Teenage sexual attitudes, norms, desires and intentions: The impact of preferred musical genres

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.This thesis focuses on teenage sexual attitudes and norms as moderated by their preferred music genre. The research questions addressed here are: What are the genre differences in lyrical representations of relationships and male and female characteristics? What are young peoples' perceptions of the impact of these genre differences on their lives? How does genre preference influence teenage safer sex attitudes, desires, norms, control, group identity and intentions? Three studies investigated these research questions. Firstly, the lyrics to 50 songs across five genres were rated on a number of dimensions. Relationships in hip hop are significantly different to relationships in pop; in the former they are presented as more casual, exploitative, sexual and impulsive. They are portrayed in the latter as more committed, nurturing, romantic and responsible. Secondly, six focus group discussions were conducted with 41 young people aged 14-19 years. It was found that influence from music is heavily denied. However, it became apparent that preferred genre and artists influence all aspects of teenage lives and culture; specifically, music functions as an educational tool into adult relationships. Music assists in the transition from childhood to adulthood with genre preference used as a marker of maturity. Thirdly, an omnibus questionnaire utilising theory of planned behaviour and social identity/self categorisation theory constructs examined genre preference and safer sex attitudes, norms and intentions. It was found that hip hop listeners are significantly more likely to choose condom use as their preferred safer sex method than listeners of pop music. Perceived behavioural control did not add to the predictive power in this model. Overall conclusions suggest that visual and aural music should be incorporated into sexual risk preventing interventions because preferred music genres and artists can elucidate teenage sexual attitudes, norms and desires.This work is funded by the ESRC

The role and significance of street capital in the social field of the violent youth gang in Lambeth

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Professional Doctorate in Youth JusticeMuch recent UK gang research has failed to adequately answer: do gangs exist and if so, are they organised? internal gang dynamics, criminal behaviours and motivations for joining remain largely unexplored; as does the upsurge in violent crime in gang-affected areas of south London. This research set out to answer these questions by investigating gangs in Lambeth, their activities and the daily experiences of those affiliated to them. The study begins by profiling the case study area, currently prevalent street gangs and links to violent crime. The investigation then examines in detail inter-gang and intragang dynamics and community relationships. A further objective is to establish whether, and if so to what extent, gangs were expanding and becoming more deeply embedded in the neighbourhood. This work situates contemporary UK gang research within the literary arc of classic and contemporary US gang research, from Chicago School to Hagedorn. Current UK studies are categorised into three distinct arguments, then critiqued from a Left Realist perspective. Addressing the question, how do we explain an increase in gang related violence?, the work establishes the gang as a social arena (field) of competition where actors struggle for distinction. But what are the characteristics and boundaries of this social -Field? What motivates young people to enter it, and how do you succeed within it? How significant are personal relationships and networks? What is the role of social capital and how do you become a competent actor in this field? These issues are explored using the theoretical perspectives of social field analysis and habitus from Bourdieu alongside various elements of social capital theory. An inductive ethnometholdogy was adopted. The paper presents findings from 30 qualitative interviews of residents, professionals and gang -affiliated young people in Lambeth. The ethical challenges of gang research, such as access and anonymity are addressed. The findings support the proposition that gangs in south London exist, are active and internally organised into three structural tiers. Success within the field is determined by building and maintaining Street Capital -a tradable asset. To acquire this, members strategise by employing tested techniques from the Gang Repertoire, derived from the habitus. Youngers and Olders employ different Repertoires. All actors within the social field are subject to sanctions with new arrivals at increased risk. The field is highly gendered and girls are central to the gang strategising using information and the gang Network. Importantly the findings support the argument that gangs in Lambeth are evolving and becoming more embedded. Increased gang related violence is an outcome of new dynamics in social field, including the imperative to acquire Street Capital and the role of new technology. Increased tensions and violence have cumulative stressful impacts for young people. To address this, they increasingly risk manage their lives through self exclusion or a fatalistic immersion in the social field

Globalisierung und Lokalisierung von Rapmusik am Beispiel amerikanischer und deutscher Raptexte

[no abstract

Southern Accent September 2001 - May 2002

Southern Adventist University\u27s newspaper, Southern Accent, for the academic year of 2001-2002.https://knowledge.e.southern.edu/southern_accent/1079/thumbnail.jp

