From Beat Street to Main Street: Exploring Cultural Landscapes in Rap Music, 1980-2000

8/13/2019 From Beat Street to Main Street: Exploring Cultural Landscapes in Rap Music, 1980-2000

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From Beat Street to Main Street:Exploring Cultural LandscapesThrough Rap Music, 1980-2000

Maxwell A. Gallin

A thesis presented in partial fulfillment of therequirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts

Department of SociologyPrinceton University

2013


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Abstract

Raps evolution throughout the later decades of the 20 th century demonstrateshow a subcultural product can integrate into popular culture. This thesisinvestigates how this happened, developing theories of cultural development,

taste formation, cultural production, and institutional relationships tounderstanding the changing landscape of the rap music industry. To supportthis theory, I constructed a database of songs and albums on the year-endBillboard charts from 1980-2000 and performed quantitative statistical analysisto correlate the relationships between new artist entry, institutionalconcentration, and popularity. A qualitative content analysis complemented thisstudy, setting a context for the reception of rap during these years. I concludethat the processes of production and taste development are certainlyintertwined, and that the changing institutional form of the rap industrycontributed to the mainstream-ification of the cultural product.

Key Words: Institutionalization, Cultural Production, Habitus Formation, TasteMigration.

This thesis represents my own work in accordance with University regulations.


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

I NTRODUCTION 5

I: DEVELOPING C ULTURAL T HEORY 13 II: CULTURAL COMMODITIES AND C REATIVE MARKETS 28 Introduction !" Marx and The Circulation of Commodities !" Methodology !" Findings !"

III: U NDERSTANDING THE P RODUCTION OF CULTURE 42 Introduction !" Theories of Cultural Production !"

A Hip-Hop History !" Effects on the Industry !"

IV: E XPLORING R AP 'S I NSTITUTIONALIZATION 67 Introduction !" Social Construction of Culture !" Cultural Productions and Institutions !" Institutionalization and Creative Industries !! Methodology !" Findings !" Discussion !"

V: E VOLVING T HEMES IN THE P ERCEPTION OF R AP 94 Introduction !" Methodology !" Findings !" Bourdieusian Trends !"#

C ONCLUSION 114

R EFERENCES 121

APPENDIX 126


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Thank you Dr. Janet Vertesi for guiding me through this thesis, for challengingme to think profoundly, for motivating me to do more.

! Thank you Professor Clayton Childress for captivating me with theory, forinspiring my sociological imagination, for educating me in cultural studies.

! Thank you friends for helping me get the most out of my college experience, for

giving me necessary distractions, for making Princeton an easy place to live anda hard place to leave.

! Thank you Diane and Lawrence Gallin, for your compassion and understanding,

for your encouragement, for your words of wisdom. Your reassurance and

positivity has provided me sanity and clarity while writing this thesis. You havegiven me the world and I cannot thank you enough for it. I am thankful to have

your wisdom and generosity in my life, and am proud to call you my mother andfather.


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Tampa, Florida - I cannot relate to the streets of Compton, nor the Bronx. I was

not even alive when Run-DMC dropped his first album, was too young to listen

to N.W.A during their prime. That said - I love rap music. I download mixtapes,

hear it on the radio, and can recite the lyrics to entire albums, especially if you

give me a beat. Before I started writing this thesis I asked myself, How did this

get to me ?

I cannot relate to Notorious BIGs Ten Crack Commandments, nor a

single song on Nas Illmatic . The stories and messages saturated in rap music

reached my ears somehow, even though I know nothing about dealing drugs and

urban poverty. Still, I love rap music. I am curious about how this shift

happened; how something so subculturally defined, so specific to a black, urban

youth, ended up as an element of popular culture. I am intrigued about the

changing tastes, roles, and relationships that surround rap music. I will ask

questions that a hip-hop historian may not be able to answer, but a sociologistcan.

Looking at the evolving rap industry through a sociological lens, I will

investigate three topics: the development of culture, the migration of tastes, and

the social relationships that surround a cultural object. I plan to review the

history of rap music through a sociological perspective, trying to understand if

the social systems ingrained in rap music contributed to this cultural shift. This

thesis proposes the research question: to what extent has an evolving social

landscape of rap contributed toward to the redefinition of the cultural object and


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the migration of tastes?

Why rap? Aside from my personal interest in the topic, it seems a viable

sociological issue. Rock, jazz, and disco have been investigated sociologically, so

why not rap? What makes rap particularly interesting is its evolution out of a

subculture, of a social group that shares little in common with the audience it

includes today. Raps popularization has increased its visibility and interaction

with social groups that are so sociologically and culturally different than its

origin, though it has still managed to take root in popular culture. Over time,

tastes and relationships integrated in a developing musical genre must change

in response to its popularization because of raps cultural situation, these

changes may intersect with the processes of cultural development, something not

necessarily witnessed in rock and jazz.

The sociological literature touching on the topic of cultural development

provided excellent direction for this thesis. Richard Petersons Why 1955?Explaining the Advent of Rap Music was one such work. Peterson investigates

why 1955 an uneventful and unlikely year for a major aesthetic revolution

was the birthdate of rock and roll. (Peterson 1990:98) He conducts a contextual

analysis for the historical factors that led up to the emergence of rock, employing

his production of culture perspective to determine what helped constrain and

stimulate cultural innovation at that time. (Peterson 1990:99) The approach

Peterson takes will be replicated later in this thesis, studying the interaction of

technology, laws and regulations, industry structure, organizational form,


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With this background, I have decided to pursue my research question

from the production side of the equation. I will consider how cultural taste

evolves in response to changing processes of production, and vice versa. I hope to

understand how social relationships exist within these processes of production,

and how they too contribute to the development or transformation of taste. This

discussion of how rap music is produced will rely on a wide range of theory,

covering topics including commodity circulation and cultural migration to help

understand how the popularization of rap music - a cultural commodity -

manifest changing tastes and processes of cultural production.

To support this theory, I will conduct both a quantitative and qualitative

analysis. The quantitative study will focus on raps popularization via the

elements of popular rap songs, considering factors such as label affiliation,

previous successes, and ranking to determine how these changed over time and

in relation to one another. Via music anthologies and databases, I created adataset of every rap song to appear on the weekly popular Billboard charts from

1980 to 2011. This overwhelmingly demonstrated that rap music has

popularized over time, though the scope of the data was too large. In response, I

focused my attention on Billboard year-end charts, from which I gathered

information on artist names, album and song titles, label affiliation, and ranking

from ten specific charts: the black and popular charts for albums, album artists,

singles, and singles artists, as well as the singles airplay and singles sales

charts. Additionally, I cut the date parameters from 1980-2000; this created a


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rounded twenty-year period that omitted a significant, industry-revolutionizing

event the birth of online music shopping. Still, this provided a massive dataset

that will enable me to distinguish the tastes of the popular rap market and the

hip-hop-specific rap market, determined by comparison of the aforementioned

variables. The singles sales and airplay charts will help distinguish the

differences between songs that are broadcast on the radio versus songs that sell

well this may be key in understanding the relationship between two major

institutions in the rap industry, the record label and broadcast media. The

majority of this investigation will rely on statistical analysis, using the software

Excel and STATA to dissect these data sets with the intention of procuring

correlational relationships between label affiliation and new artist

concentration, for example. Chapters 2 and 4 will expand upon this.

