Nearing the submission of our digital artifact, It was important to gather a wide range of information on my social media accounts to relate back to the injustices in the rap world. This was a key rationale behind my beta approach.
Forming a Twitter account was very new to me, I’d never been on this application before, let alone posted frequent updates. I found adding questions to Twitter to be quite challenging in terms of creating an unbiased opinion, it seems most of my Twitter followers are fellow BCM114 students, making it hard to form opinions from an outside audience. So I did what any Gen Z would do, I took to Instagram.
Heading to my Instagram I decided to upload numerous stories which asked for opinions on the long-lasting negative portrayal of rap. These answers helped to create a greater range of understanding for my feedback loop.
I asked the question ‘‘Do you think there’s a negative connotation surrounding rap artists?”, the question is given on Instagram didn’t provide me with enough characters to properly ask my question, therefore I added on “in relation to artists being perceived to promote violently and gang propaganda."
The feedback I received throughout my Instagram and Twitter posts was vital in gaining an understanding of a focus point, this focus point being intergenerational views. A post I made on Twitter asking ‘would you let your children listen to rap music?’ displayed 12 votes, 83% of these voters said they would be 17% clicked no. After realising how obvious the voting predictions would be if I continuously got the viewpoints of students my age, I knew I had to engage an older demographic.
My aunty came over to drop off some packages and I knew this was the perfect time for me to question her beliefs on rap music, moral outcry. She’s a very sound lady who respects the music cultures of the greats such as Bob Dylan, Eddie Vedder, and other rock/country singers. When her for her opinions of rap music, she brought up raising her own children and the thought of raising a child who swore from a young age, promoted violence, and was derogatory towards women, in which she said ‘that’s what’s raps promotes’.
My aunty's response was exactly what I anticipated it to be, although I do not completely agree with her viewpoints, I understand where she is coming from. This point speaks to a deeper meaning, in some cases, listeners do not take the time to understand and appreciate the meaning behind lyrics.
You beta listen to my presentation below.