8. Discuss two music websites and the way they represent race and ethnicity.
Both race and ethnicity have played a central role in the creation and development of established music genres in todays industry, and as you'd expect, there are music websites which support and continue to represent the respective scenes and subcultures. Particular genres may place an extra degree of emphasis on race and ethnicity, such as Hip-hop, and during the following thinkpiece I am going to discuss and and analyse the way in which race and ethnicity is often communicated and illustrated through specifc websites.
A good site to begin would be XXLs music website, a publication which predominantly covers and represents hip-hop as a music genre, and as a culture. Unlike other websites such as NME etc, primarily concerned with genres which are far more racially ambiguous, XXLs coverage of hip-hop means its far easier to understand how they communicate race and particularly ethnicity; they represent a genre which has very close ties with black culture. Hip Hop as a musical genre is very much a product of black Hip Hop culture from the 1970's. The large majority of artists they cover are african-american; on the home page of the website there was only one image of a white artist. That is not to say that the website intentionally tries to cultivate the notion of black culture; but certainly in contrast to other hip-hop websites (such as Vibe), XXL are less broad in their scope and more of a specialist publication. 'For instance, a hip-hop fan wrote to Davey D's Hip-Hop Corner that Stress, Sub-culture, and XXL were the three "realest hip-hop magazines" [because] they represent the entire culture' (Jones, 2002). Strong editorial content focusing on a lifestyle and trappings deemed attractive by potential consumers, there seems a strong degree of emphasis on black culture as a success story, with a lot of attention paid to focus on the success and well-being of said artists.
Kerrang! by contrast is another interesting example to use, as by genre and representation of ethnicity they are starkly different to my first example. Kerrang! is primarily known for its association with rock and metal, two genres which have historically been dominated by the white male. Throughout the website there is obvious portrayal of white ethnicity; much like XXL and other publications by association, they are representing a genre of music which is so saturated by this particular ethnic group. Kerrang has strong connections to youth culture, the imagery of male frontmen used on the home page and indeed its articles is suggestive in its attempt to appeal to both its female audience (aesthetics), and its young male demographic through glorification of these individuals. There is little to no coverage of other ethnicities and this extends to the sites advertisements and even its stores imagery which primarily features white caucasian males. Initially I would have thought that a publication which covers such an extensive and wide-ranging genre would represent a significantly more varied level of ethnic diversity than it actually does. Arguably there is a reason for this; Kerrang have a set demographic to cater to; and trying to sell to that particular market means communicating through the most appropriate representations.
JONES, S., 2002. Pop Music and the Press. Philadelphia: Temple University Press
KERRANG! 2011 [online] [viewed 9 May 2011]. Available from: http://www.kerrang.com/
XXL, 2011 [online] [viewed 9 May 2011]. Available from: http://www.xxlmag.com/
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