To complement the quantitative study, I will perform a qualitative content

analysis. Via the ProQuest archive, I have assembled a dataset of New York

Times articles from 1980-2000 that discuss some element of rap music; using the

search parameters hip-hop OR rapper OR rapping AND su(music), I selected

100 out of 4,234 relevant articles via a process better explained in Chapter 5.

This study will examine predominant themes in the reception of rap music that

progress and transform throughout the years, hopefully contributing to my

discussion of taste and cultural migration. By separating this set into four five-

year time periods, I anticipate that I will be able to visualize how themes

significantly changed by reading the journalistic responses to raps


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popularization. The qualitative and quantitative datasets for this thesis will be

publicly stored online please refer to the Appendix for more information on

how to access this information.

The first chapter of this thesis will focus on synthesizing cultural theory

and on understanding how taste is developed. Using sociological theory from

Bourdieu, Gelder, and Park, I will develop a theoretical background for the

discussion of cultural migration. Additionally, I will explain the significance of a

cultural object in terms of taste and cultural formation.

The second chapter of this thesis will construct a creative market for rap

music, using Marxs commodity circulation theory to explain how rap circulates

in a creative market. Using quantitative analysis, I will investigate how rap

music popularizes over time on the hip-hop and popular charts while observing

relationships between the two.

Chapter three will employ Petersons production of culture frameworkwhile reviewing the history of rap music, discerning major events that may have

elicited shifts in taste or the processes of production. The most significant events

will be investigated further, looking at their influence on other aspects of the

industry in accordance to Petersons theory.

Chapter four tackles institutional relationships, using a social

construction of culture perspective ( la Pinch and Bijker) to understand how

record labels and broadcast media interact and respond to one another. This is

supported by quantitative analysis focusing on the correlational relationship


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between the singles airplay and sales charts, while also investigating the

concentration of major labels on the albums market.

The fifth and final chapter contextualizes the arguments made in these

first four chapters, using qualitative analysis to study the reception and

discourse of rap music. This chapter also discusses the evolution and migration

of taste in Bourdieusian terms, using this qualitative data to support these

claims.

Ultimately, this thesis aims to understand the relationship between taste

and the processes of production, looking at how particular developments within

an industry may explain shifts in cultural innovation and diversity, and what

this means for the migration of a cultural object. Rap music experienced a

turbulent twenty years following its cultural inception, and is a promising

vehicle to facilitate this theoretical sociological discussion.


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IDEVELOPING CULTURAL THEORY

!

Before I start throwing words around like culture and subculture and

taste, it would be important to gain understanding of the theory and

sociological perspective behind this terminology. Though hip-hop music is the

modern subject of my investigation, earlier sociological theory can focus

attention on certain cultural and social processes that help structure and

influence the social groups that consume this music. This study will sometimes

treat music as a cultural element, thus bringing into consideration the transfer

of social and cultural capital among classes and networks. By synthesizing and

critiquing these theories, I will be able to construct my own theoretical

framework while proposing a sociological reason for why hip-hop music has

undergone a transformation.

Pierre Bourdieu's Distinction is a classic work in the sociological study of

culture. The book studies how culture manifests itself in different social classes,

and how taste develops in relation to the culture of these classes. Bourdieu

denounces reductionist answers, proposing that I must acknowledge multiple

factors the biological, the psychological, the social when considering a group

or individual's social identifications. (1984:107) His theory centers on the concept

of class habitus , or the conditions and conditionings that both unify and generate

class-specific cultural practices. (1984:101) Social class is defined by one or more


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homogenous social elements, which typically consist of a set of common,

objectified properties. (1984:101-2) These properties contribute to the

dispositions of the individuals within the class that is, the objectified

commonality, the homogeneity between class members define what Bourdieu

calls their field of possibilities for cultural tastes. (1984:110) To avoid a

reductionist perspective, Bourdieu acknowledges that factors such as one's

occupation, education, or domestic relationships can influence taste it would be

too simple to say that one man's taste is solely the product of his social class,

that his wife's disposition or his educational upbringing did not play a role in

forming the cultural tastes he portrays. (1984:109) A cultural practice can

achieve a defined trajectory among a social class due to the homogeneity of the

group, as the individuals maintain similar cultural dispositions as other

members within their group. (1984:110) Simply, this explains why some cultural

practices or phenomena catch on with a particular social group the membersof the group all share an objective social similarity, thus their cultural

dispositions may lie along the same lines as one another. Yet, Bourdieu notes

that a cultural practice may not integrate itself within the social group due to

instilled familial dispositions or changing collective dispositions within a group.

(1984:111) Further, these trajectories may not have a role in certain social fields,

or it may be manifest in a different capacity; hence, this is why a cultural

practice may be ignored or reinterpreted by a particular occupation, despite its'

existence within a homogenous social group. (1984:112)


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Bourdieu illustrates the production of taste in a graphic, summarized as

such: a habitus is formed by the classification and position of an objectifiable

property of a social group, which then continuously structures itself around the

homogeneity of its members. (1984:171) Within the habitus, there exist systems

of classifiable practices and works and schemes of perception and taste.

(1984:171) The perceptions and tastes of the habitus (as well as the perceptions

and tastes of other habituses) of these works and practices condition a habitus'

members to system of classified cultural practices, or more simply, tastes.

(1984:171) For the broader picture of a social group, I can assume that cultural

tastes are not only developed by a similar objective property of a social group,

but also by the group's cultural dispositions and practices they engage in as well

as the perceptions and appreciations they and other habituses give these

practices. The meanings to cultural practices given and the tastes developed by a

habitus allow it to differentiate itself from other habituses. (1984:172) Thesepractices establish a symbolic and stylistic affinity within the group, which

enables habitus members to recognize cultural signs and build relationships that

center around these cultural meanings and tastes. (1984:173-5)

Additionally, I should consider DiMaggio's cognitive psychological

perspective of culture. DiMaggio's theory puts culture at the intersection of

sociology and psychology and, like Bourdieu, avoids a simplistic explanation for

a complex concept. He asserts that culture is fractured and inconsistent

among social classes, that people's tastes and views differ from our own, and


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may differ even within the same social class. (DiMaggio 1997:265) DiMaggio

applies cognitive theory to the organization of culture, asserting that we adopt

cultural schemas that act as affirming systems of stability and consistency for

physical and social cues. (1997:268) We respond to social cues in accordance with

our schemas, which may lead to biased or inconsistent attitudes based on a

cultural mental framework. (1997:268) This bias constrains and enables it

limits our ability to imagine cultural and social alternatives, but lubricates our

interactions and goals within the culture we exist in. (1997:269)

Regarding the creation of culture, DiMaggio believes in the role of cultural

producers. (1997:268) Culture is portrayed through external symbol systems,

consisting of the content of talk, elements of the constructed environment,

media messages, and meanings embedded in observable activity patterns.

(1997:274) Our schemata rely on these external cues we use and interact with

these systems, influencing our own behavior, as well as our understanding ofothers behavior within the same cultural group. These messages, these cultural

cues are broadcast by the social collective, trying to produce explicit messages

and symbols that will evoke the group's cultural schemata in order to play into

the group's collective interest. (1997:275) The individuals within the social group

maintain a collective identity, aligned with the interests and understandings of

the other members with whom they share these mental frameworks; however,

one's individuality remains proportional to his/her involvement within the

group. (1997:275) That is, the less involved with the cultural group, the less


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reliant on the cultural schemata developed from one's social exposure, the more

individuality a person maintains. I can assume that, from DiMaggio's logic, that

a member's individuality may open him/her to other cultural possibilities,

though it limits his/her progress within the group itself. Using Bourdieu's

terminology, it seems developing a homogenous cultural schema is beneficial for

the individual, a lubricated social environment incentivizes the individual to

develop a mental framework homogenous to his/her social group. Accordingly, I

can suggest that this is why cultural practices catch on within a social group

to get the most out of one's social and cultural environment, an individual needs

to adopt the practices, the attitudes given by the group. Yet, an individual's

capacity to maintain his/her individual identity, or to possess multiple cultural

schemata, fractures social classes, as members develop interests exterior to the

interests of the social group.

