City Research Online

Abstract

This thesis critically examines the transformative function and the limitations of crosscultural elements in current musical practices in Israel, specifically, in Hip Hop practices in the urban context of the diverse neighbourhoods of South Tel Aviv. This study explores locales on border-areas of the urban space, investigating precisely how Hip Hop practitioners and their audiences negotiate identity, politics, and cross-cultural communication in an urban zone, which, even while it enables unprecedented intercultural encounters, is characterized by an overarching international conflict. Specific examples have been explored to illustrate how the diverse performers and audience members consciously embody the paradox of political disparity and co-existence through their eclectic musical idiom and through the social aspects of the music-making process and public performance.

My investigation shows how intercultural elements are negotiated in Hip Hop performances in contemporary Israeli urban space. Using an interdisciplinary approach, I propose and apply several theoretical frames of analysis. This multi-faceted framework allows the illustration of the complexity of the way in which the musical experience negotiates boundaries of identity and belonging. Amongst the theoretical frameworks are Homi Bhabha’s concept of thirdspace (1990) and Maurice Halbwach’s notion of local ‘collective memory’ (1941). My research locates the scope of investigation in a broad, abstract, transnational arena, and also in an analysis of the specific range of identities affected and potentially transformed by musical collaboration in a concrete and specific urban setting. The broad focus highlights how the Hip Hop groups under investigation operate and are regarded globally; the narrow scope enables an analysis of how, in the context of ethnic conflict and co-existence in contemporary Israel, identity construction and negotiation is experienced in different ways by the individuals physically co-existing in shared urban space.

Publication Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Subjects:	M Music and Books on Music > M Music
Departments:	Doctoral Theses School of Communication & Creativity > Performing Arts > Music School of Communication & Creativity > School of Communication & Creativity Doctoral Theses

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