Page 133 - Cultural Studies A Practical Introduction

Music 117

ideas and fresh sounds. Perhaps more than any other cultural practice, it
is predicated on changes – rhythmic, stylistic, and ideological – which
compel the bodies and minds of listeners to move in ways they hadn ’ t
before thought possible.
The development of new forms of music is more a matter of evolution
than of invention, insofar as individual artists invariably build upon and
borrow from that which came before them. Musicians refashion styles and
themes from other cultural traditions in order to comment upon, and in
some cases intervene in, the social relations of their own specifi c contexts.
Popular music often addresses the limitations and injustices inherent in
the hierarchical categorization of people in terms of race, ethnicity, class,
gender, and sexuality. It has the ability to destabilize seemingly “ fixed ”

social roles, and to redistribute cultural power to marginalized and
oppressed groups.

Let ’ s take a look at the way one influential and controversial artist,
Eminem, uses his music to interrogate the logic behind divisions of race
and class in contemporary America. One of the central debates surround-
ing Eminem involves his appropriation of a traditionally Black music, hip
hop, to tell the story of his experience growing up in the White working
class. Some Black critics argue that Eminem, like Elvis Presley or Vanilla
Ice before him, reaps the rewards granted for performing Black music
without experiencing the racism that comprises the backdrop of the Black

music tradition – “ everything but the burden, ” as scholar Greg Tate puts
it. But Eminem complicates the issue, for he was raised in the impoverished
working - class neighborhoods of Detroit, a product of the same economic
conditions that produced most Black rap artists.
Eminem represents a social group that is both visible and invisible in
mainstream culture: “ White trash. ” We routinely see mocking references
to White trash in comedy routines, commercials, movies, and television
shows, yet there are very few thoughtful portrayals of what it is actually
like to live as a person who inhabits a racially privileged body, but who
lacks the economic power that is often assumed to “ naturally ” go along
with Whiteness. It often goes unnoticed that the negative qualities attrib-
uted to White trash are very similar to the racist tropes directed at African
Americans: both are marked by stereotypes of sexual excess, poverty,
danger, laziness, and non - normative family structures. While White trash
is banished to the margins within the dominant culture, and racial
minorities are relegated to the margins outside of the dominant culture,