An analysis of the popular press reception to two controversial texts about "blacks": Spike Lee's Do the right thing and N.W.A's Straight outta Compton

Abstract

I am not entirely sure why, but there is something about popular culture that affects me deeply. I felt compelled to pursue a study of popular culture because it seemed like an area in which I would question my pleasures within a challenging critical framework. In particular, music and film have been passions of mine for a considerable time. Constructions (and the effects of these constructions) of "difference" have proven interesting to me as areas of analysis throughout my undergraduate degrees. This might be partly due to the extensive travel I have done, but mainly I think it is due to my experience of being an "Other" within the ethnic framework of New Zealand. As an aspiring artist too, I am interested in how my "Otherness" could potentially affect how any texts I create would be read by an audience - especially if they are interpreted in a way contrary to my original intentions. As a writer, I am also interested in the way language is used, and the power inherent in the use of specific words in particular contexts. The way a text operates within a cultural framework has also been a primary concern to me, as a text is not created or consumed within a vacuum. All this played a large role in the formulation of my key concerns in this thesis.