The educational value of Elmo´s alphabet rap
Rap is often used as an educational tool. The question if this is appropriate or inappropriate, depends on the way rap is used. In this essay, I´ll research if rap, when reaching the alphabet, sung by Elmo of Sesame street, is a fitting example of educational rap.[1] For this, I´ll start with a brief history of HipHop; the subculture in which rap is located. After that, I’ll focus on the arguments for and against educational rap and eventually the analysis of Elmo’s alphabet rap regarding the educational value.
HipHop originated in the South Bronx of New York with the first known disc jockey; DJ Kool Herc in 1973. There was a need for a new kind of music in the ghetto, since disco wasn’t representative for the live full criminality, drugs and violence. With disco as an inspiration, DJ’s took the techniques of using two turning tables, so music could be turned continuously without interruption. De basis of Hiphop then became playing the instrumental breaks of the ‘hard funk’-tracks, so that people could dance on the ‘break beats’. They also took the usage of soundsystems and MC’s (master of ceremonies) from the reggae or ‘Jamaican’,[2] so people had the ability to ‘toast’ over the break beat. This toasting is a form of musically and rhythmically speaking and eventually evolved to become rap. Hiphop, and more specifically rap, is often used in the form of protest due to the cultural-historic association of the Afro-American community, the musical and textual possibilities and technological development in the usage of samples. Because of this, a ‘do it yourself’ characters evolved and the music genre got financially accessible.[3]
When we look at the musical characteristics, rap is based on rhythm and text. A common used technique is shaping the ‘verbal space’;
Verbal space is the pop song’s basic compromise: the words agree to work within the spaces of tonal music’s phrases, and the potential expressive intensity of music’s melody is held back for the sake of the clarity of verbal communication. Tonal music’s phrasing creates spaces which the words in performance occupy: we can visualize the combination of consistent phrasing and words producing [lines], the line being a feature which pop songs to an extent share with poems. I call the function of musical phrasing in pop songs verbal space.[4]
The words are often used syncopated with the drums, while the lyrics focus on the experiences of the Afro-American life. They raise topics surrounding sex, sexism, racism, criminality, while using the frustrations of ‘daily’ or ‘normal’ life as a contextual framework. You are able to state that the music functions as an outlet for anyone who identifies with the challenging circumstances of the American ghetto’s and obstacles of life. The rejection of family values and political incorrectness creates an aversion by society and labels the behaviour of majority of the rappers as ‘deviant’. Despite that, it’s a way to gain ‘tacit knowledge’ of the reality of living on the street through the use of real life stories and glocal street slang. Rap can be marked as ghetto-centric, resulting in a characterisation of cultural expression as a communal basis of knowledge about social conditions and interpretations; working as a cultural glue between different trans-nationalistic communities. Rap, thus, has the ability to convey individual and collective experiences to the rest of society. Therefore, listening to rap could be a way to grasp the Afro-American community, but also a way to grasp other communities who fight against the same wide spread common problems.[5]
Based on simple musical and rough textual characteristics, you could say that rap isn’t appropriate for educational purposes; since violent and sexistic language and behaviour gets romanticized. Next to that, the lyrics often contain symbolic and ideological critique on institutes. This frequently occurring critique if often focussed on educational systems and applicable standards, which rappers often couldn’t comply to, resulting in them being school drop-outs. This could, when taken as an example, leave a negative impact on the youth. In addition, the themes discussed in gangster rap, like the criminal practices and aversion to the police uniform aren’t socially motivating for youngsters as well.[6]
On the other side, rap offers added value considering identity, solidarity and emotional reinforcement; it is an educational tool with the possibility to influence norms, values and the behavior of young people. The critique on the educational system can function, through discursive practice, as a handle to shape the system into gaining a lower percentage of alienation. By using rap at school it could be a tool to inspire and motivate, but also to show youngsters why education matters and how they, creatively, are able to deal with (processing) setbacks. Besides, it could jack up the confidence of juniors with a feeling of rootlessness when becoming unreachable for the normative educational system. Due to rap these young people remain off the streets and learn how to gain focus, while working on their dreams. In addition, the overall critique on institutions stimulates the ability to critically think.[7]
Rap is implemented in a different educational manner in primary school, as the students, to a certain degree, do not yet experience any moral or identity related problems or insecurities. By making the students think about grammatical correction of rhyming bars, they are taught to creatively and correctly play with words. They heighten their vocabulary, but also realize how to convey a message and in what way grammar supports this message. Or so to say; it can be a means to playfully learn linguistics and stimulate creativity. Added to that a diverse cultural program can teach young people how to handle diversity, in which rap can’t be disconnected from culture. An intended result would be how the effect of how different cultural added values in consideration with life is viewed.[8]
Even though Elmo’s rap is labeled as rap, I’d would love to firstly look at its musical characteristics. The subtitling function of Youtube states that the music falls within the category of Funk. This would mean that we’d have to look at the first form of HipHop; considering that the first phase of HipHop was based on turning the instrumental parts of funk records.
