Blog Response

I looked at the Thoughts of Kolis blog. I didn't know much about the connection of violence and rap and how it affects the person that listens. I like rap, so this was interesting for me to read about. Initially, rap was was credited for reducing violence. I have never heard of this before. It demonstrates how many good things can evolve into a negative influence. A video on the blog talked about how rap glorifies guns as a part of masculinity. This is clearly a problem. In wsome ways, rap is the reason why some many young people are dying because of school shootings. Rap has changed what it means to be an American-by changing the culture of America. It has created a culture that tolerates violence and profanity at much higher levels than ever before. It presents woman as "pieces of eye candy" which is sexist. Rap today seems to be a bigger problem than I ever thought. The slideshow also talked about rappers that rap about today's isssues and how they are against problems in society. This presents rappers in a positive light. In the end of his presentation, he brings up a good point of how rap is not the only thing out there that shows violence to young people. Movies and video games all exemplify war and guns as being a good thing and supposedly give ideas to young people. This seems to be his main focus, but it makes a lot of sense because people today seem very concerned about how the music culture is changing what it means to be an American.