How hip-hop musicians learn: Strategies in informal creative music making

Abstract

The study of informal musical learning outside institutional settings, such as schools, has proved to contribute important knowledge to aspects of music education. Hip-hop, as an example of informal musical learning, has so far been quite an unexplored field for research. The present study investigates music creation within two hip-hop groups (communes) in Sweden. The focus is on the creative learning process and the meeting between music and lyrics (the texts). The groups were given a beat/background, composed by a 'beatmaker', on the basis of which they were asked to create a hip-hop tune. The process, which took place in a recording studio with a sound engineer, was observed and videotaped. After the recording sessions, both groups watched the videotape and made comments on their working processes (stimulated recall). Pre-interviews were carried out with both groups, and in addition, the 'beatmaker' was interviewed. The results show that in the creative process, which is collective in character, the lyrics are superior to the music. Although the groups use the same ready-made music backgrounds, the lyrics are different and very personal. The text, which includes music and lyrics, is cyclical and is made using a 'collage' method. It is full of intertextuality, i.e. references to other lyrics, movies and commercials.