Looking at Bourdieu and DiMaggio's theory, I can gain a sociologicalunderstanding of cultural groups. A cultural group forms around an objective

homogeny, a shared characteristic, practice, or interest of a social group,

typically among a particular social class. The members of the group have specific

dispositions dependent on their individual social origins and upbringing as well

as the collective interests of the group. The group, what Bourdieu calls a

habitus, classifies and defines the systems of cultural practices and works by

integrating their self-perception and the perception of other habituses into the

meaning of these practices. Adding meanings to these classified and ever-


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classifying (the process is continous) practices establishes distinctive tastes for

each habitus, while creating a cultural group solidarity built by the shared

meanings and relationships surrounding these practices. Culture is not 'imbibed'

(to put it in DiMaggio's words) by the members of the social group, but it is

implanted in the mental frameworks of its users. The meanings and perceptions

given to each cultural practice develop cultural schemas within in each user,

which helps lubricate the social environment the group exists in. A member

reads external cultural elements media portrayals, jargon, symbolic meanings

and interacts with them, adopting them into their individual practices in order

to assume a social role within the cultural group. This allows him/her to find

interest in the goals of the cultural group, and enables him/her to pursue

interests that align with the group or would seem culturally impressive to fellow

members. However, it must be remembered that the classes remain fragmented,

split by the levels of involvement of social members and their willingness toidentify with the collective cultural interests.

Alan Lomax's book Folk Music Style and Culture introduces music to a

cultural context. Lomax first argues that musical style is a product of the culture

in which it is embedded in, that it summarizes the ranges of behavior that

are appropriate to one kind of cultural context. (Lomax 1968:6) The style of

music adapts to a cultural environment and expresses cultural life, representing

the relationships, communication, and symbolic meanings cultivated through

culture, and ultimately coming to epitomize a singluar and notable aspect of a


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culture, by which its members identify themselves and with which they endow

any of their activities and their feelings. (1968:3-8) Lomax demonstrates

through cantometric (13), choreometric (248), and textual analysis (274) that folk

songs are distinct to and reflective of the social and economic nature of a culture;

essentially, the forms of expression (dance and singing) can be broken down into

particular elements (i.e. pitch, intonation, harmonization, body movement, etc.)

which reflect upon the organization of the culture's social life and the personal

experience in it. (1968:304) Though this paper will not try to attribute social

meanings to the song elements of hip-hop music, it will run off Lomax's assertion

that the rap song style is particular to hip-hop culture, and that it serves as a

major symbolic and reflective element of the culture in general. As a cultural

element, rap music should be an expression of those that align themselves with a

hip-hop culture, discussing social issues and cultural styles that are relevant to

the group, communicating this in a language that resonates with the members ofthe culture.

Lomax's idea of music as a cultural element appeals to both Bourdieu and

DiMaggio's idea of cultural practices. A la Bourdieu, music is influenced by the

dispositions of the cultural group, and the elements of a song become a product

of the homogeneous preferences and social characteristics of a group. Rap music

follows a cultural trajectory and is subject to the dispositions of the habitus,

though as it becomes a cultural practice, it assumes special meanings and

perceptions given by the habitus. These perceptions and meanings integrate the


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song as a cultural practice and develop a sense of taste for the habitus, thus

becoming part of the culture's identity. Listening to and enjoying music involves

the member in the culture, and will increase his/her cultural capital while

ingraining him/her further into the culture. For DiMaggio, a song becomes a part

of the schemas I develop; it reinforces the meanings and symbols given from our

cultural practices by communicating jargon, experiences, and messages that are

familiar to the general group. Music is part of the external symbol systems that

helps reinforce our cultural understandings and lubricate our social

relationships. I could suggest that people listen to or use music for the sake of

reinforcing cultural meanings and establishing group solidarity, as it seems to be

an efficient way to broadcast social perceptions, experiences, and tastes. The

lyrics of cultural music likely stimulate the cultural schemata I develop,

resonating with the understandings, practices, and tastes of what Bourdieu calls

a cultural habitus.DiMaggio and Bourdieu consider culture as a general, class-wide

phenomenon, yet the history of hip-hop suggests it began as an ethnic

subcultural movement. Reviewing the works of Gelder, Park and Williams, I will

develop an idea of the social structure of subcultures. Knowing the structure of

subcultures will be crucial for our understanding of how hip-hop music

transformed and integrated itself into the general popular culture.

Gelder explains that subcultures can develop either internally, by

processes of exclusion and solidarity, or externally, formed by the society around


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it. (2007:2) The formation of a subculture is typically associated with a narrative,

which evokes reactions from external members, and forces them to take

positions of perspective against the subculture. (2007:2) The subculture is often

considered nonconformist, a group rejecting the existing social order and

disavowing class practices and affiliations, that establishes its own cultural

order and affiliations to better represent the members' collective interest.

(2007:3) Gelder considers the subculture to be non-normative and marginal

rejecting popular values and shoved to the side of general society. (2007:1) Under

Gelder's perspective, subcultures are marginalized by society because of their

nonconformism, because they are not considered societally normal.

Williams' believes that this is not necessarily the case. First, Williams

asserts that a subculture must be treated as an abstraction, rather than a

physical thing. (2011:38) The subculture should be considered a cultural

phenomenon rather than a classification system, a social situation running offshared values, beliefs, and practices. (2011:38) Further, the subculture should

not be considered homogenous or static, as time and space may shift

interpretations, practices, styles, and values. (2011:39) To Williams, subcultures

are culturally bounded, but not closed, networks of people who come to share

the meaning of specific ideas, material objects, and practices through

interaction. (2011:39) This interaction creates a culture that gradually shapes

the generation and diffusion of cultural practices and elements. (2011:39) Like

Bourdieu, Williams believes that the social processes within a subculture are


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continuously reinforcing, both created by the subcultural members and enacted

by the structure of the subculture itself. (2011:40) A interaction of members

provides an information flow about the trends of cultural practices, and allows

the members to identify with the elements that build up the practices and values

of the group.

Looking at Gelder and Williams' subcultural descriptions, I can imagine

the role of music within. In Gelder's case, I can assume the music of a subculture

will also be nonconformist, rejecting the general social order and popular social

values. Subcultural music would be considered abnormal or different from the

popular norm, and would help develop the subculture's against the grain

narrative. The elements of subcultural music should then discuss and reinforce

social experiences that are considered nonconformist or abnormal. Considering

music in Williams' perspective, music integrates itself in a way similar to what I

described in Bourdieu's condition. Music is a product of the subculture's sharedmeanings and interests, a form of communication diffuse with subcultural

symbols and jargon that reinforce the subculture's social processes. Because the

subculture itself is a cultural phenomenon, not an organized, classified group of

people, music positions itself as a form of communication that helps convey

shared subcultural meanings and symbols. In this sense, I can suggest that

music (or any art that shares cultural meanings) plays a significant role in

subcultural communication and development, due to the lack of social order of

the group. This may position music as having a significant role in the


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organization and transformation of a subculture, or at least in the

representation of such; thus, it will be a good focal point for looking at the

transformation of hip-hop culture.

