Week Eight Asynchronous Discussion (150-350 words):

In Why White Kids Love Hip-Hop, Bakari Kitwana discusses the emergence of data-gathering technologies, such as the Nielsen-Soundscan, used by retailers to buy more strategically and for record labels to see where many of their CDs are selling throughout the country (Kitwana 87). However, a misled trust in data collection has led to faulty assumptions, such as the implication that Blacks, over a decade later, arent the driving force behind the music, neither on the creative and business ends nor on the consumption side (Kitwana 102). Taking issue with this implication, Kitwana points to some loopholes in the commonly held argument that hip-hop’s main audience is white. He writes, No matter how steeped in hip-hop or marketing finesse, no marketing machine exists that can bypass hip-hops black audience (Kitwana 96).

Listen/watch one of Week Eights required or additional listenings/videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIvEiTrq9kk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frIA7tuBqqY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjWAWcx4xdE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOMhN-hfMtY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQvteoFiMlg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajmI1P3r1w4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wke0-lj2wzw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPoKiGQzbSQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiusDE0KND8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cgoqrgc_0cM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GZlJGERbvE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXvsVSc5UoY

Discuss the following:

What has (or doesn’t have) mass-market appeal about this song/video?

Discuss the production (samples, beat, instrumentals), the song structures (hook/chorus, verse, intro, outro), and the messages conveyed in the music and video.

How much of the musical content is driven by marketability vs. “authentic” expression and creativity?