According to Crothers the first step in understanding the effects that American popular culture artifacts may have on other cultures is to identify the American cultural values in the artifacts.What is the culture hidden in the popular music genres. Crothers covers three prominent American music genres: country, rock and hip-hop and also identifies the cultural values in the music.
Do you agree with Crothers' analysis?
Country Music
"Country has long prided itself on reflecting the lives of real people, particularly working-class, rural Americans. Country’s topics have chronicled the struggles of the individual as he or she tries to make it in a dead-end job, in a difficult marriage, or even through addiction to drugs or alcohol."
"Additionally, country regularly sings the virtues of hard work, traditional love, the glory of a loving family, and unabashed patriotism. The real America, country seems to say, is the America in which people struggle but take responsibility for their personal fates. Americans fight for their honor and dignity as ends all their own."
Rock Music
"At its heart were energy, excitement, and rebellion. Rock musicians tapped into their fans’ adolescent dreams".
"Rock, after all, expresses rebellion, energy, and individualism—as do teenagers. The causality seemed self-evident: children who were once compliant and sweet."
Hip-Hop Music
"If country celebrated traditional values and patriotism, and rock and roll energized the ambitions of a generation to change the world, hip-hop expressed the anger and frustration of a long-repressed community that had many grievances in what it described as a racist America."
"Hip-hop also reflected a raw form of street sexuality in which suggestive language was common. Other performers offered explicit accounts of their sexual desires and fantasies."
Do you agree with Crothers' analysis? What would you change or add? Support your argument.
So, if we can agree that "hidden" in the music are certain American cultural values, then so what? Why is that important? What's this have to do with the effects thing discussed earlier?
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