Year 13 Critical Investigation Proposal

Working title

The title of my critical investigation is - "How are violence, sex and drugs represented in Rap music through artists such as ‘Chief Keef’ and what is the effect on the audience?" I chose this question as I felt it was something i was passionate about and I liked looking into the representations. 

Angle

The angle I am focusing on looks into how hip hope music affects audience particularly in a negative way on younger audience aged 16-21. In order to help me with this I will be looking into representational theories as my critical investigation focuses on music artists such as Chief Keef. I will also be looking into different things such as audience pleasures and desensitization.

Hypothesis

Ultimately they are represented in a very negative way, rap music is sometimes seen in a positive way however the new generation of inspired rap music has perhaps created a negative misrepresentation of rap music as a whole.

Linked production piece

News style documentary on the effect rap music has had on certain people (Biased and negative)

Interview with rapper can respectively give an alternate view to the negativity surrounding rap music

MIGRAIN

Media representations

My investigation focuses on Chief Keefs music videos particularly – ‘Love sosa’ which is a video that has struck the younger audience particularly. He is presented as a gangster and a criminal as well as talking about killing enemies and portraying women as sex objects which arguably is the dominant representation of women within the hip hop industry.

Media audiences

The audiences for the chief keef video attract those who are able to identify to the rapper chief keef and so those who live or lived the in the same geo-demographic as him in Chicago. The primary audience for this would be male teenagers aged 18 who aspire to be like chief keef as well as those who have a socio economic classification of E.

Media institutions

As expected the institution behind the record has a great impact as to the final outcome of the video. The institution need chief keef the artist to target his audience to the best of his abilities and also reach out to larger audiences in order for them to be considered successful and so they place certain iconography in the video such as guns in order for this to take place.

Genre

The genre of this can go under hip hop and rap however is considered to be ‘trap’ which is a new type of music that the younger generation call when they listen to music associated with murder, crime and violence. Confirmation of these genres is through the

SHEP

SOCIAL –

The video has a social impact on men. It creates a social pressure for those chief keefs age to dress and act like him by acting in a similar way to him by pursuing a violent and sexist nature in order to fit in with the society.

HISTORICAL –

This video has quite a historical impact as there has been many representations in the past of things that chief keef presents in his video such as a sexist attitude towards women as well as violence within those regions of Chicago and other parts of America. As well as this another historical impact this video has is the dominant black male representation which has been around for a long while that they are dangerous and criminals and this video is able to present this historical representation.

ECONOMICAL –

It is arguable that there is a certain pressure upon rap artist to reach out to a larger demographic in order to obtain sales and make money by appealing to the audience’s needs.

POLITICAL -

Apply the Wider Contexts to your text/topic, including at least three bullet points on each one.

Issues/Debates

As expected their are many stereotypes and representations within chief keefs music and so i will pick 5 and explain how they link to my media study.

The first is black males stereotype this relates to my study as chief keef himself is a black male and so it means that he could be considered a criminal and dangerous due to this stereotypes and also by his lyrics

The second is moral panic, chief keefs music can create moral panic as his music is being spread rapidly amongst a huge demographic and he has been affiliated with many unlawful activities and thus means moral panic amongst parents as to if their children will be influenced takes places.

This debate of tv regulation takes place within chief keefs music some of the things presented in his video such as guns are shown in his video without being censored and so the audience is able to see everything, this cause a negative effect on the audience.