In chapter 6 “Selling, Selling Out or Resisting Dominant Discourses? Rap and the Uses of Hip-hop Culture” from the book Beyond Subculture: Pop, Youth and Identity in a Postcolonial World (2006) by Rupa Huq, this is labeled as ‘party-rap’;[9] mixed based on danceability and careless texts to party. According to www.musicmap.info, funk is characterized by ‘the Rhythm of the One’ with a beat on the one and in the remaining measure a, in overall per bar or couple of bar, shifting rhythm, causing a ‘groovy’ feeling to emerge; called breakbeats. Percussion is supported by monotone riffs, a ‘slapping’ bass, brass and accentuating synths; to strengthen the pulse. The slapping bass is clearly hearable from 0:00 until 0:08 and mainly played in monotone riffs. The brass is introduced on 0:009. Elmo’s ‘call-and-response’ together with the brass and the ‘scatting’ at, for example, 0:52 are characterizing for the overarching genre rhythm & blues. The element of ‘shouting’, often used in rap, is also implemented at 1:01, when Elmo’s repeatedly shouts ‘yeah!’ in between the lyrics. Combined with Elmo’s rhythmical placement of the ‘words’ this could, musically, be defined as rap in its old-skool form.[10]
However, the musical characteristics seem to be the only characteristics present in the song that mark it as rap. The content of the words, for example, do not contain any authenticity; which is considered to be very valuable within the HipHop community, due to the value of personal experiences. These personal stories could, when considered authentic, yield some street credit. The lyrics do not only contain the alphabet, of which there is not really much to be changed, but the sentences in between seem to be variations of already existing ‘abc’-songs. The sentence ‘now I’ve said my ABC’ on 0:21, clearly functions as a variant of ‘Now I know my ABC’s’, while ‘Come on now and rap with me’ on 0:24, in its turn, is a substitution of ‘won’t you sing along with me?’. This simple regenerating of words could be considered by the HipHop-community as a form of white-washing and cultural appropriation. The authenticity that goes with the hard ghetto-life isn’t seen within the happy music and sound of Elmo’s voice. Combined with the starting point of rap against commercialism and the absent child-friendliness, the question arises if Sesame street is the right channel to implement rap, at all. Especially with eye on the feeling of ‘moral panic’ that rap appeals to many. On the other hand, the most common form of the alphabet song was written on the melody of piano composition Ah vous dirai-je, Maman K. 265/300e by Amadeus Mozart. This might not be the most approachable form for every community, due to its classic western background. By changing up the music style, Sesame street creates recognition for children from other cultures and ethnicities as a result of which it becomes more attractive and reaches a larger audience.
The question, however, turns out to be if kids who are learning the alphabet are unreachable for a form of classical musical of the alphabet song or if Sesame street had another reason for using rap. In my opinion, children are not going to be aware of this; the form really doesn’t matter as music just functions as a fun way of learning. The genre doesn’t really offer an added value compared to other music genres; it is specifically used for cultural reasons. A possible reason, for the black community, would be the fear of loosing and a feelings of nostalgia towards their own culture. This could lead to pushing the western culture aside. Besides, the ‘classical western’ schooled kids are given an insight in another community through music, while it also offers an opening for children of ‘rootless’ families to participate in the education of the ‘socially mobile elite’. It could, in extreme cases, even take over the role of an absent parent, due to the active attitude of Elmo. Off course, the image that is drawn of carelessly rapping the alphabet doesn’t stroke with the reality and challenges of the HipHop community; partly caused by their backgrounds. The image is, for age-appropriate reasons, romanticized. You could even speak of the use of stereotypes, as rap is implemented to draw on a larger audience with the help of generalizing and implying that this other target group is reached by using ‘their’ music genre, instead of putting faith in individuals with a personal taste. Opposite to that, the content of the rap goes against the stereotyping of rap; as it often gets associated with violence, sexism and neglected and broken families.
Looking at the function of the lyrics; to teach grammatical knowledge, I’ll get back at the question about the implied targeted audience. The lyrics won’t bring the audience anything another musical genre isn’t able to do, which writes the argument of educational rap functioning as grammatical and emotional teaching material off. Does it contribute to the basis of creative linguistics? That’s difficult to make hard, as these kids probably aren’t able to read or write a word. Let alone whether each kid that listens to it is able to talk yet.
