Beauty, Brains, But When The Beat Drops...: An Examination Of College Ages Women\u27s Uses and Rationalizations of Misogynistic Rap Music

Rap music is a genre that is flourishing in the music industry. The audience following rap music has allowed hip-hop culture to become highly profitable. With the growth of rap’s popularity among youth and young adults, many college-aged women have become avid listeners of this genre. While college-aged women seem to thoroughly enjoy commercial rap music, it is possible that women listening to music that constantly makes misogynistic references are not aware of all the offensive content in the music. It also may have a conscious or subconscious effect on how a woman may perceive herself and/or others. As a result, the question arises as to how college-aged women interpret and receive gratifications from misogynistic rap music. To carry out this study, I conducted ten ethnographic interviews with female students who attend The College of Wooster who listen to rap music five to seven days out of the week. Questions covered areas such as asking which rap artists and rap songs each woman listens to and how they respond to critiques about rap music being offensive towards women. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using concepts from scholarly literature on the origins of rap and its influence on mainstream culture. It was concluded that college-aged women receive gratifications from rap music despite the misogynistic content because they dissociate the lyrics from the music