Critical Investigation essay (1st draft)

An investigation into how UK grime music influences and has an impact on teenagers

Over the years the definition of UK grime music has changed, or in other words different classes now make their own definition based on stereotypical images they see for this music scene. Therefore emerged on what people think about grime music will give different ideas of the impact that this genre will have on teens. UK grime music appeared in the early 2000s with artist such as Wiley, Kano and Skepta and is primarily a development of UK garage and hip hop. This genre is portrayed as being male dominated and people argue this is the main reason why it may affect male teenagers in the wrong way. During all my research I came across the difference between ‘Underground’ and ‘Mainstream’ music. The difference between the two is that ‘Underground’ music is when artist make street videos by themselves with no pay but just to get views whereas ‘Mainstream’ music is more professional since the artist that turn ‘Mainstream’ are signed to a record label and therefore have their support.

UK grime has been seen to have a positive influence upon teenagers. Through my research I have found that even in their own music they try to do something other than just talking about themselves. For example a very recent released song called ‘Teardrop’ by my three main focused artists (Chipmunk, Tinchy and Wretch32), collaborated with other famous artist across different genres to promote ‘Children in need’. “100%, straight A’s, education, university, job prospects and lost objects”. This is one of the artist lyrics from the song showing the expansion of their own music and how they are more involved in other things such as ‘Children in need’ primarily because they have become ‘Mainstream’. ‘Children in need’ is an annual British charity appeal organized by the BBC and is one the three high profile British telephons. This music video was uploaded by ‘The Collective’ on YouTube and connotes that ex ‘Underground’ grime artist are now making music to benefit others and giving back rather than just making music about themselves. ‘Children in need’ and the BBC are targeted at a wide variety of audiences because it appeals to nearly everyone who wants to develop poverty. Therefore these artists getting involved by dealing with poverty makes teenagers want to do so as well because they will be able to relate to them and have some sort of comfort seeing that famous grime artist are doing the same thing as them. Moreover this links with the point of these artists portraying UK grime music in a positive way because it shows their involvement in “Giving back to your community”. According to the uses and gratifications theory teenagers may consume UK grime music for social interaction and of course entertainment. “After years on the underground Tinie Tempah has signed a major label deal and is heading straight to the top of the charts”. The fact that they mentioned underground music on the MTV music section of the website makes teenagers feel that they can talk and act upon this since even Tinie Tempah has made it big and he was once an underground artist.

Furthermore, during my research I also found that many grime artists do several things apart from just their music, which may have a huge influence on teens in a encouraging way. For example famous artist Chipmunk posted his GSCE results on his twitter connoting that he himself got really good GCSE’s while doing his music at the same time, and this may affect some teenage fans because they will begin to think that if Chipmunk has an education even though he already has a career, they should most defiantly do the same since education is the way forward. It may also connote that having an education is a cool thing to do which teens will love. Also since twitter is a social networking site where you can ‘tweet’ literally anyone including celebrities, it enables teenage fans to ask questions about his results and anything else they want to know. Linking in another example from my research where Chipmunk was found on BBC radio 1 where he done an interview giving his very own exam tips to the viewers and his teenage fans currently taking exams. Radio 1 is targeted at 16 – 24 year olds and therefore many teenagers would watch this video or here it on the radio because radio 1 is the only radio show which attracts teens because of their humor during interviews they do. “Until you have a career set out, do not stop your education”. This is a quote from Chipmunks interview and it will get teenagers to realize that education is the key to success, and hearing this from someone who they may see as a role model will affect them in a positive way even more as they may be now more slightly motivated after hearing it from a famous person. Marxist’s theory links in with my critical investigation on this point because his theory states that society was divided into hierarchy of classes with more power at the top (Middle class) and less power at the bottom (Working class), and that we all want the dominant ideologies that we see in the media. For example all these UK grime artists that I am focusing on have certain things in their videos that we would all probably want (Sports cars, expensive jewellery etc). Hence looking at these artists in a positive based on Marxist’s theory you could say how they are representing the dominant ideology of being successful. Meaning we all want to be successful and these artists are representing success through their videos stating that achievements don’t only come from music. In addition there are several interviews that all these artist do where they talk about their music life and things they’ve been getting up to and what they also intend to do based on their music. “Two weeks after you had that tattoo you were stabbed”. This quote from interview just shows how in these interviews they basically talk about memorable and emotional moments of their lives, and the fact that they actually tell us these stories on national TV connotes that grime are trying to be open and not hide anything which shows class and positivity. Lastly there is a radio show ‘Westwood TV’ which is produced by the BBC and targeted at teenagers because on the show they get several grime artist from across the UK to come and do a ‘freestyle’ which is something that grime music is known for. This connotes how underground artist are trying to do something other than just make street/hood videos by coming on a radio show to advertise their talent. However my point is that recently Tim Westwood (The DJ) also now does interviews similar to SBTV, but the one thing this radio show does different which portrays UK grime music in a positive way is that they also get famous American rapper such as Drake, Tyga and Lil Wayne to do freestyle or an interview. Thus this connotes that because ‘Westwood TV’ is known for grime freestyles, now that American artist are keen in getting involved shows how UK grime is mixing in with American rap which bring me back to the point of changing from underground and trying to do the same things as American artist which therefore wouldn’t be seen as UK grime being a unconstructive genre.

