http://www.reclaimthemedia.org/media_justice/hop_hop_mass_media_and_21st_ce%3d5070

This article stood out in the list of articles I viewed mostly because I felt it was the most relavent to the topics we've discussed in class, and also because I agreed with the article's message. It's talking about how the music industry, particularly the Hip-Hop industry determines what music becomes popular based on its own interests. The industry is controlled by a group of people who don't understand what the music is supposed to be about and they filter out all music that doesn't lend itself to their vision. This ends up causing artists to either not produce or have to conform to someone else's vision. The music is then taken out of context and the it becomes impure. I just feel like a lot of us talk about how awful Hip-Hop has gotten but we have to realize that a lot of what we hear isn't what artists initially wanted. It's been filtered, and dumbed down to serve the higher-ups' agenda which is the primary concern in their minds. The article talks about a kind of conspiracy that middle-aged white men in charge of all of America have where they feed young blacks dumbed down music with stupid messages to "keep us down," and how black Americans have been kept seperate from others in an "internal colony" and artists have to conform or they won't be heard. I'm not really going to speak on my views concerning that, but the gist of the article is to that effect. It's an interesting article however you choose to look at it.