Ballad of the Bullet (eBook)

Gangs, Drill Music, and the Power of Online Infamy

Forrest Stuart (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2020
288 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-20008-8 (ISBN)

Infos

How poor urban youth in Chicago use social media to profit from portrayals of gang violence, and the questions this raises about poverty, opportunities, and public voyeurismAmid increasing hardship and limited employment options, poor urban youth are developing creative online strategies to make ends meet. Using such social media platforms as YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram, they're capitalizing on the public's fascination with the ghetto and gang violence. But with what consequences? Ballad of the Bullet follows the Corner Boys, a group of thirty or so young men on Chicago's South Side who have hitched their dreams of success to the creation of "e;drill music"e; (slang for "e;shooting music"e;). Drillers disseminate this competitive genre of hyperviolent, hyperlocal, DIY-style gangsta rap digitally, hoping to amass millions of clicks, views, and followers-and a ticket out of poverty. But in this perverse system of benefits, where online popularity can convert into offline rewards, the risks can be too great.Drawing on extensive fieldwork and countless interviews compiled from daily, close interactions with the Corner Boys, as well as time spent with their families, friends, music producers, and followers, Forrest Stuart looks at the lives and motivations of these young men. Stuart examines why drillers choose to embrace rather than distance themselves from negative stereotypes, using the web to assert their supposed superior criminality over rival gangs. While these virtual displays of ghetto authenticity-the saturation of social media with images of guns, drugs, and urban warfare-can lead to online notoriety and actual resources, including cash, housing, guns, sex, and, for a select few, upward mobility, drillers frequently end up behind bars, seriously injured, or dead.Raising questions about online celebrity, public voyeurism, and the commodification of the ghetto, Ballad of the Bullet offers a singular look at what happens when the digital economy and urban poverty collide.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 12.5.2020
• Zusatzinfo: 2 b/w illus.
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie ► Volkskunde
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Kommunikation / Medien ► Medienwissenschaft
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Pädagogik
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
• Schlagworte: adage • Adsense • Adult • Advertising • attempt • Attention Economy • Black Market • black people • black super-predator • Blog • Blogger (service) • Calculation • Camera Phone • Career • Chief Keef • Commodity • Competition • Corner Boys • crack cocaine • Crime • Danah Boyd • deindustrialization • Democratization • digital slumming • disadvantage • Disgust • Diss track • Driller (oil) • drill rap • drive-by shooting • drug economy • drug lord • Employment • Entertainment • Entrepreneurship • ethnography • Everyday life • Facebook • FaceTime • Fandom • firearm • Fraud • Gang • gang conflicts • gang rivalries • gang warfare • Generosity • ghetto violence • Google search • Hi-Hat • His Family • homie • illegal drug trade • income • Ingenuity • Instagram • Jeffrey Lane • Junior's • Kanye West • Law enforcement • Lil Durk • mansion • meal • micro-celebrity • Motherfucker • Music Industry • Music Video • music videos • New Media • obstacle • optimism • Ostracism • Outfit (retailer) • participant • Pierre Bourdieu • Police • Police Officer • Politician • popularity • Poverty • probation officer • Pseudonym • Rapper (electrostatic precipitation) • record label • representation of urban gang violence • Reputation • Robbery • security guard • self-brand • Selfie • self-made entrepreneur • Service economy • Shirt • shit • sibling • Skype • Snare Drum • Social Media • social media celebrity • social media fame • social media policing • Sociology • South Side Youth Violence Prevention Project • SSYVPP • street life • street violence • Taylor Park • Technology • text messaging • The Deed • The Digital Street • The Remaining • The Various • The Wire • To this Day • toughness • Twitter • Unemployment • Urban communities • Urban ethnography • Urban sociology • urban studies • urban violence • videographer • Violent crime • vulnerability • Website • Writing • Youth Culture • youtube
• ISBN-10: 0-691-20008-4 / 0691200084
• ISBN-13: 978-0-691-20008-8 / 9780691200088