Robert E. Park's 1928 essay Migration and the Marginal Man is a classic

piece on subcultures and the city. Park considers every great cultural progress to

be the product of a physical or abstract migration. (1928:883) In a migration, an

invading population or culture breaks down the social order, forcing a fusion of

native and alien values. (1928:885) This invading culture can either be

assimilated or subjugated when subjugated, I see subcultures arise in the

subordinate peoples. (1928:885) Park believes that during this social chaos, man

is emancipated, lacking the social constraints that prevent him from going

against the cultural grain. (1928:887) Social chaos often breeds innovation and

restructuring, formed by the secularization of once sacred cultural

relationships. (1928:888) The city is typically the theatre for these culturalrestructurings a giant melting pot of ethnicity, culture, and social class where

social organization is determined by rational interest and temperamental

predilections. (1928:889) Park quotes Georg Simmel's essay The Stranger,

considering the stranger (in Park's terminology, the migrating man) to be

unbound by conventions or customs, and free practically and theoretically.

(1928:888)

Here, it would help to refer to Simmel's essay itself, where he writes: The

stranger is an element of the group itself, not unlike the poor and sundry 'inner


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enemies' an element whose membership within the group involves both being

outside it and confronting it. (Simmel 1971:144) The rest of his essay

investigates the factors of repulsion and distance that effectively define a social

group it is the stranger's presence that enables a social group to recognize its

intimacy, its exclusivity, its homogeneity. (Simmel 1971:144) Reverting back to

Park's essay, I can understand that cultures gain their identity from the fact

that they differentiate from other cultural strangers; that is, it takes cultural

opposition or difference for a social group to recognize its homogeneity. Further,

I can assume that subcultures exist as migrating men or strangers. Not only to

subculture help define the cultural identities of the majority, but they serve as

broken down versions of social order.

Park and Simmel's essays provide two important points for my discussion

of music and culture. Park discusses how an invading culture becomes

assimilated or subjugated when in the process of cultural migration, and usesthe city as an example of a cultural melting pot. Looking at this, I can assume

that the origin of rap music is rooted in the hip-hop subculture, an urban stew of

mixed ethnicities and no social order for Park, a perfect environment for

cultural innovation. As rap music popularized, and hip-hop culture gained social

order, the music battled against existing popularized cultural relationships and

meanings. From this, I can suggest that rap music is a cultural innovation

produced in the order-less urban subculture environment; its popularization and

escape from the city have introduced a less hospitable environment with


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dominating social ideals and relationships that ultimately transformed the

musical message. Further, looking at Simmel's perspective, I may postulate that

rap music and hip-hop culture served as a stranger that popular culture

originally marginalized due to its difference. The homogeneity and resistance of

popular culture enabled hip-hop to develop its nonconformist and individual

identity it will then be necessary to determine how the stranger culture

eventually integrated itself into the homogenous majority, or how the group

bridged the factors of repulsion and distance that segregate a culture from the

majority.

I will refer back to Bourdieu for his field theory, which will come in handy

in building my discussion in the next chapter. Bourdieu considers art and

literature to exist within a cultural field defined by success and prestige.

(Bourdieu 1993:320) The cultural field is a battle between these two principles,

as cultural elements tend to gravitate towards either the heteronomous (drivenby success) or autonomous (driven by art for arts sake). (1993:321) The

definition of the artist is a product of his or her art, but also by a set of people

already entrenched in the fields hierarchy, who get to say where this new art or

artist fits inside the field. (1993:322) The producers, the art within certain

sectors of the field possess certain homologies that enable this definition and

produce solidarity, making the heteronomous and autonomous poles mutually

exclusive, with relational levels of gradation separating them. (1993:322-7) The

other poles in the cultural field are defined by concentration, or how entrenched


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the cultural producer is within the field. (1993:330) This benefits the old and

entrenched within the system, as low concentration within the field is typical of

new entrants.

It is the relativity of the Bourdieusian field that is appealing, particularly

in how a cultural product assumes a position within the field. Considering

Bourdieus four poles, I may position rap music in the lower hemisphere, a new

entrant with low concentration relative to other musical entries in the field.

Additionally, I may think of rap as originating closer to the autonomous pole,

especially if I think of early rap as being a cultural element focused on

disseminating a social or racial message. If music was produced for cultural

sakes, I can assume that the economic element was marginalized; yet, as I

witness the popularization of rap music, I can assume that its position shifts

from the autonomous to the heteronomous, with cultural producers and the

industry seeking economic incentives and reaching a mass audience rather thana smaller audience that appreciates its cultural message.

This chapter lays down the theoretical framework I will use throughout

the rest of this thesis in the discussion of cultural elements and shifting cultural

meanings. Bourdieus theories of taste and fields build understanding of culture

and subculture by discussing how these cultural products are organized and

organize members of a social group. DiMaggio enables a contemplation of how

individuals perceive cultural elements, and how these cultural elements enable

members to interact within a homogenous social context. These two theories will


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also facilitate the discussion of how culture and cultural elements shift meanings

and positions within greater society. This will be paramount in the discussion of

how the cultural industry surrounding rap music transforms as it popularizes,

and what this means in terms of cultural development and integration. The

remaining chapters of this thesis will use theoretical and quantitative analysis

to investigate shifts in rap music from 1986 to 2000, observing the shifts

proposed by this chapter.


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IICULTURAL COMMODITIES AND CREATIVE MARKETS

!

Introduction

This thesis relies on an impression that rap music and to that point,

music in general exists within a creative market. I argue that rappers assume

the roles of cultural producers, who cooperate with other actors within the

industry (i.e. radio deejays, record labels) to broadcast and sell a cultural

product to consumers. Referring back to Bourdieu, I suggest that these

consumers engage in these cultural transactions to build social and cultural

capital, to identify oneself with a particular culture or ideology, and to elevate

ones position within the related population. The purchase of cultural products is

a symbolic exchange, a way of transforming economic capital into cultural or

social capital while confirming a particular taste or disposition for culture. I

understand that one purchases a cultural product in confirmation of his/her

taste, though the exchange itself confirms the tastes and dispositions of the

greater group or culture. The individual is incentivized and disposed to following

the tastes of his/her group as homogeneity increases, the tastes of a cultural

group become more defined, reinitiating Bourdieus cycle of habitus formation.

Looking at Bourdieu and other competing theories, I discussed how

cultural elements play a role in the development of homogenous cultures and

tastes. Petersons theory fueled the discussion of cultural production, helping


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understand how different variables affect the distribution and consumption of

cultural products. So far, I have theorized about how cultural products are

produced and why consumers purchase them these are essential for

understanding the production and consumption aspects of a creative market.

However, the discussion in this chapter will focus on the circulation of the

cultural products, treating them as symbolic commodities. This chapter will

channel theory from Marxs Capital to understand the circulation of

commodities, applying his perspective to the creative rap music market to help

understand how rap music exists as a cultural symbol and simultaneously

circulates within an economic market. For the sake of this thesis, I will consider

two creative markets: a segmented music market reflecting hip-hop or black

tastes and a popular music market comprised of the nations most popular songs

and artists. I hypothesize that rap music originates in a segmented, ethnically-

focused market as a symbolic cultural product, but gradually migrates towardthe popular music market. Rap musics entry into the popular music market may

not have necessarily transformed the symbolic meaning or nature of the cultural

product, but the rap music market itself may gradually begin to mirror the

tastes of the popular market. That is, as rap music becomes more visible within

the popular market, the tastes of the hip-hop market will begin to resemble

those of the popular.

