Poverty In Popular Music

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Throughout America’s history, the country has dealt with many circumstances in our society, and poverty is one of these social problems. In certain popular songs, there are lyrics that address poverty as a social problem that continuously affects only the low class. So, what are the similarities, and differences in music artists’ lyrics that define the framework of poverty within contemporary society? Furthermore, I will show comparisons with three other media sources to give a greater understanding of commentary other researchers discussing poverty.
My music analysis research origins from sources of five songs of various artists directed towards the adolescence teens, and young adults in minorities groups. In which, I analyzed the music lyrics dealing with poverty ranging from two songs in the genre of rhythm and blues, two songs in the genre of Hip-Hop, and one song in the genre of pop music culture. The rappers and singers that recorded the lyrical songs have backgrounds ranging from mostly urban to little rural areas. The five analyzed songs have a timespan of seven years ranging from 1998 to 2005. Again, the lyrics in the songs provided similarities and differences addressing the issue of poverty.
Similarities
The music songs I analyzed indicated three similarities in their context addressing the evil …show more content…

But in comparison to my studies, it indicated that illiteracy was the root of poverty in society. And how schooling and music is countermeasure in fighting poverty. “ In conjunction with a solid core curriculum in schools music education has been shown to ensure higher enrollment rates, lower drop-out rates and increased academic performance. Among the benefits of increased and steady enrollment rates is an increased literacy – a necessary step in the fight against poverty” (Berg,