Introduction: The State of the Field of Hip-Hop Studies This chapter will help define hip-hop and explain its broad significance for educators and students. Hip-hop is not obscure, and it is not something that only journalists and musicologists care to research. Most people, whether they like it or not, have come into contact with hip-hop. My argument is not that everyone should like or does like hip-hop but rather that hip-hop influ- ences society nonetheless. One may not like the National Football League, but the conversation that its actions are causing about race and nationalism certainly influence U.S. culture. One doesn’t have to have read Harry Potter to know that it is important and is shaping how a lot of people recreate (Quidditch, anyone?), among other things. Likewise, one might not under- stand vegetarianism or veganism and might actually think they’re bad ideas, but that does not discount the way these movements influence marketing strategies of restaurants and food producers, nor does it deny how these ideas shape other service providers and entities such as wedding planners, confer- ence venues, and hotels. Hip-hop likewise is out there and is shaping much of the world even if one doesn’t feel particularly moved by hip-hop. Even though this argument seems reasonable, it is difficult to convince people that something they don’t do and may not have firsthand or even sec- ondhand experience with affects them. For East Coast city types, it is often difficult to understand how the politics of the Midwest might affect them, yet every time a presidential election time rolls around, Iowa gets all the atten- tion. Likewise, it might be difficult for Bavarians to understand how Berlin or Frankfurt affects them, but the financial and economic decisions made in those cities have far-reaching consequences across Germany and the whole
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