Digital media, subcultural activity and youth participation: the cases of protest rap and graffiti in Portugal

ABSTRACT

Over the last decade, we have witnessed the emergence of an academic debate surrounding the relationship between youth and the ‘new media’, with a particular emphasis on the social uses of different digital technologies within the sphere of youth activity. A specific area of research has been dedicated to studying the use of digital media in the context of the so-called youth subcultures. With this article we expect to contribute to this ongoing debate, by examining the problem through an analysis of two interconnected case studies: protest rap and illegal graffiti. Both cases may be defined as subcultures, insofar as they are characterized as alternative, subterranean, and to a certain extent, subversive movements. The empirical ground for this discussion is based on several investigations, with a qualitative basis, carried out by the authors in the course of over a decade in Portugal. This extended time frame allowed ample access to a diversified and matured analytical material and enabled a better perspective of the developments and the mutations involving the appropriation of the digital media. Our researches have shown that digital media and technologies have been gradually integrated in these urban youth subcultures, accomplishing several strategic roles.

KEYWORDS:

• Youth subcultures
• participation
• digital media
• hip-hop/rap and graffiti

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

José Alberto Simões http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1328-5255

Ricardo Campos http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4689-0144

Notes

1. See Mckay (1998) for youth activities characterized by an ‘anti-system’ or counter-cultural orientation also known as Do it yourself cultures. In connection to anti-globalization movements in Europe and South America, see Feixa, Costa, and Saura (2002); regarding the recent protests using online social networks in Spain and elsewhere, see Feixa and Nofre (2013). We have also been researching this last dimension on a recent project on youth activism in Portugal, called ‘Networked Youth Activism’.

2. Activity practiced by an MC (Master of Ceremonies), rap singer or simply rapper.

3. Activity practiced by a DJ, Disk Jockey, or someone playing records in a way to produce the sonority typical of rap music.

4. Particularly from Portuguese ex-colonies.

5. Tag is the pseudonym created by the writer and the signature, the graphic identity disseminated throughout the urban landscape.

6. A crew amounts to a group of writers acting collectively and assuming a collective identity.

7. A feature of rap, with a strong element of improvisation, which consists in producing beats (vocal sounds that set the rhythm for a music).

8. Jam Sessions are meetings between several rappers and DJs that result in a collective session of musical improvisation. The circumstances and venues where they take place are variable, although public spaces are the most common.

9. According to the data provided by Obercom (2015), internet access by Portuguese families soared during the last decade: in 2002, only 15% of families had internet access in their homes, while in 2014 the number had risen to 65%. Nevertheless, these numbers show relevant asymmetries at the regional level, as well as according to age range and level of education.

10. This is a generational and symbolical distinction, opposing the ‘old’ to the ‘new’ schools as paradigmatic models of the hip-hop experience, the former being linked to the movement’s original roots.

11. By ‘legal’ graffiti, we understand commissioned works or those works that are done with the permission of proprietors and/or the authorities.

12. Cova da Moura is a clandestine neighborhood in the outskirts of Lisbon. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, it became a destination for immigrants, mainly from the African Portuguese ex-colonies. The rappers LBC, Kromo di Gueto, Djoeck, Jackson, who are cited in this paper, live in this neighborhood.

13. Typically performed at night and unwitnessed except for the participants.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology/Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) [grant numbers EXPL/IVC-COM/2191/2013 and SFRH/BPD/99671/2014]; Interdisciplinary Centre of Social Sciences/ Centro Interdisciplinar de Ciências Sociais – CICS.NOVA – FCSH-UNL [UID/SOC/04647/2013] is also supported by national funds through FCT/MEC.