Music Journalism and its Coverage of Women Musicians and Hip Hop Artists

THIS IS ONE OF THE FIRST ESSAYS I WROTE AS A MUSIC BUSINESS STUDENT. AS A FRESHMAN, I WAS REALLY INTERESTED IN EXPLORING THE ROLE JOURNALISTS PLAY WITHIN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY. THIS ESSAY DEALS WITH THE CHICKEN-AND-EGG TYPE QUESTION OF WHETHER JOURNALISTS CREATE STEREOTYPES ABOUT MUSIC OR WHETHER SOCIETY CREATE THE STEREOTYPES THAT INFILTRATE INTO JOURNALISTS' REPORTING.

The challenges of the music journalism industry are countless—determining the credibility of sources, deciding what news stories are most important, conveying news in an unbiased manner are just among the few—yet the issue of whether the coverage of music creates and/or fosters stereotypes of musicians is one necessary of further attention. Specifically, news coverage of woman musicians and hip hop artists, by way of tone and omission, creates a negative portrait of these artists, as well as attaches a stigma to their race/gender. This journalistic behavior not only affects music journalism, but it also impacts the greater music industry by influencing record sales, as it also shapes the attitudes of the greater public by amplifying existent prejudice. This trend is evident through the precedence of news coverage of jazz music in the early 20th century.

It’s fairly easy to understand why the issue is of controversy, since it’s not easily determined whether music journalism itself, in fact, creates the general stereotype or rather current societal stereotypes create the journalism. The impact of music journalism on the public’s perception of black and women artists is debatable because of the dominant role of entertainment television and the strength of predetermined racial and gender prejudices. Therefore, I believe the existent stereotypes create the negative journalism. However, I believe that music journalists, just as much as other journalists, still have the responsibility to counter prejudice with balanced news coverage and ideally, attempt to expose injustices occurring in the industry.

British music coverage of women musicians sets up this question of whether journalism is creating stereotypes or rather reflecting the stereotypes of music journalists. The British music press employs a range of tactics to obscure and denigrate the work of female artists. Omission of female artists’ impact on rock is particularly noticeable in retrospective writing on rock history, which often obliterates any trace of all but a few women. In addition, female artists’ sexuality is often the emphasis of feature articles; a Kylie Minogue article titled “In Bed with Kylie” included questions about Minogue’s “teenage sexual experiences.” At the same time, British music media adopts a condescending tone when writing of female artists; an interview of Natalie Imbruglia, featured in the Independent, opened with “You might have though that after Alanis Morissette and Joan Osborne and Fiona Apple and Meredith Brooks the attraction of wailing troubled beauty would have worn ultra-slim. It seems not.”

While these writing styles most definitely contribute to British sexism, this is a good example of the stereotype—specifically the journalists’ own stereotypes—creating the journalism. Men dominate the British music press, and those few women working in the industry commonly accept prejudices of the sphere, due to the surrounding pressure. For example, men outnumber women more than two to one at British publication MM (Melody Maker.) This imbalanced demographic is dangerous since rock critics are responsible for determining who’s credible, therefore who’s music is good and valuable, therefore influencing the monetary success of artists.

Similar trends are present in coverage of hip hop music, especially in the mid-90s. The controversial subject of censorship of hip hop music spewed an array of articles in The New York Times about “gangsta rap” and its detrimental effect on children. Again, articles use omission and a specific patronizing tone to create a negative image of hip hop music and its artists. “Gangsta rap” is penned as “a wildly successful music made of misogyny, hypermaterialism and open celebration of murder.” One New York Times article about censorship was headlined as, “Lyrics From the Gutter.” Journalist condemnation extends to rappers themselves, best personified in the tactic of using quotation marks around the word “artist” when writing of rap artists, as if to relegate their artistic merit. Journalists loved connecting rap’s violent lyrics to local spurts of violence, such as a story where a 15-year old was killed by the gunshot of a Brooklyn bodega storeowner, after the boy and four other teenagers attempted to rob the bodega. This article not only relates two disparate concepts, but it also presents young African American boys as helplessly dangerous, described them as “swagger[ing] around the joint, playing the only role they knew.”

