For this week I read two journal articles, the first was “Digitizing Sociology: Continuity and Change in the Internet Era (2020)” by Pete Fussey and Silke Roth. This article talked about how the study of sociology through digital media still has certain key aspects like social structure, framing identity, etc. and what aspects have changed or are continuing to change as the advancement of digital media and technologies continue to adapt. Also highlights the social, political, and individual implications of these tools and how different groups utilize them to their advantage or to help the community. I chose this reading for the purpose to connect it with the idea of how hip-hop culture has evolved alongside the progression of digital media and technologies. Although the article focused more on the evolution and start of digital sociology, as well as its pros and cons, it still brought up questions such as: Does this make hip-hop culture more accessible, or at least the messages that conscious/political rap is trying to address? What is the relationship between the advancement of digital technology and media platforms with the rise and popularity of hip-hop today? How do digital technology and media help non-scholars dissect and analyze the world we’re in through other non-scholars?
The other article I read for this week was “The Signature of Hip Hop: A Sociological Perspective (2011)” by E. Jerry Persuad. This article, similar to the chapters I read for That’s the Joint!, went over the history and rise of hip-hop and rap. However, the difference with this article is that it focuses more on political/conscious rap that highlights individual, systemic, political, and other issues that people rap about. The author also notes rap starts as a “reflexive entertainment to cultural rearrangement (628)” as rap took on a medium of expression for social commentary. Another interesting discourse that this article provides is the ethnic group, the Griots of West Africa, who were “storytellers, poets, and traveling singers who played an important role in pre-colonial African societies”- this group, as the author states, used poetry and rhythm to teach others about their history (629). Basically, the author argues that the story-telling aspect of hip-hop has been ingrained in African tradition and culture for centuries and that hip-hop is a modern take on oral histories and oral storytelling. Additionally, this article addresses how the hip-hop movement in the early 90s (and arguably still prevalent today) was a global impact and how other cultures in different countries adopted hip-hop to express lived experiences. I found that this article was extremely important because it answers some of the questions I had for this project, like how music is a digestible way to consume and provides sociological insights between non-scholars.
The data for this week has inspired me to reflect on digestible mediums like literature or videos where I have applied sociological concepts or consumed sociological concepts from, whether sociological terminology is included or not. So for next week and the weeks following, I plan to look into songs, music videos, commentary about songs, and other media created by non-scholars that will hopefully address my questions about accessibility/digestibility.