With the excitement of posting my first tweet on my newly found page ‘DeGraaffSt Sounds,’
all I thought about was my success. Although this didn’t seem to be the case.
Initially, my idea was to make a music journalism page, where I provided insights on up-and-
coming artists on their successes through the pandemic. With a hopeful attitude, I began
creating my page, designing and manufacturing what my theme of the project was going to
look like. Throughout the ideation phase, I soon discovered that this creative direction was
not the one for me.
Ideating and prototyping
I brainstormed a number of ideas for my first tweets. This included sharing the exciting news
of Tyler The Creator’s Australian Tour announcement and sparking conversation around
who would be attending and sharing weekly playlists with my audience.
The pure excitement and anticipation around an international artist actually coming to
Australia following a rough year of lockdowns across the country was what motivated me to
share this announcement with my audience.
Despite the initial hype, after publishing my tweet, I received no comments of interest. This
left me realising that I needed to connect with a more like-minded audience. With this in
mind, I decided to reach out to my university community through my personal Twitter
account, asking if anyone else is focusing on the music scene for their D/A.
Despite finding common interests, I still didn’t find myself enjoying the constant uploads.
After many attempts to secure a consistent and vibrant audience, I found difficulty in sharing
insights with such a short character limit and realised that Twitter was not the best platform
to engage with my key audience.
With even such big brands like Whatslively, Splendour, and Buzzfeed already struggling to
engage audiences throughout this period of lockdowns and no live music, I proceeded to
self-evaluate my Twitter page and found that it would be best to switch up my digital artifact.
Out with the old…in with the new.
In order for me to be passionate and productive with my Digital Artefact, I needed to shake
things up.
My new aim for De GraaffSt Sounds is to create numerous blog posts on how artists,
specifically in the rap industry, deal with misconceived perceptions in the media. I see it on
the news all the time, rap artists being imprisoned for gang-related crimes, gun or drug
possessions along with other narcotics. The media can overturn viewpoints and perceptions
of these artists to create a negative outline, associating the entire genre with these issues.
My aim for the blog posts is to create an illustration for any audience on the social injustices
these artists face, through a lack of institutional aid, opportunities to succeed in school, and
what the media portrays these artists to be. The generality of drug dealing, and gang
violence does not disclose the actions of hip-hop members, and instead is more mirroring of
economic opportunities that the ones in poverty are forced to comply with (Andrew Cashman
2020).
New Position statement
From my experience in music journalism and following studying this throughout my first year
of university, I know that the problem of the overrepresentation of rap artists through media
exists. With these issues in mind, my aim is to make blog posts that focus on the range of
hardships faced across the music industry.
I will go about this by gaining insight into the media's ability to create negative perceptions and compare this towards these said upbringings of artists involved. This project will help me spread awareness of the social injustices faced and gain insight into the stories behind my favorite artists.
Overall, I know the change of ideas will be more beneficial for my interest in music.
Posting about issues that I am passionate about will make me more productive and
inspired, as I share insights with a new audience on the misrepresentations faced by
these artists day in, day out.
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