Ideology and Music

All musical genres have an ideology: a set of ideas and values that fit the genre. Claude Levi-Straus's theory of binary oppositions applies here. in western cultrue we often think in pairs of ideas that oppose each other eg love/hate and war/peace.


General Ideologies

Pop/R'n'B

• more conformist
• slick
• butter produced
• conscious of good image
• less obviously sexual/euphimistic
• nodrugs/alcohol or veiled references
• more passive
• apolitical
• universal messages for all
• mass audiences
• mainstream
• prosocail
• non violent
• no swearing
• conspicous wealth
• about love

Rock/HipHop

• more rebellious
• rawer
• less over produced
• (pretend to) not care about their image
• sexual
• open drug/alcohol references
• more aggressive
• political
• about the artists
• self expression
• self indulgent
• niche audiences
• outside mainstream
• violence
• antisocial
• swearing
• act poor
• less about love