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’