However arguing the Marxism theory about dominant ideology, you could say that UK grime music represent success in the wrong ways and this goes to mainly the ‘Mainstream’ side of the genre (saying that even ‘Mainstream’ music may affect teenagers in the wrong way). They represent success in the wrong ways because you may see a successful business man that doesn’t wear any rich jewellery, and that doesn’t directly mean he isn’t successful. Nonetheless these artist show that to be successful you have to wear and have such things but in reality to wear big chains and have sports cars is only conventional for grime artist and not any other successful people like a business person. Moving onto research that I found on how UK grime music has a negative effect and influence on teenagers is mainly based on the theme of ‘Underground’ UK grime music. ‘Underground’ music is known as a music genre which creates a culture “Where killing is almost a fashion accessory”. This was said by former British Labour party politician Kim Howells. This belief/idea is basically about the stereotypical view upon teenagers and therefore it is natural for a politician to state something along these lines. Also if an MP is declaring things like that it could easily get into the media which many people believe facts come from and would also begin to think UK grime music is a terrible music genre which is influencing and effecting teenagers in the wrong way.

Subsequently, UK grime music is also seen as affecting teenagers in an unhelpful way due to the shutdown of Grime daily. Grime daily was built from the heart of the UK grime music scene and is targeted at young people (teenagers). The recent debates and issues that has occurred is that grime daily got shutdown for “Violating community guidelines” when underground artist Scorcher had a knife involved in one of his music videos which was seen to others that grime daily is promoting knife crime for young people. Although someone may argue that this wasn’t the first UK grime underground video to have a knife in it, therefore if it didn’t persuade teenagers in the past it shouldn’t do so now. However it was said on a grime daily blog about the shutdown which I found in my research that “With the percentage of teenage crime increasing over the years it was seen as if underground music was making matters worse and promoting knife crime to teenagers even if it wasn’t intentional”. Thus it was suggested that the facts about grime daily is “The title suggest one thing and their actions another”, meaning that the masthead ‘Grime daily’ denotes strictly UK grime music but in reality they do much more than that by adding things such as “Crep checks, car checks and also come grime with me which is their own version of come dine with me”. All these things alongside with the video including a knife shows how underground music isn’t really doing something constructive therefore they are having to do other things which ended up getting the whole business shutdown. “The amount of commercial rappers that YouTube still proudly hosts and profits from targeted advertising. People celebrating violence, pimping, gun crime and drug dealing is certainly nothing new to YouTube, and it only seems to become a problem if you’re not able to give them money at the same time”. This quote is from a website called ‘Socialist revolution’ which mainly focuses on breaking news that will attract teens. Dan Edwards (Writer of the article) counter argues the shutdown of grime daily and states his reasons why underground grime music doesn’t effect and influence teenagers in a negative way and more importantly if it does, UK underground grime music isn’t the only genre that has knives etc in the videos.