Marx and The Circulation of Commodities

In Capital, Marx argues that money allows for the circulation of


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commodities, that money standardizes price and stands as a social incarnation

of human labor. (Marx 1977:192) The purchaser perceives the commodity as

valuable and plans to integrate the commodity into his/her internal life; the

work performed by the seller is then alienated, sent to market, and made

external to his/her life. (1977:190) The producers work is only eligible for

exchange if there is a consumer that deems it valuable, or worthy of its

integration into the consumers life. Money allows commodities to take on a

price-form, quantifying labor and value to enable exchange between the producer

and consumer. (1977:198) In a market exchange, a commodity undergoes a

transformation from its original form to its money form during a sale, then back

to its commodity form when purchased. (1977:200) As the exchange takes place,

the value of the commodity is manifest in different forms, though the value itself

is not lost. Marx writes: Money as the medium of circulation, haunts the

sphere of circulation and constantly moves around within it. (1977:213)Money should not be mistaken for a symbol it is a form of the commodity

that manifests value as a quantitative and standardized measure. (1977:198)

However, money is symbolized in the form of currency, a symbol that represents

a weight of gold that corresponds with the value of a commodity. (1977:225)

Currency is a physical representation of value that helps us engage in

transactions, that turns circulation into a concrete phenomenon instead of an

abstraction of changing forms and constant values. In this, the process of

exchange exists as a symbolic transaction. Commodities are valued through


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their processes of production, assume a form that is symbolically represented

based on this determined value, and finally revert to the original form when

purchased by the consumer. The value of the commodity remains consistent

throughout the transaction, though it is manifest in different ways.

Marx claims that the meaning of the commodity transfers as it assumes

different forms. The alienation of the commodity from its producer occurs when

the commodity takes the money, or price-value, form. (1977:190) The purchaser

identifies him/herself with the commodity, and assesses the commodity in terms

of his/her use-value, or how he/she can incorporate the commodity into his/her

life. (1977:190) The use-value of the commodity is defined by the consumer, and

may eventually assume a form that is different than the original commodity (i.e.

in the case of cloth, which may be purchased then transformed into clothing, or

stay in its original form and be used as a cloth). (1977:189) The meanings or uses

of commodities change once they shift hands from the producer to the consumer;the original production may not be the final form of the product. Overall, Marx

proposes that the circulation of a commodity is facilitated by transformations

and representations of the commodity in different forms, and that the social

relations surrounding a circulating market give each transaction, each

purchased commodity, a definition of usage.

Marxs theory provides the foundation of my image of a rap music market.

Commodities take the form of songs and albums; exchange takes place between

musicians, record labels, stores, and consumers. I can imagine that the exchange


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of capital is not limited to the economic, but also includes social and cultural

exchanges. The commoditys use-value is not purely economic; it brings social

and cultural capital that, in Bourdieusian theory, could enhance ones position

within his/her social group.

However, it may be too simple to qualify the market for rap music under

purely Marxian terms. There is a massive amount of uncertainty in the

industry, and it is difficult to quantify both the processes of production and the

cultural elements produced. Caves notes that the majority of prices in the music

industry are fixed consumers tend to pay just as much for a superstars best-

selling album as an unknown acts first album, and concert tickets are

constrained by both time and space. (Caves 2000:75) Consumers are only

economically rational in the sense that they choose to invest their money in what

other individuals tend to purchase lacking a metric of quality, or a determining

factor that one thing is objectively better than another, consumers tend to buywhat other consumers are buying as a justification for quality. (2000:78) The

relationship between time spent laboring and quality is arbitrary a cultural

commodity is not necessarily better if an artist takes one year to produce it

rather than six months. (2000:75)

Lucien Karpik continues the discussion on the economics of a creative

market with his book on pricing art. He argues that cultural products are

evaluated and organized in relative ranking terms, or on levels of gradation.

(Karpik 2010:211 ) Karpik suggests that the evaluation of quality is mostly


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social it relies on the opinions of experts, peer networks, and self-recognition in

giving criteria for quality. (2010:213) Additionally pricing is thus an indicator of

quality, and lowering price may be an indicator of reduced quality, and thus a

knock to a products reputation. (2010:215) This said, in creative markets with

massive uncertainty (i.e. the music industry), pricing is removed from aesthetic

interpretations of quality, and instead focused on the infrastructure and

processes of production, such as genre popularity or retail location. (2010:214) In

these markets, the volume of sales determines quality, even if there are no

defining aesthetic elements of the product that make it better than other

circulating products. (2010:214) Popularity is thus a measure of quality, and

pricing is a measure of the economic factors that concern the product.

What makes the music market unique is that the prices of cultural

commodities are basically constant. Quality is determined by success, and

success itself is quite arbitrary. Because quality is virtually immeasurable asidefrom sales volume, I can anticipate that rational producers will try to replicate

others successes in order to reap economic benefits and, because of this, the

market will appear homogenous.

The inability of this information to fit into the Marxian mold complicates

the image of a creative market. I can still assume that consumers will purchase

a cultural commodity that possesses a significant use-value. The cultural

commodity can still undergo the transformations of circulation that Marx refers

to after a song is produced, it circulates in its monetary form until it is


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purchased by the consumer. Though with price fixed, the value of these cultural

commodities would also appear to be arbitrary in Marxian eyes. Because quality

is arbitrary, it seems there is little rhyme or reason to the direction of a creative

market except for Caves point consumers follow defined paths of consumption

when investing in commodities.

After contemplating these market perspectives, I understand that the

Marxist relationship between buyer and seller still exists, and that the cultural

commodity undergoes transitions of form and symbolism as it moves from

producer to consumer. The typicality of circulation is compromised by the nature

and price of these cultural commodities considering there is no criteria for

evaluating quality, price is constant, and the processes of production are diverse

and arbitrary, it is difficult to consider a creative market in pure Marxist terms.

Looking at these characteristics of the market, I can propose that a maturing

market will begin to appear more homogenous, with producers mimickingcurrent successes and a few successful artists having a major concentration of

the entire market.

Methodology 2

To determine how the market for rap music functions, I have built a

historical representation of the top songs, artists, and albums within the popular

and rap music markets. I will construct this image by looking at a variety of

Billboard magazine year-end charts from 1986 to 2000, enabling an image of

2 Please refer to the Appendix for information on how to find the data for this thesis.


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how the circulation of rap music increased over time in both the hip-hop and

popular music markets. Each charted album, song, or artist features a variety of

data points that will become focal points of analysis, not limited to chart

ranking, number of charted entries, and label / distribution deals. Comparing

these variables over time will illustrate how each market has evolved, with

certain variables explaining phenomena that may have influenced a particular

aspect of the industry. Additionally, comparing the two markets will aid my

study of how the consumption of rap music is changing by reflecting the tastes of

the general population versus those that side with hip-hop culture.

Stemming from Marxs discussion of the circulation of commodities, I will

first observe the circulation of rap music within the popular and rap music

markets. By looking at the concentration of rap songs on each chart over time, I

can monitor how rap becomes popular and how it integrates itself into cultural

tastes. I will then try to identify any similarities in the tastes between the twomarkets, looking at artists, songs, and albums that appear on both charts and

their relative positions. The majority of the analysis will rely on basic statistics,

comparisons of mean, median, and standard deviation. However, some

correlation analysis will be performed relating time and ranking, concentration,

and gross number of songs on each chart. Additionally, this analysis will be

performed comparing the two charts together, determining if there is a

relationship between the increased presence and concentration on one chart

versus the other. The data studied in this chapter will envision the progression


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of rap musics popularity on a yearly basis, while reflecting changing tastes. In

this sense, the data I analyze will resonate with my understanding of cultural

tastes and dispositions, as well as the Bourdieusian idea of fields.

