Global Hip Hop

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• histories of hip hop within distinct social contexts
• the impact of musics on broader social phenomena
• relevant theoretical approaches to the study of hip hop music cultures
• aesthetic, social and ethical questions associated with hip hop in various contexts

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• engage critically with thematic ideas about hip hop music cultures and transfer these ideas effectively between distinct contexts
• discuss critically how social phenomena impact on and contribute to understanding hip hop, and and vice versa

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• gather information independently from a cross-section of disciplinary resources
• assemble case studies under a thematic umbrella and apply a unified theoretical approach

A series of topics will be presented over the semester with each topic examining hip-hop within distinct social contexts. Examples of questions/issues that may be explored include:

• How do histories of hip-hop relate to transnational flows, to the US civil rights and black power movements? How is authenticity articulated in hip-hop cultures?
• How might we understand sexist, homophobic and violent manifestations of hip-hop?
• How are identities created via sampling, music and language?
• How have local ideas about ‘blackness’, ethnicity, class, sexuality and gender, age, commercialisation, nation, politics, and religion intersected with hegemonic hip-hop ideologies?

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include

• Lectures
• Discussion
• Sharing of ideas and materials via Blackboard and other electronic resources

Learning activities include

• A wide range of reading (certain books and articles will be required reading)
• Study of selected audio and video recordings
• Individual research

Resources & Reading list

General Resources

Hartley Library audio/visual reserves.

Hartley Library reserves.

Module Blackboard site.

Textbooks

Murray Forman and Mark Anthony Neal (2012). That's the Joint! The Hip-Hop Studies Reader. New York: Routledge.

Eric S Charry (2012). Hip Hop Africa: New African Music in a Globalizing World. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Mark Katz (2012). Groove Music: The Art and Culture of the Hip-Hop DJ. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Ian Condry (2006). Hip-Hop Japan: Rap and the Paths of Cultural Globalization. Durham: Duke University Press.

Dipannita Basu and Sidney J Lemelle (2006). The Vinyl Ain't Final: Hip Hop and the Globalization of Black Popular Culture. London: Pluto.

Tony Mitchell (2001). Global Noise: Rap and Hip-Hop Outside the USA, Music/Culture. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press.

Assessment strategy

Include details of the proportion and weighting of coursework as well as the number, type and duration of examination(s). You must specify which element will be taken as the final assessment.

Formative

This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.

Outline

• Assessment Type: Formative
• Feedback:
• Final Assessment: No
• Group Work: No

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External