Video Production

    The next aspect of underground hip hop in the UK which I wish to consider is video production on websites such as YouTube.  Such a website serves as an accessible space for underground hip hop culture producers in the UK to publish their work.  Through various types of videos such as music, personal, or promotional cultural producers of UK hip hop use websites such as YouTube capitalize on the sites structure in regards to the nature of taste and preference.  Culture producers within the underground hip hop scene in the UK use Henry Jenkins' ideas of what makes certain texts spreadable to ensure their popularity.  The first time underground hip hop culture in the UK was spread to me was through my younger brother.  He played me a song called Pork Pie by a rapper by the name of Dirty Dike.




    My brother has always been an avid explorer of music and much of my taste in music comes from listening to what he has to show me.  This an example of the most essential form of semiotic productivity which John Fiske calls enunciative productivity (2).  While not all instances of enunciated productivity are exclusively oral, the face-to-face method of sharing popular culture seems to be the most influential in shaping taste.  Initially, my knowledge of underground hip hop in the UK was solely what my brother told me.  I later discovered that artists such as Dirty Dike have music videos posted to YouTube.  The accessibility of YouTube allows for a wide range of tastes to be present, all fighting for the attention of the browsing users.  When one selects a video to watch within YouTube, the structural function of the site is such that videos are suggested for you.  The suggested videos are based on their similarity in name or content to the video which the user selected.  Suggestions are also influenced by the user's previous views, along with the videos selected by users with similar tastes or interests.  John Fiske claims "many fans report that their choice of their object of fandom was determined at least as much by the oral community they wished to join as by any of its inherent characteristics" (2).  Interestingly, YouTube seems to work in a way that places users within a "oral" community based on their established interests, even in instances such as mine where I didn't even know such an online "oral" community existed.  This categorizing and community creating nature of YouTube encourages the development of underground sub-cultures such as the hip hop scene in the UK.  Crucial to the development of these communities created is the accessibility and spreadability of the content around which they are created.
    In order for the videos produced on YouTube to be increasingly accessible it must be suggested as often as possible, and in order to increase the suggestibility there must be views on those videos, and according to Henry Jenkins, the best way to gain views is to ensure spreadability.  The question is then, what makes a video spreadable?  Jenkins discusses a number of critical points a text can touch upon in order to qualify as spreadable.  When he points out motivations to share media texts, he suggests that one of the reasons is to establish the boundaries of an "in-group" (Jenkins).  I feel this applies to the sharing of music videos on YouTube.  Members of the underground hip hop community on YouTube share music videos do so "because individual responses to such content helps them determine who does or does not belong in their community" (Jenkins).  By gauging the tastes of their broader community, they are determining the boundaries of the smaller community of hip hop music to which they subscribe.  Jenkins also discusses the reasons one might promote a brand saying that such "content gives expressive form to some deeply held perception or feeling about the world" which is especially true in the case of the emotion nature of music.  Much of underground hip hop in the UK is aggressive both instrumentally and lyrically.  Rappers complain about the state of British society and politics which is a ground on which many young English people can relate.  In the case of non-music videos produced within the underground UK hip hop scene, the spreadability tends to be more closely related to humor.



    The video above is a compilation of popular lines recited by a successful rap battler featured in many Don't Flop videos.  Videos such as these appeal to the spreadability of humor (Jenkins).  Particularly applicable to this rappers style is Jenkins' point on absurd humor.  He says that along with parody, absurd humor is often the most successfully spread.  In the beginning of the video above, there is an ad for a T-shirt featuring one of Oshea's most famous lines.  It reads "I'm so gangster I once had a shit on a shark" (Best of Oshea).  Jenkins discusses the natural way people enjoy sharing humorous content, but he also notes how when attempts at humor fall flat, they can "inject awkwardness into any situation and induce a sense of alienation" which is a detriment to any attempt at spreadability (Jenkins).  In the case of Don't Flop videos, it is the nature of rap battles to produce those awkward moments when a rapper recites a line that does not land with their audience.  Don't Flop videos have an advantage over other spreadable videos in this case because watching the crowd react to a terribly un-funny verse is almost as hilarious as a clever play on words.  The successful creation of spreadable videos is unsurprising when one considers that it comes from a community of incredibly aware and savvy users of social networks.

Works Cited

Fiske, John. (1992) "The Cultural Economy of Fandom," in The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media ed. Lisa. A. Lewis. New York: Routledge, 1992.  30-49

Jenkins, Henry, Xiaochnag Li, Ana Domb Drauskopf, and Joshua Green. (2009). "If It Doesn't Spread, It's Dead." (part 1-8).