Findings

The first set of data I am dealing with concerns the number and

concentration of rap music within the hip-hop and popular charts. To build a

coherent, all-encompassing understanding of how hip-hop rose to popularity, I

will observe three different categories for the popular and hip-hop charts:

singles, albums, and album artists. Using the data samples for each category, I

totaled the number of songs, albums, and artists for each year and each chart.

After tallying the numbers for each year and category, I could see a pretty

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000

N

mb

o bms

Year

Popularization of Rap Albums

Popular Charts

Hip-Hop Charts

Figure 1The number of rap albums appearing on the Billboard charts seemed a good metric of popularity.Rap's growth seems to stabilize from 1989 to 1995; from 1996 on, my data suggests that it beginsto grow again. This was similar for Billboard singles as well.


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obvious positive trend regarding the increasing presence of rap music. Though

the hip-hop charts had a higher concentration of rap music, the popular charts

essentially mirrored its rise in popularity. There exists a strong, positive

correlation (r > 0.75) between time and all the categories within each chart

that is, as time goes on, more rap music enters the market. Because these

correlations are so strong, the relationships between the hip-hop and popular

singles and albums are also significantly strong (r > 0.75) for album artists,

however, this is not the case. Though the correlation is still positive, I see the

correlation lose strength from 1995 to 1996, jumping from 0.80 in 1994 to 0.57 in

1995 and 0.14 in 1996. Following these years, this relationship regained its

strength, though its drop in these two years remains statistically significant.

The significant drop in the number of album artists in the popular music market

from 1994 to 1996 could be attributed to a number of reasons changing tastes,

a higher concentration of successful artists, etc. though this will be revisitedlater. Nevertheless, the first impression I get from looking at my data is that the

rap music market is growing on both the popular music and hip-hop culture

front.

The next point of analysis will focus on the composition of the popular and

hip-hop charts, particularly on the artists, songs, and albums that are present on

both charts. This data set is significant because it represents a population of

cultural commodities that appeal to popular and hip-hop tastes if the number

of entries on both charts increases over time, this may represent similarities in


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albums per year, or the percentage of songs and albums per year that appear on

both charts. As predicted, the number of songs and albums on the popular charts

had a much higher concentration of matched entries than the hip-hop charts

for the singles chart, this is becoming more true over time (r = 0.65). The

majority of the time, over two-thirds of the popular chart is composed of songs

and albums that have also charted on the hip-hop list. The same cannot be said

for the hip-hop chart, which (predictably) has a larger amount of rap songs. On

the albums chart, the number of albums that also chart on the popular chart

ranges from 11% - 35% from 1990 to 2000; more than two-thirds of the songs on

the hip-hop chart are not recognized on the popular charts. The singles chart

differs quite considerably from 1990 to 1996, the number of hip-hop charted

songs that also appeared on the popular list ranged between 58% and 83%.

Following 1996, a strong negative correlation (r = -0.98) began to trend, lowering

the number of matched singles from 83% in 1996 to 22% in 2000. Where this hasbeen consistent all along for the albums chart, the singles chart becomes more

dissimilar from the popular chart directly following 1996. There are two

directions for analysis I can take from this; first, I will compare the rankings,

labels, and artists for the songs and albums that made both charts to those that

only charted on one list. This will assist the idea of what each chart looks like

with and without songs that are universal successes, and may give additional

information regarding tastes.


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differences in the method of these productions, or if there are any circumstances

that would differentiate each groups taste for an album or single.


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IIIU NDERSTANDING THE P RODUCTION OF CULTURE

Introduction

This chapter aims to review the history of the rap music in order to

determine specific events or trends that may have transformed the creative

industry. I have seen rap music mobilize to the popular sphere looking at the

Billboard sample, I witnessed rap music gradually rise in popularity and

concentration on both the hip-hop and popular charts. My data has repeatedly

pointed at the year 1996 as a turning point in the industry, with new artist

concentration spiraling downwards and multiple album artists rising in the

years following. By closely examining the history of rap, I can suggest certain

situations or events that may have brought about some change.

To do this, I will consider the Petersonian production of culture

perspective, which emerged out of the classical Marxist and Weberian theories of

how culture is developed. Reviewing the history of rap through the Petersonian

lens introduces a sociological element I will be less concerned with the

economics of the situation, but the changing social dynamics that exist within

the rap industry. Understanding the evolving social networks and relationshipsthat exist between the consumer and producer and inside the institutions will

demonstrate how rap music was produced from 1986 to 2000. Changes to the

social environment may suggest changing methods of production, which in turn


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influence the development of the cultural product.

Theories of Cultural Production

Theories of cultural production date back to classic sociology, originallywith the base-superstructure relationship as argued by Karl Marx. Marx argues

that men enter defined relations during the process of production, and:

the sum total of these relations of production constitutes the economicstructure of society the real foundation, on which rise legal and politicalsuperstructures and to which correspond definite forms of socialconsciousness. (Marx 1904:11)

The functions and relationships that constitute the processes of production yield

culture, spirituality, and what Marx calls social consciousness. (1904:11-2)

Marxs view is not purely economic his emphasis on the relationships that exist

within the base, which is built upon the processes of production and the social

classes that engage in them, is definitely sociological. Culture is a function of

economic society; translating Marxs argument to this thesis, I can assume thatcultural producers define the cultural landscape. Where the processes of

production in an economy define the superstructure of a society, I can assume

that the processes of cultural production the artists work in producing a

cultural element, the relationships cultivated as the element is marketed and

distributed, and so on develop a cultural superstructure, constituting the

characteristics and elements of a culture. Marxs perspective positions culture

as a product of the processes of production; in 1905, Max Weber challenged this,

arguing the opposite.

Webers theory boils down to this: capitalism is rooted in the doctrines of


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the Protestant work ethic. What particularly stands out to Weber is Calvinism, a

school of Protestantism asserting that those destined for salvation are

predetermined, or elected, and comprise of individuals that unselfishly work

for the benefit of everyone. (Weber 1992:64) The elect is as unknowing of his/her

fate as the damned, however any doubt or uncertainty about being part of the

elect would dignify that one is not part of the elect. (1992:66) Thus, self-

confidence was often a measure of ones consideration of being part of the elect

attaining this self-confidence was manifest through intense worldly activity.

(1992:67) Calvinist and Protestant thought emphasize salvation brought about

by hard, unselfish, worldly work, which Weber argues to be some of the roots of

capitalism. Hard work and making money are the callings, the ends of the

means, of a capitalist individual, not the material pleasures or benefits had from

them. (1992:18-9) In this sense, the systems and processes of production are

shaped by or rooted in the philosophies of the cultural environment. Related tothis thesis, this would argue that the processes of cultural production are shaped

by hip-hop culture. The cultural environment procures economic and social

development, thus the popularization of rap music must not be due to changes

within the processes of production, but rather the cultural elements that make

up hip-hop culture themselves.

Weber and Marxs theories are limited in the sense that they ignore the

interaction between culture and cultural production claiming that one is the

factor of another is too reductionist, too simple. Weber ignores the nature of


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social relations within the production process, where Marx marginalizes the

impact of the cultural context and environment. This paper will promote a more

modern perspective of the production of culture, utilizing theory that

complements both the cultural environment and the systems of production. For

this, I will refer to Peterson and Anands The Production Of Culture

Perspective.

