Avoiding the “Culture Vulture” Paradigm: Constructing an Ethical Hip-hop Curriculum

  • Felicia M. Miyakawa Independent Scholar
  • Richard Mook Arizona State University
Keywords: Hip-hop, pedagogy, b-boy, DJ, MC, creative praxis

Abstract

This paper maps the ethical challenges of Hip-hop pedagogy with the goal of fostering a broader, self-reflexive discourse among academics who teach about rap music and hip-hop culture. We will argue that the exclusive application of established pedagogical approaches of musicology, music theory, and even ethnomusicology would be ethically inappropriate, and would de-legitimize university hip-hop courses in the eyes of those who originated and are deeply invested in this culture. We advocate, instead, for three practices not often found in music history courses: embeddedness in local community, engagement in creative praxis; and the incorporation of established, “old-school†perspectives.

Author Biographies

Felicia M. Miyakawa, Independent Scholar

Felicia M. Miyakawa taught both “art†and “pop†music history at Middle Tennessee State University for 10 years. She is now an independent acholar, freelance editor, and academic consultant. Known primarily for her work on Hip-hop, Miyakawa also writes about spirituals, folk music, Black Nationalism, and Feminist/Queer Theory. She is also co-editor of W. W. Norton’s interactive Music History blog The Avid Listener (www.theavidlistener.com).

Richard Mook, Arizona State University
Richard Mook is Assistant Professor of Music History and Literature at Arizona State University, where he currently researches American vocal quartets after the Civil War and urban dance cultures after 1970. His innovative projects combine social engagement, teaching, and research. Publications in progress include a book about the American Quartet Tradition, a polemical article on socially engaged musicology, and a study of institutionalization in Hip-hop. Mook’s work has appeared in the Journal of the Society for American Music, the Grove Dictionary of American Music, and the Journal of American Folklore. 
Published
2014-04-11
Issue
Vol 5 No 1: (Fall 2014)
Section
Reports and Practices

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