Journal One

The Tanning of America: How Hip-Hop Created a Culture that Rewrote the Rules of the New Economy. Steve Stoute. New York: Gotham, 2011.

Volume 45, issue 2 (April 2012), p. 445-447

ISSN: 0022-3840, DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-5931.2012.932_6.x
Blackwell Publishing Ltd

        The article I chose is a book review of The Tanning of America: How Hip-Hop Created a Culture that Rewrote the Rules of the New Economy. The book was written by Steve Stoute but the article was written by Richard Schur of Drury University. This article summarizes the books ideas that hip hop is no longer just a genre of music but rather a culture. It has its own language, Behaviors, and customs. Hip Hop has been used in major marketing campaigns. Hip Hop artists have proven to be very influential over today’s society. Hip Hop artists have even been used to save or rebrand famous companies such as Ray Bans, Adidas, and McDonald’s.

This article is a summarized version of The Tanning in America. The book is a memoir on the life and career of Steve Stoute. Steve Stoute was the music group Kid ‘N Play manager and roadie. This article brings up very valid points that Hip Hop is no longer just a genre of music but a culture and lifestyle. There have been may brands that have used Hip Hop culture to influence consumers to buy their products. Hip hop music and artists are both commonly used in television commercials, radio ads, magazines, internet and newspapers. The brands mentioned in the article that have used Hip Hop music or artists to influence buyers are Adidas, Kangol, Reebok, and Tommy Hilfiger. There are many more top brands that have also used Hip Hop artists in their advertisements. Mountain Dew recently used Tyler the Creator in a television commercial and Ford Motors used Kelis in recent magazine advertisements. (Bunkley, 2006).

I absolutely agree with the author’s points in the article. Hip Hop has become a movement rather than just a genre of music. Hip hop music is now played on main stream radio and a lot of it is considered top forty music.  Hip Hop music has successfully broke into the main stream. The demographic of its listeners have also drastically changed over the last few decades. The article explains that race is losing its power and not as much of a defining factor for people anymore. I would agree with this and would also in fact agree that hip hop culture has something to do with it. I think that Hip Hop culture has helped transform social stigmas. 

I think this article discusses important changes in today’s society.  It did a nice job highlighting hip hop’s influence into this change but I do not however feel that his article in general is important. Marketing and advertising has indeed embraced the Hip Hop culture and is now commonly seen in the mainstream media. There have been many factors to the social changes that have happened over time.

References

Bunkley, N. (2006, December 22). ADVERTISING; Ford Is Moving the Edge Squarely to Center Stage. The New York Times. Retrieved December 12, 2013, from http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/22/business/media/22adco.html?_r=0

Schur, R. (2011). The Tanning of America:Hip-Hop Created a Culture That Rewrote the Rules of the New Economy. Book Reviews, 45, 445 - 447.