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Marc Lamont Hill - Beats, Rhymes, and Classroom Life
I recently added new titles at Hip Hop Research and one that caught my eye was Marc Lamont Hill's Beats, Rhymes, and Classroom Life: Hip-Hop Pedagogy and the Politics of Identity.
There's been a a lot of grassroots action connecting hip hop and education so it's nice to see some legitimizing work coming from a hot shot in the academic research establishment like Dr. Hill.
According to a recent Ad-ology Research study, Advertising's Impact in a Soft Economy:
"More than 48% of U.S. adults believe that a lack of advertising by a retail store, bank or auto dealership during a recession indicates the business must be struggling. Likewise, a vast majority perceives businesses that continue to advertise as being competitive or committed to doing business."
Definitely food for thought in a time when advertising budgets are being slashed left and right. Since some cuts are inevitable, looking at how one can maintain a presence in the public eye beyond advertising through public relations and smart viral marketing is also worth considering.
Yvonne Bynoe - Encyclopedia of Rap and Hip-Hop Culture
This has been a light week at ProHipHop between cable outages forcing me to use an excruciatingly slow dialup connection and the peaking of my allergy season. So I gave it the triply whammy and spent the day working on Hip Hop Research.
If you hadn't noticed my previous post on this project, basically I'm developing a blog-based book list of academic studies of hip hop with a few high quality related journalistic and photographic volumes thrown in for good measure.
I'm happy to report that I added the 51st title today and it's pretty impressive, not for what I've done but for what researchers giving serious attention to hip hop have accomplished. You can see the full list in the right hand column of the blog.
Though I'm working on this project as a first step towards an annotated bibliography, i.e. a reference book that a library-oriented press would put out, I think the blog itself will be a great tool for students, educators and researchers interested in hip hop. In particular, it's a very easy way for students dealing with sceptical teachers who don't realize that a lot of serious work has been done in this area to show that hip hop is a legitimate object of study.
The evidence speaks for itself unless you're dealing with a problem faculty member. In that case, best of luck!
Special thanks go out to MV at Hip Hop Lives for suggesting some newer volumes of which I was unaware.
I also discovered that The Hiphop Archive's website has greatly improved since the last time I checked it out. Of particular relevance to Hip Hop Research is the Hiphop University: Working Bibliography.
Hey, if you have an appropriate place to mention Hip Hop Research, please do. I think it's ready for folks to start spreading the word and it will only be useful if folks hear about it!
For the last few years I've intended to start work on an annotated bibliography of book-length academic studies focused on hip hop. Because such projects can be quite tedious, it's been easy to put off but I'm feeling the need to connect my hip hop blogging and my academic background and so I've launched Hip Hop Research as a way of kickstarting the project.
I'm going to keep things fairly simple at first and then build as I go.
In addition to some initial book posts, I've also posted a downloadable version of a paper I wrote for a collection development class I took a few years back while earning my MLS.
It's definitely a paper for a class but it may be useful for folks interested in what was out there and readily available at the time.
If you are an academic doing hip hop research, please contact me via the Hip Hop Research blog.
Though the annotated bibliography will focus on book-lenth projects, I'm open to posting or letting researchers guest post information on academic papers they've done for conferences or for publication.
I'm not planning on doing such research myself but I think such a project can help legtimize an emerging field while helping me tie some loose ends together.
Charlene Li, co-author of Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies, recently left her position as an analyst for Forrester Research and launched the Altimeter Group.
She discusses her new project on her blog:
"In the book Groundswell, Josh Bernoff and I took the confusing world of social technologies and boiled it down so that not only was it understandable, but also approachable and actionable for businesses."
"My goal is to continue providing that kind of thought leadership and insight primarily through writing, public speaking, and consulting. I'll be writing here on my blog, The Altimeter, and if I'm lucky enough to find a publisher again, a book. Speaking at both conferences and private corporate events will bring those ideas to a broader audience. And I'll also provide direct consulting through Altimeter Group to a small number of clients who need to tap into my thought leadership via a retainer relationship."
ProHipHop wishes Charlene Li the best of luck in her new endeavors.
Related ProHipHop Coverage:
Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies
Kanye West is apparently conducting one-on-one focus groups in airport settings for songs off the upcoming 808s & Heartbreak.
Jenny Lewis, of whom I've just now heard, singer in Rilo Kiley, of whom I've vaguely heard, said:
"We missed our flight and had to wait a couple of hours in the lounge...I noticed Kanye West was waiting for the same flight. He looked over and said, ‘Excuse me, would you mind listening to my new track?’ And so he put his headphones on my head and I listened to two of his new songs. He had no idea who I was. I guess he was doing research."