In conclusion UK grime music has its pros and cons from both sides of the genre ‘Underground’ and ‘Mainstream’. This is essential due to the amount of stereotypical views and criticism that teenagers and grime music gets. I would say that UK grime music is a genre only for the UK which is why I think it is successful towards teens. The fact that ‘grime’ is only based in the UK and isn’t a worldwide genre, it gives it more disapproval because people would stereotype towards it however in reality only the UK teenagers and fans on UK grime music would understand the actual definition on it.  

Bibliography

Websites

·         http://www.grimescene.co.uk/grime/ 

·         http://spifftv.com/ 

·         http://www.mtv.co.uk/news/chipmunk/118662-chipmunk-to-sign-with-major 

·         http://wearesme.co.uk/2011/08/21/news-video-sbtv-founder-jamal-edwards-stars-in-new-google-chrome-advert/

·         http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-13608668

·         http://www.iamchipmunk.com/

·         http://www.starinthehood.net/lookbook.html (Star in the hood website - Tinchy Stryders clothing line)

·         http://sbtv.co.uk/

Magazines:

·         Flavour magazine (page 21)

·         Heat magazine (front page about x factor judges)

Moving images:

·         SBTV/Westwood/BBC breakfast/soccer AM/This morning video interviews.

·         Topboy/Shank

·         Teardrop music video

·         BBC 1 radio videos on YouTube

·         MOBO awards

·         UK grime artist music videos. E.g. ‘Tinchy Stryder ft Dappy Spaceship’

1st draft essay for my CI

An investigation on how UK grime music influences and has an impact on teenagers

Over the years the definition of UK grime music has changed, or in other words different classes now make their own definition based on stereotypical images they see for this music scene. Therefore emerged on what people think about grime music will give different ideas of the impact that this genre will have on teens. UK grime music appeared in the early 2000s with artist such as Wiley, Kano and Skepta and is primarily a development of UK garage and hip hop. This genre is portrayed as being male dominated and people argue this is the main reason why it may affect male teenagers in the wrong way. During all my research I came across the difference between ‘Underground’ and ‘Mainstream’ music. The difference between the two is that ‘Underground’ music is when artist make street videos by themselves with no pay but just to get views whereas ‘Mainstream’ music is more professional since the artist that turn ‘Mainstream’ are signed to a record label and therefore have their support.

UK grime has been seen to have a positive influence upon teenagers. Through my research I have found that even in their own music they try to do something other than just talking about themselves. For example a very recent released song called ‘Teardrop’ by my three main focused artists (Chipmunk, Tinchy and Wretch32), collaborated with other famous artist across different genres to promote ‘Children in need’. “100%, straight A’s, education, university, job prospects and lost objects”. This is one of the artist lyrics from the song showing the expansion of how they are more involved in other things such as ‘Children in need’ because they have become ‘Mainstream’. ‘Children in need’ is an annual British charity appeal organised by the BBC and is one the three high profile British telephons. This music video was uploaded by ‘The Collective’ on YouTube and connotes that ex ‘Underground’ grime artist are now making music to benefit others and giving back rather than just making music about themselves. ‘Children in need and the BBC are targeted at a wide variety of audiences because it appeals to nearly everyone who wants to develop poverty. Therefore these artists getting involved with dealing with poverty make teenagers want to do so as well because they will be able to relate to them. Moreover this links with the point of these artists portraying UK grime music in a positive way because it shows their involvement in “Giving back to your community”