Sonic Bodies: the Skills and Performance Techniques of the Reggae Sound System Crew

This research project describes the performance techniques of the reggae sound system crew in the dancehall session. These are held until dawn every night of the week on the streets of inner city Kingston, Jamaica. The research question asked is: how does a sound system work? The methodology is one of participant observation - what the crew do, with what, and with whom - as well as participant listening. This attunes the research to the auditory qualities of the sounds that the crew describe in recorded interviews, as well as the nuances of the idiomatic expressions they use and their tone of voice. Taking Jamaica's longest running and best-established sound system, Stone Love Movement as a case study, the research concentrates on the roles of three crewmembers in particular. These "sonic bodies" are: the audio engineers who design, build, finetune and maintain the hugely powerful sound system "sets" of equipment; the selectors responsible for the choice of recorded music played to the "crowd" (audience) in the session; and MCs (or DJs) who introduce the music and "build the vibes. " The crew's skilled performance techniques are investigated in relation to the phonographic instrument of the "set" of equipment for making sound, together with the media of sound, music and voice for diffusion of the vibrations to the crowd. These occur at three vibrating frequencies: the material waveband of the mechanics of auditory propagation and hearing itself; the corporeal waveband of the embodied kinetic rhythms of the crowd's dancing and crew's performance; and the ethereal waveband of the "vibes" or social and cultural meaning of the dancehall session and entire scene. Rather than the conventional technological, cultural and social "factors, " it is suggested that the crew's skills and techniques "make sense" of all these frequencies with expert evaluations, as the basis of their connoisseurship (Polanyi) or their logic of practice (Bourdieu). The engineer "just knows" when their fine-tuning is complete; the selector has a "gut feeling" when to repeat a track; and the MC "judges" the exact timing of the punch line. It is concluded that the crew's techniques are best understood as embodying a kind of rationality that pivots on ratio, analogia and proportion, rather than concepts of disembodied logic, representation or calculation. Thus the crew's evaluative techniques provide evidence for understanding the workings of the sound system as an apparatus for the propagation of vibrations

Bowdoin Orient v.105, no.1-24 (1975-1976)

https://digitalcommons.bowdoin.edu/bowdoinorient-1970s/1006/thumbnail.jp

A Discourse-Analytic Approach to the Study of Information Disorders: How Online Communities Legitimate Social Bonds When Communing Around Misinformation and Disinformation

Information disorders have become prevalent concerns in current social media research. This thesis is focused on the interpersonal dimension of information disorders, in other words, how we can trace, through linguistic and multimodal analysis, the social bonding that occurs when online communities commune around misinformation and disinformation, and how these social bonds are legitimated to enhance perceived credibility. Social bonding in this thesis refers to a social semiotic perspective on the shared values that communities use to construe alignment with others. False information can spread when groups have a shared vested interest, and so information disorders need to be elucidated through an investigation of sociality and bonding, rather than via logical points alone. The term ‘information disorder’ encompasses the spectrum of false information ranging from misinformation (misleading content) to disinformation (deliberately false content), and it is within this landscape of information disorders that this thesis emerges. Two key forms of social semiotic discourse analysis were applied to a dataset of YouTube videos (n=30) and comments (n=1500): affiliation (analysis of social bonding) and legitimation (analysis of resources used to construct legitimacy). The dataset constituted two contrasting case studies. The first was non-politically motivated misinformation in the form of an internet hoax leveraging moral panic about children using technologies. The second was politically motivated conspiracy theories relating to the Notre Dame Cathedral fire. The key findings of this thesis include the multimodal congruence of affiliation and legitimation across YouTube videos, the emergence of technological authority as a key legitimation strategy in online discourse, and the notion of textual personae investigating the complex array of identities that engage with information disorders in comment threads. Additionally, six macro-categories were identified regarding communicative strategies derived from comment threads: scepticism, criticism, education and expertise, nationalism, hate speech, and storytelling and conspiracy. This shows not only how information disorders are spread, but also how they can be countered. The method outlined in this thesis can be applied to future interdisciplinary analyses of political propaganda and current global concerns to develop linguistic and multimodal profiles of various communities engaging with information disorders