Political Science 461 – Senior Thesis in Political Science
ASSIGNMENT: Argument
Due Friday, October 17 by 5:00PM e-mail: mag@csupomona.edu
No late assignments will be accepted.
The new research question that I am going to go with is, Does the content in rap music mirror the trends in public activity, specifically in California and New York. I will probably be altering that question a little as I do more research, but the elements are going to stay the same. I want to examine to what extent does rap music play a role in civic order. I want to follow the trends from when rap music became main stream to now and visually present any trends. I wanted to have a topic that had more quantifiable data.
The argument is that rap music, from its main stream emergence in the early 1980’s to now, does contain a direct correlation to public activity; weather it is positive or negative. I want to be able to show that the trends in word usage within in various top selling albums entice the corresponding actions.
The Cause would be the specific content in rap music from early 1980 to now. The effect would be the overall public activity within California and New York.
The means of proving my argument would be on analysis of current data along with surveys. I would be using causal research and analysis that comes from the California and New York Population; maybe within a certain age group, one that is most likely to listen to rap music. Also by survey experiments; 33 people will answer 10-20 questions posed to evoke stress, anger or sympathy. 11 people will answer these questions while (or right after) listening to significantly violent, aggressive and/or degrading lyrics. 11 people will answer these questions while/or right after listening to positive and/or empowering music. And 11 people will answer these questions while listening to no music. Lastly, archival research by pulling up official data on criminal/public activity (maybe within a certain age group) from the early 1980’s to now.
I intend on measuring my cause by identifying the top 5 selling albums (or downloads) from the early 1980’s to now and literally count specific words ( Ill need to determine the slang equivalent to some of the key words I am looking for. For example ratchet might be slang for promiscuous) that are used in the lyrics. I intend on measuring my effect by quantifying the number of various acts that were reported during the time a particular album in released, and see if there is a correlation. Example: Album 1 used the words “kill, 187, shoot, stab, etc” “X” amount of times; within the same time frame how many assaults were reported? Did that