Is Eminem Safe?

Paper Summary:

Today's pop culture is more heavily based on music than ever before in history. The advent of music videos and the Internet has made music one of the most prevalent features in society. One of the most omnipresent genres of music today is hip-hop. No longer simply an underground form of urban music, hip-hop today is utterly pervasive in the global youth community. What began as a means of expression for the disenfranchised blacks of the South Bronx area has evolved into a multi-billion dollar industry that influences every thing from prime time television to fashion (Taylor) to the way an entire subculture thinks, speaks, and feels. No matter what corner of the globe, if music videos are played. and CDs are sold, hip-hop has had an impact on that society The question then becomes whether that impact has been positive or negative. This paper explores one of the most successful hip-hop artists, Eminem, in an attempt to answer this question. A brief historical synopsis of hip-hop is given, as well as an overview of Eminem. From there, the media's take on Eminem is explored, along with his effect on today's youth. Finally, other hip-hop artists are presented, and the paper shows how they too have affected an entire generation of global youth.

From the Paper:

"Eminem falls into the sub-genre of hip hop music deemed "gangsta rap". As Haugen notes, this style of hip hop music that has made Eminem such a success, uses drugs, guns, crime (such as: murder, robbery, rape, etc.), and promiscuous sex to display a "gangsta" image, to the listener. The challenge with Eminem's music is that his portrayal of these societal ills as "cool" affects his millions of fans, who happen to be primarily youth. These youth are not equipped with the reasoning skills (McCrillis) to determine on their own that these are inappropriate behaviors, and as such accept them as normal and eventually, right."

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