Sociological Imagination: An Analysis of Rap Music's Influence

This report examines the sociological imagination through the lens of rap music. It begins with an introduction to sociology and the concept of sociological imagination, differentiating it from common sense. The main body of the report analyzes the evolution of rap music, its initial societal perception, and the controversies surrounding it, including its use of strong language and its impact on societal views. The report explores how rap music has evolved, influencing social awareness and offering messages of hope and motivation. It concludes that sociology is crucial for understanding the cultural changes within rap music and its impact on societal progress, noting the shift in acceptance of rap music over time and its influence on social change. The report uses various academic sources and references to support its findings, emphasizing the importance of understanding social processes and challenging common sense understandings through sociological investigation.

Sociological
Imagination

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Sociology deals with the study of the behaviour of humans. It deals with the study which
relates to the change in the behaviour of society, interactions between the the people of society,
changes in their relationships, etc. (Blommaert, 2018). It mainly deals with the impact of the
society on its behaviour due to the change in the culture, structure, action of any other human,
etc. in the society.
MAIN BODY
Common sense mainly being known as a simple and general judgement or a perception of
a person on certain things which can also be said as an observation of a person on life and the
things going around them. This actually complies the knowledge and also the experience of a
person about the matters, the person at their instance tries to do certain things which are being
done by them in a applicable manner and they embodied there idea of thinking about certain
areas. As with the use of the nature and the age experience people tries to sociologically active in
their thought process and behave and work with their thinking ability that can be termed as a
common sense merely it is the judging ability of a person to the world.
Sociological understanding can be explained as the knowledge of evaluating the human
behaviour and their interaction or the culture, This means that the knowledge and understanding
of any person on various life's issues such as religion, race, family their stability in the society
that simply means that when a person has a experience and they can easily deal with all types of
affection, crime, conflicts by not indulging in a wrong direction and illuminating the way
through which life can be lived.
Common sense and sociological understanding has the similarity as they both come from
the knowledge and the experience of a person about certain world and there is always a persons
perception about the society and the things which is usually being dealt so the both attain the
same reflection of thoughts of person about ideas (Denzin, 2018).
The major difference between both of them is that common sense can be about any
perception of a person but sociological understanding always considers the thought of a person
on their family or their personal relation with one another it covers the affection, attachment and
conflicts being raised.

Sociological investigation is important as it helps the person to know about the change in
nature and their environment with the observation and determination of thinking ability of the
person. Thus, this helps then person to expand their ideas of thoughts about well being.
Rapping is a form of music where vocal delivery is made which includes some rhythm
that can be vocalised over different beats and in various ways (Gaikwad, 2020). The Rap culture
mainly started in 1970's when the DJ's to keep the crowd full with energy started adding jokes
and also indulges in funny conversations with the audience. Initially Rap music was not
encouraged by many of the people because the rap was mostly about women's character, physical
intimidation, violence, homophobia, etc. These topics were enjoyed only by few people but were
criticised by many. With the increase in the awareness of rapping, there were many new trends
which evolved the rapping in different forms. This also changed the view of the society and their
perception for the rapping. There were many controversies and negativity which surrounded
rapping but in-spite of all these it had positive influence on lives of many people and this is how
it got expanded and appraised by the society.
Rap music was initially misunderstood because of the strong language and bad influence
on the people. Instead of all the negativity still people were drawn towards rapping. This genre
was badly criticised by the media because of its bad influence in the mind of people. With the
changes in trend people started to rap on the social matters to raise awareness in the society. This
also influenced the society and draws attention of the people. It was concluded by many socialist
that even though rap is using strong language and inappropriate statements, it still is famous
because of the meaning and message which is being given to the society to raise awareness.
Rap music do not only create awareness but also raise hope in mind of the people.
Initially they talk about the struggles in their raps and later after achieving success they talk
about how to be more successful. This all talking through rap with the audience help society to
be hopeful and work in direction to accomplish the goals in their lives (Jørgensen, 2017). Rap
music is now also used as a therapy to motivate people of the society to do better in their lives.
Rap is widely appraised for the motivating people and creating hope for better good.
Although rap music was initially about the enjoyment or to add fun in the parties but later
it becomes a way of communication. This is the platform where a person can talk their hear out
in form of music and convey a message to the society.

It takes a lot of time for a society to accept the change and adopt it (Kushins and Behounek,
2020). Common sense of a person can only help a person to conclude to the statement which
they already know. Sociology helps a person to see and learn things which are not known by
research, surveys, talking to people, etc. and then helps a person to accordingly change thinking
which will further help them to adapt changes.
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from this report that sociology is very important for studying all the
cultural changes, values, etc. of rap music. Initially with the introduction of rap music and
unfamiliarity with this genre, audience did not respond to the music positively. After the
evolution and change in the trends and music culture, rap became famous widely. Many social
changes were made which helped the society progress and adopt new changes. Sociology helped
in understanding the importance, culture and what exactly was the impact of rap music on the
society.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Blommaert, J., 2018. Durkheim and the Internet: On sociolinguistics and the sociological
imagination. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Denzin, N.K., 2018. A Global Community and the Sociological Imagination. In The Qualitative
Manifesto (pp. 11-22). Routledge.
Gaikwad, V., 2020. SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION.
Jørgensen, A., 2017. Chicago vice and virtue: The poetic imagination meets the sociological
imagination. In Imaginative Methodologies in the Social Sciences (pp. 23-54).
Routledge.
Kushins, E.R. and Behounek, E., 2020. Developing a sociological imagination of families in
family business research. In A Research Agenda for Family Business. Edward Elgar
Publishing.