Hip-Hop and Hyper-Commercialism
Hip-Hop and Hyper-commercialism
Simple beat, simple rhyme scheme, strong message. "Vans don't cost G's, real niggaz wear these Vans," says a member of The Pack in the music video aptly titled "Vans." You may be asking yourself, "So, what's the big deal?" The big, highly lucrative deal is the marriage between big name corporations and their partnership with hip-hop. It's nothing new: Run-DMC had "My adiddas", LL Cool J wore Kangol hats, and even Jay-Z incorporated drinking Cristal into his lyrics for a long period of time. With that being said, the new hip-hop generation of today faces many adversities from years and years of subliminal marketing within their own sub-culture. The effects of hyper-commercialism are evident in American culture in general, but especially noticeable within popular rap music and urban associated culture.
As an avid listener and creator of hip hop music, I have noticed a growing trend in the bay area: rap about what brands you wear. Whether it be Nike, Vans, Bape, or Dickies, the message seems clear: you are what you wear. Even the term "bling, bling" is so deeply associated with hip-hop that you can't say it without an image of a big, gaudy necklace popping into your head. And immediately after that, you think, "that's something a rapper would wear." It's no secret why. The hip-hop culture has been portraying a certain image since it's birth in the late 1970's and has been exploited by big name companies since then.
The music industry invests in what sells; companies and corporations sponsor artists who sell and are marketable to a wide, general audience. In the PBS documentary, Merchants of Cool, Naomi Klein states, "Quite simply, every company with a powerful brand is attempting to develop a relationship with consumers that resonates so completely with their sense of self that they will aspire, or at least consent, to be serfs under these feudal brandlords." With this being said, the question of why the hip-hop image is
Simple beat, simple rhyme scheme, strong message. "Vans don't cost G's, real niggaz wear these Vans," says a member of The Pack in the music video aptly titled "Vans." You may be asking yourself, "So, what's the big deal?" The big, highly lucrative deal is the marriage between big name corporations and their partnership with hip-hop. It's nothing new: Run-DMC had "My adiddas", LL Cool J wore Kangol hats, and even Jay-Z incorporated drinking Cristal into his lyrics for a long period of time. With that being said, the new hip-hop generation of today faces many adversities from years and years of subliminal marketing within their own sub-culture. The effects of hyper-commercialism are evident in American culture in general, but especially noticeable within popular rap music and urban associated culture.
As an avid listener and creator of hip hop music, I have noticed a growing trend in the bay area: rap about what brands you wear. Whether it be Nike, Vans, Bape, or Dickies, the message seems clear: you are what you wear. Even the term "bling, bling" is so deeply associated with hip-hop that you can't say it without an image of a big, gaudy necklace popping into your head. And immediately after that, you think, "that's something a rapper would wear." It's no secret why. The hip-hop culture has been portraying a certain image since it's birth in the late 1970's and has been exploited by big name companies since then.
The music industry invests in what sells; companies and corporations sponsor artists who sell and are marketable to a wide, general audience. In the PBS documentary, Merchants of Cool, Naomi Klein states, "Quite simply, every company with a powerful brand is attempting to develop a relationship with consumers that resonates so completely with their sense of self that they will aspire, or at least consent, to be serfs under these feudal brandlords." With this being said, the question of why the hip-hop image is
Cited: Blackalicious (Musicians). Shallow Days. Lyrics Retrieved December 18, 2006 from http://www.ohhla.com/anonymous/blackali/nia/shallow.blk.txt Coldplay (Musicians) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coldplay Keast, Darren. Hood TV. Published Feb 15, 2006 in the East Bay Express. [Article] Klein, Naomi