Petersons theory of cultural production fills in the blanks that Marx and

Weber omit. His perspective investigates the process of cultural production,

focusing on the expressive aspects of culture, rather than the social or moral

values they stand for. (Peterson and Anand 2004:312) Peterson argues that

cultural analysis should not be limited the origins of ones cultural upbringing or

social status, rather all variables within the process of production are

influential, including the organizational, occupational, network, and community

structures that surround cultural producers. (2004:312) He cites six facets ofcultural production, six elements that, when tweaked, can influence the entire

creative industry: technology, law and regulation, industry structure,

organizational structure, occupational careers, and the consumer market.

(2004:313) One of the goals of this chapter is to pinpoint how and which of these

facets changed throughout the history of rap music, directing attention to

particular times and events that may have provided an ideological shift in the

production of the music. The first two facets are relatively straightforward

(technological changes bring about new capabilities in cultural communication


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and production innovation; law and regulations shape the rules for the

distribution of culture, who can and cannot serve as a cultural producer), though

the next four deserve some explanation.

Peterson argues that creative industries tend to be structured in three

ways:

There may be many small competing firms producing a diversity ofproducts, a few vertically integrated oligarchical firms that mass producea few standardized products, or a more open system of oligarchy composedof niche-market-targeted divisions plus many small specialty service andmarket development firms where the former produce the most lucrativeproducts and the latter produce the most innovative. (2004:316)

It is thus important to distinguish what kind of structure the rap music industry

originally assumed, and how this has shifted over time. The consumers and

producers that enter the rap music industry will help shape its structure along

with technological and regulatory advances, and will continue to contribute to its

ever-shifting state. It is likely that the hip-hop industry originated in a small

competitive form, though assumes others as it evolves over the years. This will

be investigated later in the chapter.

Petersons fourth facet is organizational structure, or how the creative

institutions that produce cultural systems are themselves constructed.

(2004:316) Again, Peterson argues three forms:

(a) the bureaucratic form with a clear-cut division of labor and a many-layered authority system committed to organizational continuity, (b) theentrepreneurial form having neither a clear-cut division of labor nor amany-layered hierarchy committed to short-term success, and (c) avariegated form of large firm that tries to take advantage of the potentialflexibility of the bureaucratic form without giving up central control byacquiring creative services through short-term contracts. (2004:316)


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The structure of record labels is a prime point of analysis when looking at

organizational structure, particularly in noting how they grew and reorganized

over time. Considering the assumption that the industry originated in a small

competitive form, I can further guess that record labels began in the

entrepreneurial, non-hierarchical form as proposed by Peterson. Technology,

laws, and regulations will also play a role in developing organizational structure,

and will contribute to their evolution towards the bureaucratic or variegated

forms as the music popularizes. This follows the trend that larger organizations

tend to exploit commerce and distribution better than smaller firms; that is, as

the music becomes more popular, the number of record labels decreases as their

size increases. (2004:316) This too will be investigated later.

Petersons fifth facet highlights the occupational careers of cultural

producers, particularly in how they interact within the creative organizational

structure. (2004:317) Peterson suggests an artists career is either influence fromthe top down, in which social patterns create predictive institutional paths for

a career, or bottom up, in which careers are competitive, chaotic and breed

cultural innovation. (2004:317) Following my assertions so far, I can assume that

rap artists started from the bottom up, birthed in a cultural chaos that

facilitates innovation and musical freedom, and then become increasingly more

subject to institutional pressures.

The final facet of Petersons nexus is the creative market. The creative

market is comprised of producers but shaped by consumer taste, where


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producers try to create, market, and sell creative goods that are most popular

with consumers. (2004:317-8) This introduces the idea of imitation, or how

producers begin to mimic what is popular and successful in the creative market.

(2004:318) Homogeneity results on the producer side, something I assume will

increase as the rap music industry market grows and becomes more lucrative to

enter.

The goal of this chapter is to build a chronology of the rap music industry

using Jeff Changs history in Cant Stop Wont Stop , complemented with

references from Cheryl Keyes Rap Music and Street Consciousness. After

building a comprehensive story, I will use Petersons six facets to discover

certain times or events that may have contributed to a cultural shift within the

industry. A shift in the process of cultural production will likely influence the

lyrical content or message of rap music as the role of the rapper changes. The

findings from this chapter will help orient my quantitative analysis towardsparticular timeframes and variables, and will allow me to apply the theory

developed in Chapter 1 for a discussion on cultural transformation.

A Hip-Hop History

The rap artist, as Cornel West has indicated, is a bridge figure who combines thetwo potent traditions in black culture: preaching and music. The rap artist

appeals to the rhetorical practices eloquently honed in African-Americanreligious experiences and the cultural potency of black singing/musical traditionsto produce an engaging hybrid. Michael Eric Dyson 3

Hip-hop did not always feature lyrical rappers; however, it is argued that

3 Dyson, Michael Eric. 2004. The Culture of Hip-Hop. Pp. 401-410 in The Michael EricDyson Reader. Cambridge, MA: Basic Civitas Books.


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lyrics propelled the explosion of hip-hops popularity. Raps lyrical history can

date back to institutionalized slavery, where rhyming and spoken poetic word

was used in storytelling, in conveying recognition of self-worth or personal

attributes. (Keyes 2004:22) The techniques of intonation, humorous storytelling,

and poetic rhyming date back to the 1800s, though it still lives on in raps

earliest MCs. (Keyes 2004:25) The impression of the rapper as a social and

cultural messenger motivates this study, prompting my investigation of the

variables that have transformed the rappers role. The rapper is embedded

within social and cultural environments that contribute to this role, though

when viewing culture from an industry perspective, I must first consider these

Petersonian factors.

Technology

Hip-hop originated in Jamaica. Dub reggae music was huge in Kingston inthe mid-1970s, and was centered on massive sound systems that organized the

party around the DJ. (Chang 2005:29) When the music took flight to New York

City, the block party was born an organized street gathering featuring DJs

who live-mixed popular funk, dance, and reggae tracks. (2005:78) These DJs

emerged after a peace treaty of gang violence, transforming violent

confrontations to a symbolic, musical competition in which the best DJs won by

having exceptional style, music, and a loud sound system. (2005:80)

The sound system blew up the urban music scene, but turntables enabled


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DJs to cut loops to feature the part of the music the audience loved most the

breaks. (2005:112) After DJs like Grandmaster Flash mastered the art, vocal

accompaniment surfaced in the form of multiple MCs, who would stir audience

energy with short rhymes and quips. (2005:113) The live style of the MC / DJ

musical relationship would ride out until 1979, when Rappers Delight became

the first hip-hop record ever cut, clocking in at 15 minutes long. (2005:131) The

song not only cut a full, three-hour performance down to a 15-minute segment, it

transported rap outside the clubs and into the hands of listeners, to consumers

outside the heart of the Bronx or Harlem. (2005:132)

Fast forward to the mid-1980s the already marginal DJ is again eclipsed

by technology with the introduction of the drum machine. (2005:229) The drum

machine and other sampling technology robbed the DJ of his duties and created

the role of a record producer, shrinking the size of rap groups down to one or two

people. (2005:229) The DJ suffered as hip-hop music shifted from the liveperformance to the record, as the emphasis was now placed on the rappers

energetic lyrics over the DJs live-mixing and scratching skills. (2005:133) The E-

Mu Emulator (1986) killed the tinny, sing-songy rap style, allowing rappers to

develop the fluid, intricate rhymes that dominated the rest of the century.