Furthermore, during my research I found that many grime artists do several things apart from just their music, which may have a huge influence on teens. For example famous artist Chipmunk posted his GSCE results on twitter connoting that he himself got really good GCSE’s while doing his music at the same time, and this may affect some teenage fans because they will begin to think that if Chipmunk has an education even though he already has a career, they should most defiantly do the same since education is the way forward. Also since twitter is a social networking site where you can ‘tweet’ literally anyone including celebrities, it enable teenage fans to ask questions etc about his results. Linking in another example from my research where Chipmunk was found on BBC radio 1 where he done an interview giving his very own exam tips. Radio 1 is targeted at 16 – 24 year olds and therefore many teenagers would watch this video or here it on the radio because radio 1 is the only radio show which attracts teens because of their humour during every interview. “Until you have a career set out, don’t stop your education”. This is a quote from Chipmunks interview and it will get teenagers to realise that education is the key to success, and hearing this from someone who they may see as a role model will affect them in a positive way even more. Marxist’s theory links in with my critical investigation on this point because his theory states that society was divided into hierarchy of classes with more power at the top (Middle class) and less power at the bottom (Working class), and that we all want the dominant ideologies that we see in the media. For example all these UK grime artists that I am focussing on have certain things in their video that we would all probably want (Sports cars, expensive jewellery etc), however looking at these artist in a positive way you could say how they are representing the dominant ideology of being successful. Meaning we all want to be successful and these artists are representing success through their videos stating that achievements doesn’t only come from music.

However arguing the Marxism theory about dominant ideology, you could say that UK grime music represent success in the wrong way and this goes to mainly the ‘Mainstream’ industry of this genre. They represent success in the wrong ways because you may see a successful business men that doesn’t wear any rich jewellery, and that doesn’t mean he isn’t successful. Nonetheless these artist show that to be successful you have to wear and have such things but in reality to wear big chains and have sports cars in only conventional for grime artist and not any other successful people like a business person. Moving onto research that I found on how UK grime music has a negative affect and influence on teenagers is mainly based on the theme of ‘Underground’ music  ‘Underground’ music is known to be something 

Essay Plan

"An investigation on how UK grime music influence and has an impact on teenagers"


ALWAYS LINK BACK TO QUESTION OF MY CRITICAL INVESTIGATION


Introduction

• Define what UK grime music actually is and how it mainly attracts teenagers. Then go onto giving a brief definition about the difference between 'Underground' grime music and 'Mainstream' grime music. (Showing a wide range of research which i will then investigate in detail in the main body of the essay with examples from my bibliography). 
• Show an open discussion by Showing that i am going to focussed from both sides of the argument. To what extent the media portrays these artist?

Paragraph 1 

• The positivity of grime music which i found from my research using my main three artist as examples (Chipmunk, Tinchy Stryder and Wretch32). Interviews they've done on radio 1, twitter post and charity music videos can be used as examples of positivity which is all in my folder from my research. 
• Then talk about these three artist above and how they have become 'Mainstream' from 'Underground' and just talk about the benefits of 'Mainstream' music meaning the type of music their doing now.
• (Shows understanding of the critical debates, research skills and media terminology about my CI)

Paragraph 2 

• The things that these artist have done outside the music industry and how as grime artist they are doing other things which influences teens in a positive way. 
• Chipmunk doing his A levels and posting his GCSE results on twitter. Also revision tips on radio 1 (Live lounge)
• Add theory by talking about how these 'Mainstream' grime artist are the dominant ideology to teenagers because of how they represent success in their videos. Also argue how they may be showing success in the wrong ways.
• The fact that females are getting involved in the grime genre shows their doing something positive! (Shows understanding of the chosen investigation with research skills)

Paragraph 3 

• Counter argue the other two paragraphs by talking about the negative ways that grime music influences teenagers. Grime Daily shutdown (Knife crime).
• Talk in detail about the 'Underground' grime music and the things that they do which may affect teens in a negative way. Rapping about knives, guns and a struggled life teens think you have to do this to be a grime artist. 
• However then argue how even 'Mainstream' artist went through the 'Underground' stage (Wide range of arguments from different ways one thing can have so much meanings to it - 'Mainstream' and 'Underground')