Combined with the Love Lockdown retake, presumably due to fan feedback, Kanye's showing an interesting responsiveness to the opinions of others. It's good to see him getting out of the lab and into the field.
Available via Amazon:
Kanye West - 808s & Heartbreak
Ypulse, the "leading independent blog for media and marketing professionals seeking to reach youth audiences", recently announced the launch of Ypulse Research:
"a neutral platform and channel within Ypulse.com, where youth-oriented research reports and white papers will be available for sale. Additionally, Ypulse Research provides unique advertising opportunities where research companies can promote their companies, studies and services via traditional online advertising units."
This is a nice look for Ypulse which is working with Modern Media Partners on the project. I like the fact that they're using blogging software for their catalog of research reports.
As a B2B play, Anastasia Goodstein began expanding Ypulse from a blog to a full-time business in 2006 including the Annual Ypulse National Mashup conference.
Tip via Lynne d Johnson.
Akon's criminal past has been exposed as a fraud by The Smoking Gun:
"Police, court, and corrections records reveal that the entertainer has created a fictionalized backstory that serves as the narrative anchor for his recorded tales of isolation, violence, woe, and regret."
Note: government records available to the public busted Akon. These guys are applying some basic research skills utilized everyday by journalists and librarians made much easier by the growing accessibility of such documents online.
David Carr at the NY Times recently included this angle in a profile of The Smoking Gun's three person operation:
"Mr. Bastone...said the idea for the site was his fascination with rummaging around courthouses and city property records and a notion that it might attract an online audience. Nowadays, that obsession finds expression on his desktop."
"'Sitting here, we can monitor cases and filings as if we were sitting in the courtroom,' he said. So far, the Smoking Gun crew is still doing the most looking."
"'We figure that people who come to the site sort of get it; we consider them to be sophisticated and in on the joke,' said Mr. Goldberg. 'But I would never have thought this far down the road that we would be all alone.'"
So who's up for tearing through all the rap game bullsh*t with some records research?
Brandweek reports on a survey of teens [11-18] conducted by teen oriented virtual world Habbo that I assume is the Global Habbo Youth Survey. However they are focusing on only the figures for U.S. teenagers which find that rap/hip hop is the favorite music genre of U.S. teens surveyed [brief reference near the end of the article].
Though the press release for the Global Habbo Youth Survey doesn't mention hip hop, it does have more about the larger research report including what Habbo's researchers claim to have identified as "five clearly defined behavioral segments amongst respondents".
This is the second such survey by Habbo parent company Sulake who conducted the first survey in fall 2006.
From Sulake's Blog:
Habbo’s Second Global Youth Survey reveals shake up in teens' favourite mobile brands
Coolfer has a nice response to the blog buzz study, Does Chatter Matter? The Impact of User-Generated Content on Music Sales, by Vasant Dhar and Elaine Chang, though he does refer to Chang only as a "former student" [pet peeve regarding the disappearance of second authors, but I digress].
Nevertheless Coolfer does briefly point out some of the limits of the study that most media outlets will ignore and he links to the sources.
Key point:
"Of course, a predictor may not be a cause for future sales. The researchers talked about this a bit and theorized that an unobserved variable (such as the quality of the artist) could cause both blog chatter and sales increases."
Which means that NYU's press release headline is inaccurate but that's how science becomes common knowledge.
Nice work, y'all! Except for that headline writer.
Press Release:
Blog Chatter Can Triple Future Sales of Music Albums According to New Study from NYU Stern
Info & Full Study:
http://archive.nyu.edu/handle/2451/23783
Link Suggested for Citation:
http://hdl.handle.net/2451/23783
Related Study by Elaine Chang:
I Heard It Through the Grapevine: The Effects of Online Word of Mouth on Music Sales
Note: This is her undergrad honors thesis. I think we'll be hearing more about Ms. Chang in the future.
I was reminded of the uproar regarding an interview with UMG CEO Doug Morris back in late November by a post at My Global Hustle Blog.
Everybody's calling him clueless* in some form and I usually take that route when dealing with such entities but if you're really wanting to understand what's going on and why choices that appear clueless have been inevitable for major labels, read the following:
The Innovator's Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book that Will Change the Way You Do Business
The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth
Seeing What's Next: Using Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change
I refer to Christensen and associates work from time to time and, now that I'm on the third book, I'll have to say it's taught me more about the current troubles of the music industry, without ever mentioning it, than any of the online writers I respect and that's saying a lot.
