Background Information

The objective of my research is to study and analyze whether or not gangster rap music affects an individuals ability to recall information.There are 6 main categories that help to explain the purpose of my research. These categories include: Gangster rap music and the Hip-hop culture, Stress, Memory, Hostility and the Black family/ Black culture.

Gangster Rap Music and the Hip-Hop Culture

Rap music represents the efforts of people of all nationalities, races, genders, religions, and ages. But, primarily rap music is the voice of the youths of today's society. Rap music is one of the four main forms of expressions categorized as being Hip-Hop. Hip-Hop music is arguably the most verbal, boisterous forms of musical expressions ever seen in history. Rapping is the art of writing and performing rhymes. Rhymes are written words placed to music to relay a story. Rap music is a story. Rap is a story of experiences, tragedies, comedies, loves and losses. The artist performing the rap creates and plans the rhymes to his song with intentions to tell a story while the disc jockey provides the music.

The late 1970s and the early 1980s marked the beginning of the phenomena we know identify as rap music. Rap music emerged out of the streets of the poor neighborhoods of the South Bronx and Brooklyn. This popular form of music has gotten some of its uniqueness and flare from traditional African drums, punk rock, disco, rock and roll, and West Indian beats. All these forms of music have had a huge impression on rap and what it is today.

The very essence of rap, as stated earlier, arose from the ghettos of New York City. Rap music is a symbolic representation of the feelings and thoughts rappers have toward social ills that they are faced with each day. Rap music allows individuals to fully address their feelings towards different issues freely and artistically.

There are definitely distinct differences present when a comparison is made between early day rap music, pop rap music and gangster rap music. The music of the early 1980s created the mold for rap music. When rap music first entered the scene, it was used to entertain people and put a smile in their face and put joy in their heart. In those times, rap music was considered a fun act of persuasion and it was categorized by a rappers ability to syncopate to a beat and accurately relay their story. This type of music was an activity performed to pass the time and stay out of trouble. It was and still is a extremely creative activity.

Pop rap music is a term used to classify rap music that is softer and less aggressive than songs produced by gangster rap artists. Pop rap music involves beats and lyrics that are way more socially acceptable than lyrics performed by gangster rappers. Examples of pop rap music artists are Will Smith, Run DMC, Christian rap and many others. The main definition of a pop rap tune is a song that doesn't have any foul language in it and that doesn't discuss so vividly the problems faced in everyday life. Gangster rap music is political, empathetic and rough while pop rap music is jovial, simplistic and non-aggressive. In no way am I stating that all gangster rap music has curses in them, but most of them do.

Gangster rap music breaks all the traditional music barriers. There is no huge similarity between present day gangster rap music and earlier day rap music. Nor is there a huge similarity between pop rap music and gangster rap music. One comparison that all forms of rap music have is the intention to entertain and educate those people who listen and appreciate rap. One characteristic that separates gangster rap music from all the other forms is that gangster rap music openly and vividly discusses death, murder, drugs, sex and crimes. Songs that have been categorized as being gangster rap have bad-mouthed and disrespected women and have detailed and glamorized plots of murder. Critics of gangster rap music have stated that present day artists have transformed a form of expression into a genre of music that is extremely violent and dangerous. But rap music, since its inception, has received constant strife from both its critics and listeners who have claimed that rap was too harsh, too monotonous and lacking in melodic value. In opposition, those individuals in support of the controversial style of music found an immediate attraction to rap music and were instantly connected to it. They felt that it directly relates and addresses their day-to-day reality in the ghetto in a confrontational way that was never tried before. Of all the many categories of hip-hop music, gangster rap has most aggressively narrated the paths and possibilities, the fantasies and fears, of poor black urban youths.