Journalism’s focus on equating all rappers with criminals creates an imbalance of representation, an omission of other respectable hip hop artists, as well as other aspects of black culture. It may be noted that no aspect of black fine arts is represented in the newspapers of the time. In addition, rap artists are rarely humanized or portrayed sympathetically, even in the murder stories of Tupac Shakur. Here, journalists have the power to control and limit thinking by complementing a stereotype or they can seize the opportunity and investigate beneath the surface.

It’s difficult to determine whether hip hop coverage in the mid-90s is creating a narrow stereotype or whether the existent stereotypes are shaping the article content. On one hand, rappers are a distant concept to the average American, therefore a reader could very possibly absorb the negative image presented in the article. At the same time, readers do have preconceived notions of African Americans and that general societal prejudice has an impact on the climate in which journalists are writing, the audience for which they are writing for.

Jazz music experienced similar negative coverage, but in a more explicit manner. In this situation, the racist tendencies of the population impacted the journalism of the day. Journalists’ commentary merely reflected the already distrustful and disapproving view of African Americans in the early 20th century. Racism was evident in verbal comments by important leaders like Henry Ford—calling jazz “the drivel of morons”—to comments from an average white musician like Tom Brown, who belittled black musicians by saying; “them thick blubbery lips can’t make no decent tone…they ain’t smart enough to tell where the harmony is, neither.” This foundation of prejudice is illustrated in an article in the Musical Courier, “A wave of vulgar, filthy and suggestive music has inundated the land…with its obscene posturings, its lewd gestures. It is artistically and morally depressing and should be suppressed by press and pulpit.” Despite the bad press, jazz music became a grand success, especially lifting the spirits of a population who was deeply ridden in the economic depression of the early 1890s. Until the stock market crashed in 1929, record companies were selling more than 100 million jazz records a year. It is not completely illogical to imagine that the controversy expressed over jazz music influenced its popularity.

Hip hop record sale success was enormous in the 90s, surprising the industry with its chart success; hip hop labels Death Row Records and Interscope captured the top four places of the Billboard 200, “a feat not seen in 20 years.” While articles like the 10-page story on Death Row’s chief executive, Suge Knight, were featured in the New York Times, portraying him as a heavy, forbidding gangsta figure, concurrently his label was selling millions of records. Just a mere four years following the label’s 1992 inception, Death Row had “sold more than 15 million records and grossed more than $100 million.” Today’s hip hop is no different in that the most popular rap artist, 50 Cent, is the one most displayed as controversial and dangerous by music journalism of the day. In a Billboard interview with 50 Cent, the first paragraph does not fail to mention that 50 Cent is from Queens, NY and that he was shot nine times. In addition, in an online interview of 50 Cent, the headline reads, “I know I scare people. That’s actually my job.”

It is difficult to blame journalists for this one-sided representation of music in a practical manner because one knows that the industry is not only a reputable source of information, but also a business. However, even in this climate, responsible journalism is possible. Instead of creating or reinforcing stereotypes, journalists should be exposing the prejudices in the music industry. Just as journalism had the power to create or reinforce stereotypes by creating a storm of articles about hip hop or jazz music, it has the potential to be a platform for positive change. For example, Billboard reported on the exclusion of Black musicians in the classical world of music and how specific symphonies are trying to rectify the racist trend. More recently, Billboard journalist Gail Mitchell investigated why African Americans aren’t holding as many executive positions in the industry as white people are. Even more noteworthy, journalist Timothy White addressed how the media itself creates stereotypes; he quoted University of California associate professor John H. McWhorter, by saying “ [Tupac] Shakur's violent street demise as a gangsta ‘was a choice, not a destiny.’”

The ultimate journalist rut is deciding whether to feed into accepted stereotypes and the general public vulnerability, creating controversial and loud journalism, or whether to take the time and commitment to work to change the mentalities of the public, somehow cultivating a greater norm. Journalism does, in fact, take a back seat to television in creating and reinforcing stereotypes of today’s music—as seen from the successes of 50 Cent and the like—but journalists still have the opportunity and responsibility to provide a balanced portrait of today’s top artists. Through the study of the British music press’s coverage of female artists, the New York Times coverage of hip hop in the 90s, and jazz news in the early 20th century, it is apparent that journalism—using the devices of tone and omission—is reflective of racial and gender perceptions. The journalism does not create the stereotype, rather recycles and reshapes it into print format, so it can be discreetly reintroduced into societal norm.

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