Keywords

Hip-Hop Culture, British Hip-Hop, Identity Negotiation, Online Communities, Globalization, Americanization, Space & Place, Online Identity, UK Culture.

Abstract

In this fast-paced, globalized world, certain online sites represent a hybrid personal-public sphere'where like-minded people commune regardless of physical distance, time difference, or lack of synchronicity. Sites that feature chat rooms and forums can offer a deep-rooted sense of community and facilitate the forging of relationships and cultivation of ideologies. This dissertation investigates whether this trend is relevant to web sites concerning hip-hop. This genre is arguably one of the most pervasive and influential global cultural forms, yet it is markedly different from most other forms of globalized culture because it emerged within and is still embedded in a distinct subculture. The notion that the Internet could become a bastion for hip-hop fans is quite paradoxical: hip hop is a cultural form so deeply rooted in the sense of place and so invested in its relationship to spatiality that it could potentially pose a particular challenge to the notion of virtual communities. This research examines the virtual hip-hop experience in the UK in order to assess whether this music and the culture that surrounds it have been adopted in their original American form or whether they have been adapted to make them more relevant to their new locale. In particular, the study probes how the ideology, values, behaviors and attitudes that bestride American hip-hop are represented, consumed, and reproduced on the mediated world of web sites.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2010

Advisor

Grajeda, Anthony

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Arts and Humanities

Department

English

Degree Program

Texts and Technology

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0003029

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0003029

Language

English

Release Date

May 2010

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)

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