Star in the hood website analysis

The 'Star in the hood' website is a clothing site which famous grime artist Tinchy Stryder is sponsored by. The website is strictly advertising the clothes and nothing else, however it still contributes with my topic because it is cloths that Tinchy Stryder wears and is available for anyone to by. And since my CI is how teens are influenced by these grime artist, it makes them more interested in the 'Star in the hood' clothing because a UK grime artist is wearing it. If Tinchy Stryder wearn't spomsored by this clothing line there wouldn't be much teens wearing it.
This website also uses formal English with no slang because it is trying to spread their clothing line across the UK and different genres. For example the website mainly attracts to the grime genre and they possibly want other genres to be involvd with their clothes, showing  how the UK grime scene isn't underground anymore.

This image on the left connotes how average teenagers are wearing the same clothes as a celebrity since their all together in one picture. Therefore this links in with my topic because it influences teenagers to succeed like these artist since they can relate to them.

Spliff TV website analysis

Spliff TV is a website that links with my critical investigation because on a daily basis they upload new videos and songs that any known UK grime artist made. However this website links in with my topic by showing how grime music may have a negarive impact on teenagers because alongside all the new grime music videos, they also post videos of people fighting (Things that are not suitable for some teenagers) and this may give the idea that UK grime always has to involve something to do with in the negative lines.
The videos areeasily accessable and you dont need an account to be able to access certain videos which comes back to the point of giving the idea that you need to have some of these negative videos to produce a piece of UK grime music.

SBTV website analysis

The image above is a screenshot from the sbtv website and this site links in with my topic because it shows a whole range of different things going on with artist in the UK grime scene. For example as you can see on the middle left of the screenshot they are advertising a Christmas party in Camden and selling tickets at the same time. This shows that they are trying to spread the word of sbtv (UK grime music) in a positive way by throwing a productive party rather then a usual party that the grime genre will have such as a street party. Therefore they are showing the positivity of UK grime through their party which is why the sbtv website links with my topic. Subsequently they have all their interviews that they done with several famous artist from around the globe on their website. These interviews contributes with my topic because in the the interviews all the artist just talk about their success and what they get up to in life. Fro example the link below is the sbtv interview of Chipmunk and he basically talks about his new singles and then also what he has done to get to where he is now. And some of the things that he talks about are things that average teenagers get up to in their lives therefore the teenage audience hearing this puts them in a confort zone since they can relate to someone they look up to.

Furthermore the image above is also a screenshot from the sbtv website however it is from the news section. And in this section they show news from outside the UK. For example they show their respect by posting up the news of famous boxer Joe Fraizier pasting away which connotes respect and makes the sbtv website seemed certified. Also they represent other american artist and how their getting on with their music which shows that the UK grime scene is possibly sharing the same interest and features as US rap music. And this brings us back to the point of the sbtv interviews. Interacting more with US music and linking it in with UK grime which shows that UK grime now days is turning more mainstream and commercial rather then just staying underground which is a positive thing.

Internet Links

http://www.starinthehood.net/lookbook.html (Star in the hood website - Tinchy Stryders clothing line)

http://www.tinchystryder.com/ (Tinchy Stryders official website)

http://www.iamchipmunk.com/ (Chipmunks website)

http://www.wretch32.com/ (Wretch 32s website)

http://ndubz.com/ (NDubz website)

http://sbtv.co.uk/ (SBTV website)

http://www.grimescene.co.uk/grime/ (UK grime scene website. with all the different music in uk grime)

http://spifftv.com/ (Spliff tv - Negative influence on teenagers)

http://www.mtv.co.uk/news/chipmunk/118662-chipmunk-to-sign-with-major (MTV website on Chipmunk being signed to sony)

http://wearesme.co.uk/2011/08/21/news-video-sbtv-founder-jamal-edwards-stars-in-new-google-chrome-advert/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-13608668 (BBC news)

UK Grime artist websites

The image above and below is a screenshot of Tinchy Stryder, Chipmunk, Wretch32 and N Dubz's homepage of their official websites. These sites contribute to my topic because i am doing an investigation on how UK grime artist influence or have an affect on teenagers, and all their different sites gives us the idea of mainstream UK artist (UK grime artist that have moved on from underground) and how they are representing being successful.