(2005:256) Here I observe the real birth of consumer rap, with rap music now

realized as a marketable product by record executives, with millions of potential

consumers and the possibility of record deals.

Keyes notes that vocal hip-hop music emerged during the economic


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constraints in inner city New York during the 70s that limited availability to

instruments of popular music of the time. (Keyes 2004:44) Funding cuts to New

York Citys public school musical programs reduced the number of instruments

in each school, with inner city schools facing the worst of the matter. (Keyes

2004:44) Essentially, limited access to technology bred the young hip-hop

generation to utilize their lyrics, their raps, and their rhymes as instruments.

Print media and the radio were massive popularity catapults for the

industry. In the early 80s, radio shows such as Chuck Ds Super Spectrum Rap

Show (1982) appealed to a variety of demographics, extended audience reach,

and often promoted local artists to success. (Chang 2005:237) In 1988, hip-hop

news publication The Source was born, compiling lists of hot rap songs and

artists, while becoming the magazine for hip-hop music, culture, and politics.

(2005:413) By 1991, The Source had a circulation of over 40,000, and would take

in over a million dollars in revenue by the turn of the millennium, thecirculation reached 500,000 readers, pulling in $30 million while outselling even

Rolling Stone. (2005:415) Both forms of media hold testament to the rising

popularity of rap music the radio certainly introduced rap music to wider

demographics, where magazines such as The Source created a devout readership

and lifestyle around hip-hop.

Before the development of the Soundscan data-tracking system, Billboard

and other music publications relied on industry and retail-provided numbers,

often subject to bribery called payola. (2005:416) The new system counted the


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number of sales of a record by tracking the barcode, a method that (when

Billboard switched to it) ended up propelling rap artists to the top of the charts.

(2005:416) The Soundscan system appropriately allocated praise to those in the

rap game who sold the most records the first Soundscan issue on May 25, 1991

showed that rap music was hitting the top of the charts. (2005:416)

Other, more recent technological innovations that Chang and Keyes have

not covered are the introduction and popularization of online music stores

(napster.com in 1999) and the rise of the mp3 player (late 1990s, early 2000s).

There is a potential that these innovations may have enabled a more personal,

decentralized source for music, thus playing into consumer preference more than

what airs on the radio or is offered by ones neighborhood record store.

Laws and Regulations

Though not exactly a law or regulation, the New York gang peace treatyin 1972 was an influential measure that built an urban solidarity, eliminating

the violent black-on-black crime characteristic for the era. (Chang 2005:61)

Distinguishing oneself from ones crowd now relied on style, which yielded a

competitive cultural environment from which b-boying, graffiti, and hip-hop took

its roots. (Chang 2005:64) A similar cultural movement happened with gangsta

rap on the West Coast in 1992 where, following a massive gang uprising, the

urban scene focused more on cultural and urban development than a fractured

gang scene. (2005:382; 2005:400)


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(2005:393)

Internal regulation by record companies followed this increased

awareness of vulgarity in rap music after issues with cop killing and other

obscene related lyrics, by 1992 major record labels (e.g. Time Warner) began

closely monitoring and sometimes prohibiting the release of some of their artists

songs and albums. (2005:398-9) Overall, the outcome was negative for rap artists

they either left their lucrative record label deals, or allowed their music to be

screened by the company. (2005:399)

The 1996 Telecommunications Act significantly influenced the music

industry in general, as it allowed for the deregulation of the radio business and

removed radio station ownership caps, leading to humungous consolidation

efforts. (2005:441) The major players in the radio business (Clear Channel,

Cumulus, Citadel, and Viacom) quickly dominated the airwaves, introducing a

bureaucracy that standardized radio playlists, cut DJs, and ultimatelytransformed a local industry into a nationwide phenomenon. (2005:442)

Independent, new, and local artists suffered from the legislation, often not

making it into radio station rotation circuits, and the role of the radio DJ shifted

from tastemaker to corporate dummy. (2005:443) The radio was no longer a

discovery source, but instead an engine to flame the hits that had already made

it or were approved by the corporate structure.

Industry Structure


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To investigate the structure of rap music as a creative industry, it is

simplest to look at the organization of rap artists and their affiliations with

record labels. Hip-hops origination as an urban, independent movement situates

its early years in the small, competing firms form. Chang describes the

environment after the first recorded rap single success in 1979:

Indie labels invested in researching and developing how to make hip-hop

music, specifically rap, fit the standards of the music industry, how to

rationalize and exploit the new product how to find, capture, package,

and sell its essence like a bottle of lightning. (Chang 2005:134)

In the early 80s, artists signed with white independent labels like Tommy

Boy, Profile, and Sleeping Bag. (2005:184) This was a change from the turn of

the decade, when popular acts such as Afrika Bambaataa and Kurtis Blow

signed with black independent labels the biggest difference between the two

was not in the racial ownership of the labels, but the motivated by moneyattitude. (2005:132; 2005:184) The shift in record label affiliation did not

necessarily compromise the innovation of the musical environment the labels

were still small and independent, organized around the artists product and in a

setting where an industry standard had yet to be established yet this was the

first time hip-hop music was brought to market. (2005:183; 2005:194) Rap music

became integrated in wildly popular hip-hop movies, clothing styles, and tour

performances, transforming what originally was an urban movement to a global

sensation. (2005:194) The economic success of the hip-hop industry did not


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sacrifice the artistic integrity or innovativeness of rappers, likely because of the

independence of the labels and the rappers preeminence within them. Even as

Def Jam went major by signing a deal with Columbia Records, the rap game

stayed ever-changing and diverse. (2005:204)

This may be a product of the fact that the rap industry was not

necessarily a cohesive unit. Though New York City generated the majority of the

early talent in the game, a very similar hip-hop development was sprouting up

on the West Coast, particularly in inner city Los Angeles. The two environments

were quite similar, rising out of conflicts with authority, brought to light after a

breakthrough success (Rappers Delight in NYC, Boyz-N-The-Hood in LA),

dominated by the urban youth, and eventually attracting attention from record

labels once its potential was realized. (2005:301-3; 2005:316-7) Nevertheless, the

two products were distinctly different in their style and aggressiveness, the West

Coast product skipped the dance rhythms and shot straight for the hard hittingdrum beats constructed by producers such as Dr. Dre. (2005:318)

As rap music popularized over the years, independent record labels were

pushed out or bought out. Up until 1996, the indie labels founded by the likes of

Eazy-E and Master P were dominating the rap music market overalls, the

indie labels owned more of a market share than the major labels. (2005:444)

This, along with some of the indie labels financial collapse, prompted the major

labels to go on a massive purchasing spree of their smaller competitors.

(2005:444) To compensate for these large purchases, the major labels invested in


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the sort of blockbuster-or-bust mentality gambling big bets on fewer artists

for huge payoffs departing from the old phenomena of low investment, big

profit luck. (2005:445)

Organizational Structure

Changing laws, regulations, and industry structure contributed to an

evolution in the organizational structure of the institutions that constitute the

rap music market. As rap music popularizes, I can anticipate growing

institutionalization, demonstrated by increased concentration of major labels in

the market and the deregulation of broadcast radio. The combination of the 1996

Telecommunications Act and the reaction to 1995-1996s peak market share by

independent labe

Documents

From Beat Street to Main Street: Exploring Cultural Landscapes in Rap Music, 1980-2000