I would hesitate to point these books out because they speak directly to the current competition among online hip hop media outlets except for the fact that most of those people will scoff at the notion.
And thank goodness for that. It gives the rest of us a little room to build before big money hip hop media catches up and things get really nasty.
*I should note that in the Wired blog post and probably in other writings the term cluelessness was used because Morris said he didn't know much about technology and didn't know who to hire to take the company forward using technology. Considering how hard it is to evaluate and hire somebody with decent knowledge of PHP or Wordpress, why do people find it surprising that it's hard to evaluate and hire someone to lead a major initiative when any technical person at that level can bs their way through any tech discussion with a non-technical person?
A report from the Pew Research Center titled Blacks See Growing Values Gap Between Poor and Middle Class has a lot to consider. Here's what the full report [pdf, p. 6] says about black and white responses to questions about hip hop and rap:
On the Cultural Front: Rap Takes the Rap
On the popular culture front, the survey finds that while a plurality of blacks think the portrayal of blacks in movies and on television has improved in the past decade, a plurality also believes that these onscreen images remain, on balance, more hurtful than helpful to society’s image of African Americans.
However, blacks are far more troubled by the influence that rap and hip hop have on society than by the portrayal of blacks in movies and television. Blacks and whites by similarly lopsided margins say that these two relatively new music forms are having a bad influence on society – mainly because of offensive language, negative stereotyping of women, and glorification of violence. There are gender differences on these questions, and they play out in different ways among whites and blacks. Among whites, men are more likely than women to see hip hop and rap as a bad influence. Among blacks, the reverse is true – women are more likely than men to see a bad influence.
Here's how the chart breaks things down:
All Men Women
% saying % % %
Hip Hop is a bad influence:
Whites 64 68 59
Blacks 61 59 62
Rap is a bad influence:
Whites 74 79 70
Blacks 71 67 74
The questions on which these findings were based can be found on pages 85 to 87 of the full report.
The first questions were on hip hop:
In general, is HIP HOP music having a good influence, a bad influence, or not much influence at all on society today?
How often do you personally listen to hip hop music?
What’s the MAIN REASON you think HIP HOP music is having a bad influence on society?
These three questions are then followed by three questions substituting RAP for HIP HOP.
Normally in a survey of this sort such questions would be asked without any kind of explanation from the researchers [which would throw things off] or from those being surveyed [they aren't allowed free form responses]. Given that there is absolutely no consensus on the difference between rap and hip hop, except within the linguistic rules of distinct subcultures, these questions add a problematic level of confusion.
Very unscientific maneuver, in case you're wondering, and one that will confuse the heck out of most journalists.
I've got a phone message in and hope to find out more soon.
Via Miraflor.
When I read the press release from Nielsen.com I thought Hey! Nielsen was a bad idea:
"Hey! Nielsen gives lovers of pop culture an opportunity to sound off online and to make their voices heard by decision-makers," said Karen Watson, Senior Vice President of Communications at The Nielsen Company, and Executive Sponsor of Hey! Nielsen.
"If you're passionate about any aspect of the entertainment world, you will find like-minded consumers on Hey! Nielsen. We hope this will be a fun place to share opinions and discuss your favorite shows, movies and music. And because we will be providing our clients with insights from Hey! Nielsen members, joining the network is a way to let the entertainment industry know what you think."
A social network that gives me the opportunity to bond with "like-minded consumers" as we "let the entertainment industry know" what we think!
When I go to the site, Hey! Nielsen: Opinions, it doesn't seem so horribly misguided or off-putting:
Hey! Nielsen is the place to make a name for yourself while trading opinions on TV, movies, music, personalities, web sites and more.
Hey! Nielsen looks nice and combines some good ideas. Obviously it's a smart dataplay for Nielsen if the social network attracts participants. Now let's just keep the VPs away from the mic and try to remember that if you want to communicate with folks who might participate in your social network, calling them something other than consumers is a simple but effective place to start.
Since Nielsen does seem to want to push the idea that participants can have an effect on what big media makes, messaging should clearly communicate that participants are powerful partners whose actions have real effects [if that's actually the case] rather than content generators who periodically drop some feedback in the digital suggestions box by voicing an opinion or taking a poll.
Hey! Nielsen has a blog.
Winners of the most recent round of Nieman Foundation journalism fellowships include:
[James] Causey, night city editor at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, [who] plans to study "the marketing/advertising strategies of the hip-hop industry and examine their impact on America's central cities and cities throughout the world."
That's right! Now you too can analyze long tails with the help of Kalevi Kikki via the latest issue of First Monday.
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