• There's always a main image or a video of the artist which is aways dominant on the home page as you can see from the screenshots on this post. This relates with my CI because it shows the artist in a positive way by showing their success either with a picture or video. For example the first image above of Tinchy Stryders website has a pictured of his new album.
• Also there is always a link to buying their albums and mixtapes which gives the teenage audience easy access to the artist music and may imfluence them into buying the albums rather than illegal download.
• Moreover the fact that you can 'Join the fan club' and share the website on facebook twitter etc, it makes the teenage audience feel more attached with the artist which links with my topic since i am looking at how these UK grime artist influence and have an affect on teenagers.
• They use formal english with no slang since UK grime may connote of using slang to some people. Also on each artist website they show the institution who they are singed by on the site by giving a brief description of the artist record label showing UK grimes professionalism.

Issues & debates concerning my CI

'Grime Daily' as you can see by the name is all about grime music which is targetted at young people (teenagers). It is based on a youtube channel similar to sbtv and they specifically focuss on the UK music scene where they upload the latest grime music blogs and videos. 'Grime Daily' was built from the heart of the UK grime music scene and has definantly helped certain underground artist to get signed by major record labels because they produced a video on 'Grime Daily'.

A recent debate and issue that has nas occured about 'Grime Daily' is the fact that it had been shut down for 'violating community guidlines'. An artist called Scorcher's music video apparently sparked the censorship because somebody was holding a knife in it. Therefore it was said that 'Grime Daily' is promoting knife crime for young teenagers. Although this wearn't the first video on 'Grime Daily' that has involved a knife, however with the crime rate increasing by a high percentage it was seen as if it was making matters worse and promoting knife crime to teenagers even though that wasn't the intension (Says Dan Edwatds on a 'Grime Daily' blog) Therefore this issue relates with my CI very much since my CI is about how grime music has an affect and influences teenagers, & this issue about 'Grime Daily' shutting down says totally the oppisite and is able to give me more to add for my CI because i can now focuss on both sides of the argument.

Furthermore there are several arguments/debates about 'Grime Daily shutting down from random people and fans. For example there is a blog somebody made called 'MidofGrime' and they basically talked about how 'Grime Daily' may be doing things such as helping grime artist and showing there is a way out of struggle by doing music however "The facts are their title suggest one thing and their actions another" Meaning that the title 'Grime Daily' says they only do grime music, but on the other hand they still make videos which includes knifes etc which kind of does promote knife crime.
(Link to this blog is below)

http://mindofgrime.com/2011/06/17/grime-daily-gone/

Also continuing on this debate about grime ('Grime Daily') having a negative affect on teenagers, there are some people who think otherwise and say that they exaggerated the knife crime influence on 'Grime Daily'.  "The subject matter of the videos becomes irrelevant when you consider the amount of commercial rappers that Youtube still proudly hosts and profits from through targeted advertising. People celebrating violence, pimping, gun crime and drug dealing is certainly nothing new to Youtube, it only seems to have become a problem if you’re not able to give them money at the same time. Perhaps even worse, Youtube plays host to a range of videos from IDF bombs being dropped over Gaza, to fascists’ attacks on immigrants, and non-coherent theories which celebrate violence and murder of minority and oppressed groups. None of these videos seem to be a problem for the watchful eyes of the Youtube admin" This paragraph is from a website that focusses on breaking news that will attract teens, and the quote above is a really good counter argument to the reason why 'Grime Daily' got shut down because they are saying how people are acting as if 'Grime Daily' was the first company to put something to do with a knife, then they go on to comparing this with bobmings in gaza. So as you can see this is a really hot debate which links in very well with my critical investigation because it involves looking into the positive and negative things about UK grime.
(Link to website below of the quote above)

http://www.socialistrevolution.org/2898/grimedaily-shut-down/