CAT 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Players Ball, Redneck, Babyface (Musician)
Bennett: Neo-Tribes
● Personal identity as shifting between different ‘sites’
○ Groupings are a ‘site’ where identity is formed temporarily
○ Who we are depends on who we are with
● Groups cannot be perceived as stable or permanent
○ Challenging a central tenant of ‘subculture’
● Drawing from Maffesoli - “lifestyles that favor appearance and form”
● Neo-tribes differing from tribes (e.g. counter-culture, gangs) due to ‘loose affiliations’
Bennett: Neo-tribe as lifestyle
● Lifestyle - a product of consumerist choices
○ Not the way one lives one life
● People can experiment with different lifestyles
○ And thus different identities
● “The central implication here is that a fully developed mass society liberates rather than
oppresses individuals by offering avenues for individual expression through a range of
commodities and resources which can be worked into particular lifestyle sites and
strategies
West Coast and Gangster Rap
● NWA, Ice-T
● The return of socially critical lyrics framed by criminal and misogynistic culture
○ A realistic portrayal of South Central LA, or a stereotype?
● Portrayed in movies: Boyz n the Hood, Colors
● Nationwide recognition despite lack of radio or tv airplay
● Later evaluation
○ Celebration of low-rider culture
○ Moves away from overt gang references back towards “toasting” style
The West Coast Sound
● “G-Funk”
○ Live instrumentation, recreating past songs and hooks
○ Synthesizer melodic lines
○ Addressing frustration of paying just for rights to use a little bit of a break
■ Composer and mechanical copyright
● Sampling points back to towards early 1970s funk and soul
○ A signifier for the frustrations and anger from both eras
○ Bridge between early 1990s and early 1970s
● Ice T - “I’m Your Pusher” drawing from Curtis Mayfield’s “Pusherman”
The “Dirty South”
● Emerging in the early to mid 1990s, differentiated form East Coast and West Coast
stylizations
○ Southern artists typically associated with or related to East Coast style
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Document Summary
Personal identity as shifting between different sites". Groupings are a site" where identity is formed temporarily. Who we are depends on who we are with. Groups cannot be perceived as stable or permanent. Drawing from maffesoli - lifestyles that favor appearance and form . Neo-tribes differing from tribes (e. g. counter-culture, gangs) due to loose affiliations". Lifestyle - a product of consumerist choices. Not the way one lives one life. The central implication here is that a fully developed mass society liberates rather than oppresses individuals by offering avenues for individual expression through a range of commodities and resources which can be worked into particular lifestyle sites and strategies. The return of socially critical lyrics framed by criminal and misogynistic culture. Portrayed in movies: boyz n the hood, colors. Nationwide recognition despite lack of radio or tv airplay. Moves away from overt gang references back towards toasting style. Live instrumentation, recreating past songs and hooks.
