Page 154 - A Handbook Genre Studies in Mass Media

IDEOLOGICAL APPROACH

I have a right to be caught by the cops
Have a right to be called by the judge
Have a right to be sent to the fronts
And come back in the back of a truck in a box.
Have a right to be ignored and neglected
Have a right to be segued and be raided
Have a right to be damned a right to be jammed
Have a right to be sanctioned and banned. 10
The audience responded enthusiastically to the music. However, both
the musicians and attendees risked being jailed for their involvement in
the concert. Reporter Michael Slackman notes:
One concertgoer leaned over and said, casually, “I hope the Basiji don’t
rush the place.” He was referring to the vigilante squads of bearded men
who often use violence to enforce strict Islamic social codes. As the music
played, the crowd swayed and clapped, shouted out choruses, and bopped
the way any audience of young men and women might in the West. The
music, though upbeat, had a slightly funereal quality to it, as the singer
took the chance to share his thoughts, in public. When the show was over
and the lights came up the band seemed exhilarated—and frightened. 11

Popular genes have emerged as a way to export ideologies to other
countries. In July 2005, Wise Man Takes All, a Chinese version of The Ap-
prentice, premiered in Shanghai. The show is sponsored by Shui On Land,
a leading Hong Kong property investor in Shanghai, Dragon TV, and China
Business Network (CBN), a media group that publishes, among other things,
a Chinese-language business newspaper. According to Vincent Lo Hong-
shui, Shui On’s chairman, one of the goals of the program was to cultivate
the entrepreneurial spirit among young Chinese men and women. “We are
trying to sharpen that spirit among the young people in this vibrant city.
We believe that we will have a lot to learn from them too.” Thus, popu-
12
lar genres serve as a vehicle for introducing an ideology to audiences. In
2004, rap artist Will Youmans—known as The Iron Sheik—performed at
the Dearborn Arab International Festival in Dearborn, Michigan. The Iron
Sheik used rap as a vehicle to talk about the plight of the Palestinian people.
His signature song, ‘‘Return aka 194,’’ includes these lyrics:

Palestine’s their home, that’s where they belong
been living in these camps for way too long
a sad song been displaced since ’48
time to return to where they originate. 13

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