Supporters of rap music say that both society and the media fail to acknowledge the affect of music and the actual importance of it. Gangster rap music is frequently rebuked and censored by those who hear in it only violence and explicit sex and offensive lyrics. Critics and censors of the music point out and focus on the violence, materialism, discrimination and sexual transgression so often portrayed and commercialized in modern music. Critics have also said that the lyrics in rap music that glamorize violence, will eventually cause a terrible and lasting problem. If this were true, it would be understandable and justifiable for people to be concerned for the welfare of themselves and others. But, those in support of gangster rap music view it at a deeper level. Supporters yearn for the music to be understood as being political. And that it is a collective expression of the experiences faced by today's youth. Supporters also claim that gangster rap music is harmless and simply for the purposes of entertainment and profit. Another supporter of rap music states that the opposition towards rap music is driven by societies fear of black men and societies perception that black youths are always violent. Another supporter reveals the finally thought: if gangster rap music was a form of expression done by white youths, then society would accept the art and perceive it as being socially compatible.

Stress

Stress is the state of tension that is created when a person responds to the demands and pressures that come from the outside (society, family, work, etc.), as well as those that come from the inside (personal goals and demands, religion, etc.). Demands and pressures require some kind of response. Any response, regardless of how small, involves some sort of immediate reaction from the body. Our bodies experience stress when the body tries to adjust to external and internal demands. The body is always seeking a resolution to what ever is stressing it because the body needs to maintain stability to remain healthy. A number of studies done have shown that stress is both additive and cumulative. What this means is that the demands and concerns faced daily by all people adds up over time and ultimately creates a total burden of problems that the body has to face and overcome.

Stress affects individuals of all shapes and sizes. Stress doesn＊t discriminate. Teenagers, adults, blacks, whites, petite people and even obese people could be affected by stress.

Survival Stress

Internally generated Stress

Environmental and Job stress

Fatigue and Overwork

1. You have been married for eight years and you and your estranged spouse are going through a horrible and bitter divorce. The kids are caught in the middle and you yearn for a resolution to your problems.

2. Your daughter has finally reached her senior year in high school and was accepted to a fantastic university on a full scholarship. She is graduating this coming Tuesday. You are excited, happy and worried about her future. But, you are extremely proud of her and her achievements.

3. You have just received a raise and a promotion at your job. It seems as though those twelve years of hard work has finally paid off. Now, you can buy yourself a new car and live your life to its ultimate.

4. Your best friend is having a party and you know that is going to be great. You arrive at the party and you see people that you knew from high school there that you have not seen since graduation nine years ago. You spend the whole night laughing and reminiscing about the good old days. The music at the party is great and your night was fantastic.

They all are forms of stress. As stated earlier, any sort of change, whether it is a positive or negative change, still yields some sort of physical strain and response from the body.

Stress is inevitable. No one goes throughout life without being exposed to stress. But, stress could either be beneficial or detrimental depending on how a person deals with it. A minimal amount of stress can initialize some sort of positive reaction in a person. On the other hand, stress that is excessive can cause serious health problems and possibly be fatal. Stress has been confirmed as being either directly or indirectly the cause of heart disease, hypertension, sudden death, cancer, suicide, depression, anxiety, and a plethora of infections and immune system disorders.

Psychologists at the University of Zurich and the University of California hypothesized that stress impairs memory and learning. Researchers found that when their sample group was under stress, they were less able to remember things that they had just recently learned. The researchers used cortisol, a hormone secreted when under stress, as their stimulus. In my research, I am using gangster rap music to try to prove a similarity and a relationship between rap and stress. The researchers asked their sample group to memorize sixty German nouns, which they looked at for four seconds each. Immediately after memorizing a list or one day later, the sample group was asked to free call as many words as possible. The researchers then dispensed the cortisol, which stimulated stress in the volunteers. It was concluded that the stimulus applied did not affect the volunteers' ability to recall the given list of nouns.

Because of the results gotten in the above research, I anticipating that my results will be similar. There are only slight differences between my research and the researchers.

Memory

Memory is the construction and reconstruction of past events and experiences in a person's life that are of some significant value. Memory can be based around socially constructed meanings. In other words, memory can be categorized by universal ideas and themes or by a person's particular subgroup or subculture (social class, gender, etc.).

There are two ways to classify memory: remembering and forgetting. Psychologists have stated that the items that stimulate both these processes are very complex and are certainly is impacted by society.

Remembering

Forgetting