuring African Americans- 3
• Total number ads featuring Asians or Hispanics- Asians/2- Hispanic/2

This magazine definitely surprised me. I could not believe there were only 29 ads throughout the entire magazine. Self was more diverse than most of the fashion magazines. I would like to know if this is consistent with all health and fitness magazines.

(7) People-

• Total number of advertisements-15
• Total number of advertisements that are diverse-2

• Total number ads featuring African Americans- 2
• Total number ads featuring Asians or Hispanics-0

(8) Boyd Street-

• Total number of advertisements- 13
• Total number of advertisements that are diverse-1

• Total number ads featuring African Americans- 1
• Total number ads featuring Asians or Hispanics-0

We all flip through the latest Boyd Street skimming the articles and checking out if we know anyone featured. We also browse the ads to find the best sales and specials in town.When looking at these ads I know I have never thought about the lack of diversity in the ads. There was only one ad that featured a black female and she was accompanied with three other white females.

(9) Life & Style-

• Total number of advertisements-10
• Total number of advertisements that are diverse-0

• Total number ads featuring African Americans- 0
• Total number ads featuring Asians or Hispanics-0

This magazine is all about celebrity gossip. I knew there wouldn’t be a ton of ads because there are only 82 pages total. I know the ratio of ads in the magazine is similar to the others, but I would have assumed there would be at least one diverse as somewhere in the mix.

(10) Domino-

• Total number of advertisements-22
• Total number of advertisements that are diverse-3

• Total number ads featuring African Americans- 2
• Total number ads featuring Asians or Hispanics-1

Discussion and Reflection of Results:

Before I began this assignment I never really thought about the diversity in advertising, but I was pretty sure of the results I was going to end with. I knew white females were going to be the predominate demographic featured in the mediums I chose, but I was surprised at how little amounts of diversity they actually included. Asians are practically not represented at all. Through ten mediums, and nearly three hundred advertisements there were only 5 Asians represented. This is crazy! We have to do something about this! My worry is that we have journalist and advertising majors working on collegiate publications and the diversity is not growing and is far from where it should be. When will the change come?

Links:

· http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2003/03/10/editorial3.html

· http://gawker.com/5134545/the-great-2009-diversity-ad-combo-sale