So we wrapped up the theology and popular music intensive today. Ten days of intense scrutinizing of one of the defining elements of youth culture. Of course we barely scratched the surface--every musical choice be it song, album or genre omits, thousands of other equally important contributions. The goal is fortunately not to present a comprehensive of popular music as much as it is to explore the way popular music creates and disseminates meaning, functions as a technology of enchantment, offers up an alternative ritualizing and how we can not only think theologically about popular music and its meaning-making but also consider ways in which the manner in which popular music-makers negotiate meaning making in a commodified culture and how that might inform theological practice...or we just listen to a lot of music:)
Today's conversation was not so much controversial or charged with any adversarial posturing as much as it was a stark reminder that on some topics our theological musings are way too slight for the issues at hand. We had been trying to get to rap and hip-hop for a few days and i wanted to get there before we were done simply because as a musical form its contribution to global youth culture and popular music creation cannot be over-estimated--it's been decisively influential everywhere, and although it is currently being eclipsed by other musical genres--namely a renewed club-based dj electronic movement, its influence is still a heavy present in that environment and beyond.
In exploring the contexts that gave rise to hip-hop--Brooklyn and Queens, and in all probability Jamaica-the roots of dj culture in the hip-hop usage, we were discussing the urban dislocation, post-Civil Rights despondency, the post-Industrial withdrawals in education, employment and investment, the afro-centrism at the heart of its earliest incarnations, the positivity of its focus on steering youth away from gangs and violence etc. but we had also been looking at some rap and hip-hop videos--Jay-Z, Niki Minaj and the ubiquitious Flo-Rida song, Whistle, to name but a few. Comments came up about the materialism, the violence and particualrly the intense and overt sexuality present in a lot of videos both lyrically and visually--male and female.
This led to a fairly lengthy conversation about how we might think theologically about sexuality in light of what had been expressed in terms of the overt sexual stuff we had watched. I began with an invitation for the class to offer up some theological views about sex and sexuality--what we might garner from the theological tradtion, from scripture, about how we should look at sexuality. There were a few ideas here and there, but it became apparent very quickly that there was very little sense of a comprehensive theology of sexuality--whch is a bit ironic given how much time and energy it seems that churches and the like spend on rattling on about sex morality etc. It was actually a very good discussion once we came to terms with th elack and thought about how important it might be to think these issues through and develop some theological shape and not try to fudge and proof-text our way forward.
The conversation about sexuality was also a device to get to one of the larger points of the class, namely that there is a need for some deep and critical thinking and reflection on a wide range of issues raised by popular music and contemporary society in general and to invite the students to go deeper. It's also fun to watch a little bit of squirming going on when sticky issues like sex and sexuality get thrown into the mix. Thank you Flo-Rida for prompting some great theological angst in room 303 today--now whistle:)
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