Virtual communities and hip‐hop music consumers in Singapore: interplaying global, local and subcultural identities

Abstract

Activities and pursuits in leisure worlds often occur within subcultural contexts. Subcultural studies, however, have often premised the formation and existence of subcultures on the local. Wider local cultures have often been thought to have an impact on these subcultures. Even where subcultures have been 'imported' into a particular locality from another local setting, the focus has often been on how the subculture has been 'localized' by the 'importing' locality. This study offers an alternative perspective on leisure subcultures, with reference to the advent of the Internet as a new Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The Internet will be shown here to allow subcultural identities to be made flexible, where various local subcultural identities are able to fuse into a global subcultural identity, or retain their local flavours, as the situation permits. The case study of hip-hop music consumers in Singapore and their involvement in virtual communities on the Internet will be used to show the fluidity in identity formation and maintenance brought about by this new ICT. It will be shown here that local cultures and the globalized hip-hop culture which is associated with African American culture is evoked variably according to the specifics of the interactions of these hip-hop consumers in virtual communities.

The global hip-hop Diaspora: Understanding the culture

“…The Internet facilitates interaction among hip-hop consumers and helps promote commonalities in issues discussed, knowledge of hiphop community current events, and language patterns (Mattar, 2003). Further, record companies, print media and musicians promote the global hip-hop culture (Condry, 2000a).…”

Locked down leisure in Britain

“…Today, communities are not just sustained but can be created online (see Mattar, 2003). During lockdown, Zoom became a household name rather than a niche service for businesses and professions.…”

Popular cultural cringe: language as signifier of authenticity and quality in the Singaporean popular music market

“…The anecdotal evidence used in this article has been cleaned up for academic presentation. Where respondents had used colloquial Singapore English, their expressions have been converted to standard English, as has been done elsewhere (Mattar 2003b). Firstly, the notation of ‘…’ represents a break in the respondent's monologue, especially when the researcher (myself) had interjected with a question or asked for clarification.…”