Methodology: Cyber-ethnography

With any anthropological account of anything, and any attempted science for that matter, has to include a methodology.

I've waited on this for quite a bit to consider the aim of this blog and how to go about it. In the context of hip-hop, given its history and wide-ranging global influence, much of what goes into an anthropology of hip-hop and its method requires some detailed explanation.

My first inclination was to simply post the diverse expressions of hip-hop culture on this blog. That is, post videos of music, break-dancing, dj-ing, and graffiti as it has taken on new forms of creativity across the world.

However, I don't think that this does an anthropology of hip-hop much justice. Only posting its diverse expressions would simply be scratching the surface. Because I think the history and the geneaology of this culture is important including the sociological context in which it has emerged, an anthropological account requires qualitative accounts, narratives, of those who have been around to see how the culture has changed and evolved. To this end, I've also decided to post interviews that are included in documentaries and as single video clips. Some documentaries provide a Marxist critique of the transition from hip-hop culture to a limited definition of hip-hop restricted to the domains of the rap industry. Others provide a more focused account of a single element like dj-ing or break-dancing.

Within the history of hip-hop, it is also important to note the social phenomena that have stemmed and/or simply associated with it. This includes the influence of gangs on the music industry, the influence of money, rivalries, the influence of drugs and the active criminalization of african-americans as well as latino-americans.

I'm sure more thoughts will arise on this issue of methodology but broadly construed, my aim has been around this idea of a Cyber-Ethnography by which there are now video resources of what happened at particular events, interviews, recordings, and much more that can capture what happened beyond a linguistic narrative account (although I will link to articles that contribute to the discussion as well). This subtracts the limitations of language from the ethnographer and displaces those limitations to the construction of the video material itself. That is, what the producer of that video decides to show. Being aware of this, I will do my best to find material that fills in gaps or try to discuss what's been excluded. This is a perennial problem of method, which is the the construction of putting one and one together; an active exercise in affirming one thing and suppressing another.

So with the idea of cyber-ethnography in mind, I'll continue to post with the aim of compiling material and with time perhaps provide commentary and analyses from my own, albeit limited, perspective.