Great conversation today about storytelling and the Hood Hit List® (Maybe this should be the name of our project). My aim is to create a culture in our class from here on out that generates content from your own interests and lives. The homework is listed below for Tue Nov 18 AND we are planning a little fieldtrip to do some hip-hop lifecasting on Thu. Don't miss it!
In an essay on digital literacy and the growth of knowledge on YouTube, John Hartley suggests that the power of YouTube (Broadcast Yourself) is its ability as a user-generated application to allow people to tell stories.
Few of the videos are 'stories' as traditionally understood; and the best of those that are, for instance lonelygirl15, pretend to be something else in order to conform to the conventions of dialogic social networks. In other words, YouTube does not exhaust the possibilities either for digital storytelling or for self-expression television.Hartley quotes Plato in his essay, and I love this quote! This is a key concept we will borrow for the rest of this course. "Those who tell stories rule society."
(Hartley 2008 http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/media@lse/Conference/Conference_Papers_Keep.../media@lseHartleyconferencepaper2008.pdf)
"Storytelling does what science cannot....stories are an evolutionary mechanism for inductive reasoning. "As Plato said, "Those who tell stories rule society."...Stories are vital to us because the primary way we process information is through induction.One of the dominant stories we touched on was the stereotype of the black male. This image sums it up well and I could tell a story or two about the impact of those stereotypes and how a sketch comedy show like Lyricist Lounge had to deal with those images to be on MTV. But that's a story for another day. (click image for the story behind the pics).
YOUR HOMEWORK for Tue Nov 18th
Tell a story built around any aspect of Jelani Cobb's book that you've read so far. Tell the story on your blog and include at least one YouTube video in the process. A great story has a beginning-middle-and-end. We are going to begin to examine what's make a great story about hip-hop.
In your story--based on a quote, section or music your read about in Jelani Cobb's To the Break of Dawn--make sure the reader gets the reference you wish us to make. You could quote the section or sentence that inspires your story. You could make it a riddle that we have to figure out. For me, I have noticed that Cobb writes amazing sentences that kick off new sections or ideas. For example :
Contrary to popular belief, history does not repeat itself--but it is prone to extended paraphrases. Early MCs made use of their aesthetic inheritance in the same way that the generation that created the blues had fallen back upon the folklore and musical legacy bequeathed them by the ancestors who had survived the ordeal of slavery... (43).That first line is like a hook for me because so many people say or think that history repeats itself and I for one am not one who believes that. It's just a cliché to me. It's as if Eminem is Elvis or Nas is Rakim or Obama is Malcolm X or Rihanna is Beyoncé. People in media love to make similarities and collapse time periods. We miss a lot that is different not only about Eminem vs. Elvis but about the contexts of their lives. The 1950s ain't the 2000s. In any case, whatever passage or musical reference in the Cobb that inspires a story, write it. Blog it. Include at least (1) YouTube video relating to your story or music you mentioned. You can even create a slide show or YouTube video about it - create your own. Broadcast yourself on your blog or on YouTube and post it to your blog! Do this by Tue Nov 18th.
For those who missed class today
Here are the links to the videos we discussed in class. We also started a concept called THE HOOD HIT LIST® and defined it. Claudia, Daniela, and Andry took notes and will share on the blog or send emails to me and I'll post them.
It's your job as a student to learn on your own who these artists are. Be sure to read the "more info" and some comments on these YouTube videos. Look up The Lyricist Lounge Show. Check out other videos or references to the scene in the Lower East Side by the same name. Each video presented was discussed relative to the art of storytelling in hip-hop and in life. For example, I began with "How does the sketch comedy of the bank heist on Lyricist Lounge differ from Saturday Night Live?"
Posts
2 comments:
I just wanted to say I loved this video when we first watched it in class!! The flows were hot, but funny and everything about it played into the stereotypes from the black men robbing the bank, to the white reporter having absolutely no rhythm. & I don't know if anyone noticed, but his part wasn't a freestyle and I feel like that played into it as well. I wanted to mention that because I don't think anyone said it in class. None the less, it reminded me of "In Living Color," only funnier and it seems like it would be timeless. I don't know when this show aired, but it seems like it was a number of years ago, yet I still found myself laughing at it.
Your definitely right, it did remind me of living color actually. The Skits were catchy and hilarious. Its only funny if you understood the language such as "snitches get stitches"
Post a Comment