Music and Themes of Popular Culture

Music is a very powerful medium through which popular culture is conveyed. As such, I feel that a lot of the concepts we hold today from popular culture can be traced, to some extent, to music. I feel an excellent example of this is the concept linking violence to male masculinity. This is on display in full force in rap music. Rappers talk about violence as a way to solve conflict and get respect. By threatening violence the rappers hope to get across a 'tough guy' image, which too often is associated with being a 'man'.