Abstract
When contemplating the meaning and function of the street in popular music it seems not only plausible but necessary to connect the notion of mobility – both geographical and social – to the allegorical dimensions of the street. In the following, I would like to take a brief look at two popular music genres, namely gangsta rap and punk rock, in order to shed light on how the notion of the street and mobility figures in these popular music cultures. In order to further contextualize the notion of the street in gansta rap and punk narratives, they will be considered as reworkings and appropriations of the stereotypical outlaw figure, which has been a prevalent figure in American popular culture for decades. By placing these narratives of the street and mobility within the larger trajectory of outlaw narratives, their continued relevance and popularity become evident when analyzing them as manifestations of expressive individualism.
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Zusammenfassung
Wenn man die Bedeutung und die Funktion der Straße in der populären Musik untersucht, sollte man auch über Mobilität nachdenken – sowohl geographische als auch soziale –, denn diese Begriffe sind häufig untrennbar miteinander verbunden. In diesem Beitrag wird die Funktion der Straße in den Genres Gangsta-Rap und Punk untersucht. Die Narrative dieser Genres lassen sich als Aneignung und Weiterentwicklung klassischer amerikanischer Outlaw Narrative lesen. Betrachtet man diese Outlaw Narrative im Kontext eines expressiven Individualismus wird die Relevanz, Popularität und kontinuierliche Präsenz dieser Narrative plausibel.
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© 2019 Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, ein Teil von Springer Nature
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Rauch, M. (2019). Mobility in the Outlaw Narratives of Gangsta Rap and Punk. In: Ahlers, M., Lücke, M., Rauch, M. (eds) Musik und Straße. Jahrbuch für Musikwirtschafts- und Musikkulturforschung . Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-26101-6_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-26101-6_4
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