In-Person Panel PS4.2

Language Use and Linguistic Diversity in the Popular Music from the Global South

Toxic Masculinity and Racism in Multilingual Rap Battles in Nepal

Bal Krishna Sharma, Gita Neupane

Existing research on global hip-hop has documented the creative appropriation of the English language and Western culture in diverse world contexts. The research has been mostly celebratory noting hip-hop as a productive site of linguistic activism, resistance to the standard language ideology and creative multilingualism. However, the research has scarcely investigated the other side of the phenomenon; that is, how linguistic creativity in hip-hop can perpetuate toxic societal ideologies. Keeping this concern at the center, this presentation aims to examine the dark side of multilingual creativity in street rap-battles, a specific form of hip-hop performance, in Nepal. Drawing theoretical inspirations from toxic masculinity (Sculos, 2017) and raciolinguistics (Rosa and Flores, 2017), we analyze lyrics and performances of 37 free-style rap battles that were performed between 2013 to 2017— a historically significant period when organized rap battles were first introduced in Nepal. We show how the creative mix of pop culture jargon from standard English, AAVE and the Nepali language perpetuates ideologies of sexism, racism and colorism. Findings show that it is not simply the case that masculinity is dominant in the interactive moments, but it is a particular type of masculinity (heterosexual, lighter-skinned, upper caste) that marginalizes other colors, ethnicities and sexualities. Many of these toxic ideologies are already pervasive in Nepali society but some (e.g., racism) travel to Nepal with the help of global rap and the English language. Finally, we will discuss the implications for the study of popular culture in the Asian context.  

Hip-hop for Social and Political Activism in Bangladesh: Possible Consequences

Shaila Sultana

Historically music has always played a significant role as a liberatory force and has also been a vehicle of social and political activism. Hip-hop, reggae, or rap, for example, have raised awareness about racism, ethnicism, colourism, or genderism across the world.  In recent times, the music industries in South Asia seem to be a fertile ground for hip-hop music and dance. Younger generations of music artists create opportunities to participate in organized social actions and civil resistance through the music genre. They challenge national, religious, political, and varied other forms of ideologies too. Hip-hop or rap has also been, on many occasions, critiqued for its ‘alien’ languages and culture in South Asia. The presentation, hence, examines the less researched hip-hop genre in Bangladesh to understand how the specific genre of music sustains varied forms of activism through multimodal resources. 

Ten lyrics and official music videos of five hip-hop groups established from the early 2000s to late 2020s in Bangladesh are analysed using the framework of transmodality propounded by Pennycook (2007). The lyrics are chosen based on the use of English and other linguistic and non-linguistic resources, and topics covered in the lyrics. A close analysis of the lyrics and music videos shows that hip-hop artists in Bangladesh use English and body gestures and postures associated with hip-hop culture from the Global North to identify themselves with greater hip-hop communities beyond the boundaries of their nation-states. The non-standard and regional varieties with their exaggerated stylized enunciation show that these varieties are the main source of activism for them. Taboo expressions, swear words, and provocative body gestures, which are socially denigrated, are extensively used in the hip-hop genre to draw attention to the corruption, dishonesty, and unlawful and undemocratic activities in their countries. The misogynistic expressions that exuberate toxic masculinity seem to be acceptable for the function too. In other words, local languages and non-standard and regional varieties of national languages and swear words are used to engage with local issues while English and semiotic repertoire associated with hiphop music play a vital role in connecting the local with the global and varied times and spaces.

The presentation, thus, on one hand, sheds light on the use of English, other multilingual and multimodal resources, and their functions in the hip-hop genre in the Bangladeshi context. It, on the other hand, explores if socially, culturally, and politically marginalised segments of society may use hip-hop to engage in alternative discourses and if yes, what possible consequences these alternative discourses incur as a result.

The Ordinariess of Linguistic Creativity in the Popular Music of Mongolia

Sender Dovchin

Recent debates in bi/multilingual studies have problematised some paradigms, such as codeswitching for reifying static language boundaries and for their inability to account for creative communicative practices. Instead, linguistic creativity has been re-introduced to capture the critical ‘languaging’ practices, which reflects the fluid movement between and across languages. Yet, this emerging tradition still tends to celebrate and thus exoticize the presumed linguistic creativity, although it is indeed ‘quite normal’ and ‘ordinary’ and by no means a new phenomenon. In so doing, scholarship inadvertently constructs a linguistic Other whose linguistic creativity is expected to be made legible according to normative epistemologies of diversity. 

Drawing on various popular music resources from contemporary Mongolia, this presentation is based on the premise that the analytic potential of bi/multilingual studies can be enhanced through a stronger focus on linguistic creativity as a reflective of everyday, mundane, and ordinary occurrences rather than of exotic, eccentric or unconventional ones. Linguistic creativity is neither to celebrate nor to deplore but something to observe and examine with interest like anything else. I conclude, following Higgins and Coen (2000, pp. 14-15), ‘we accept that as Homo sapiens, we are all the same in terms of genetic structure and cognitive potentiality … Beyond that, we do not think that as humans we have anything in common but our differences’ Linguistic creativity is rather ordinary – a necessary condition of linguistic ordinariness is its creativity.