Page 93 - Cultural Studies A Practical Introduction

Ethnicity 77

Its achievements are their achievements. When a Hispanic radio station
attained the number - one ranking in New York City, one Latina remarked,
“ It was about time. We are no longer an obscure force, we are fi nally being
recognized. We are moving forward, and no one can stop us. ”
It should not be surprising that ethnic groups that live with other
members of their group in boundaried geographic locations should share
a culture – beliefs, practices, tastes, ideas, and ways of making cultural
artifacts such as music. Indeed, one of the most common ways of locating
music is to speak of it in such terms – Europop or Jamaican reggae. Yet
musical culture has also always leaped across ethnic boundaries with alac-
rity. White rock was Black rhythm and blues. Modern broadcast media,
from radio to Lime Wire, globalize certain kinds of music such as techno
and trance and make them less recognizable as the products of a particular
culture, especially an ethnic one. Some cultural music styles are resistant
to such transportation; they retain too many ethnic markers or traits to be
universally embraced, or they retain too many elements of traditional
styling that seems outdated to young people, the primary makers and
consumers of popular music. Mexican brass band music, Jewish Klezmer
music, and Indian and Arabic vocals – all are potent forms within certain
geographic boundaries or ethnic cultural boundaries, but they do not
appeal to an international youth audience in the way that the Europop
sound of a band like Ozone does. The very ethnic feel that makes them so
valuable within a particular community obstructs access to a wider inter-

national community. Nevertheless, modified hybrids are possible, as when
guitarist Django Reinhardt made gypsy music universally appealing by
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joining it to jazz and other musical forms.
Certain ethnic cultural styles are valuable on the international scene,
however, precisely because of elements that might be considered “ ethnic. ”
African American hip hop began to merge in New York City in the middle
of the 1980s. At Black clubs, disk jockeys began to mix sounds instead of
just playing numbers straight through. Armed with multiple turntables (for
vinyl recordings), they “ sampled ” various kinds of music, mixing them into
something entirely new. The dance forms that developed in response to
the music were noticeable for their athleticism, and quickly, they spread to
the streets as break dancing. Hip hop emerged within a particular urban
African American community, but its distinguishing features – spoken
poetry, street - wise identity performance, non - melodic rhythms, a shout -
and - reply structure, and so on – were easily borrowable by non - members
of the ethnic group, with the most successful being Eminem, a White man