Besides, I believe that listening to complex rhythmical structures of the music, combined with the placement of the text, could indeed contribute to the intellectual development of a child. The brains will process the awareness of tempo, which could contribute to the extent of a child being mathematically intellectual. The brains, considering time, unconsciously count evenly; which causes the child to be able to sing and clap along. Adding to that, I believe, that arithmetic is one of the skills that should be developed as early as possible, as it promotes logic and insight. This shifts the problem, of having a young targeted audience, to gaining a positive side. It could also be an introduction for young kids to the concept of mnemonics; which the abc-song certainly is a version of. And so, the kids could learn the art of thinking in connections; which underlies the skill of creative thinking, but also the skill of independently learning. Eventually, the musical form of education offers the child self-confidence, when the song is sung along. It also gives the possibility to raise the ability to listen and concentrate for a long period of time, as they attentively focus on the order of the letters. Lastly, clapping or dancing with the music could support motoric development.
In conclusion, I’ll look at rap as a part of the subculture HipHop and Ken Gelders definition of a subculture from Subcultures: Cultural histories and social practice (2007). He argues that six principles could influence youth cultures: i) a negative relationship with work, ii) a dismissive feeling against social classes, iii) associations with territories, iv) a movement away from homely connectiveness, v) excess and exaggeration and vi) a rejection of the everydayness of normal life. Besides, a subculture marks as ‘fluid’ in the way that it always moves related to her relationship with the context of its time.[11]
Elmo’s alphabet rap could actually, as a result of this definition of a subculture, not be a part of the subculture of HipHop. The rap contains no negative relations towards work, when work is considered to be an extension of the schoolsystem. Sesame Street even offers a base of learning capabilities for children which could lead to better results at school. Because the medium if the daily returning kids-program Sesame Street, the ‘rejection of the everydayness of normal life’ is also not an issue. Contrary to that, the rap actually accepts the everydayness of a normal kids’ life by the use of playful learning. Also the aspects of rejecting classes and appropriating territories aren’t represented in the Youtube-video. The possibility, however, arises that these aspects are to be found in the context of Sesame Street’s episode itself. Anyway, I do supposed, based on the untrustworthiness of a speculative assumption, that these elements are to be absent. Besides, they could have position Elmo within a ghetto district wearing clothes associated with HipHop, based on stereotypes, to emphasize this context. The creators, however, choose to keep the form neutral, as a result of which excess and exaggeration can be crossed out as well. In addition, the television is situated, with most families, in the center of the living room; which present the homely aspect. A movement away from homely connectiveness is, thus, also vacant.
Overall, Sesame Street contains the subcultural background of rap, namely HipHop, stripped down to the musical characteristics of rap, as a result of which they lost sight of the authentic culture. You could state that they tried to embrace the fluid nature of subcultures. Although, it inclines more, due to the almost complete absence of the subculture, towards a form of cultural appropriation. The possibility exists that this will evoke an anger within the HipHop community, causing them to dissociate from societies supported educational system to an even greater extent than before. By erasing cultural and contextual characteristics completely, based on the negative stereotype carried by rap, focused on the child-inappropriateness and ‘moral panic’, they created a form of rap that educationally contributes to the development of the intellectual, communicative and linguistic skills of a child.
Despite the musical advantages, I find it a bad example of educational rap, as the music genre, besides the musical characteristics, is founded through its social context. By erasing this social context, you’ll erase the fundament on which the musical characteristics are based; leaving them without any further value. Besides, the added value of these characteristics aren’t connected to the genre of HipHop, but to music overall. The more classical forms of music also contain complicated rhythmical structures. And to top that, the orchestral branch of music contains more musical and instrumental variation, and thus more possibilities to enjoy the advantages of musical education. It seems so, that the application of rap only offers us a diverse image; while the added value is the same as using any other musical educational abc-song. And so it is safe to say that rap’s educational potential lies within the area of rhythm, while this potential doesn’t exclusively belong to rap.
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[1] ‘Sesame Street: Elmo Sings Rap Alphabet Song,’ Youtube video, 1:29, geplaatst door ‘Sesame
Street,’ 9 april 2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0WELUxl7gc.
[2] Kwinten Crauwels, JAMAICAN (music)/Reggae (België: Musicmap, 2016) http://musicmap.info/# .
[3] ‘The hip hop years part 1,’ Youtube video, 49:43, geplaatst door ‘Firehouse SoundLabs,’ 6 januari, 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhrSlOa2bsA; Ken Gelder, “6. Subculture, Music, Nation,” in Subcultures: Cultural histories and social practice (Routledge, 2007), 107-121.
[4] Dai Griffiths, “3. From lyric to anti-lyric: analyzing the words in pop song,” in Analyzing Popular Music, ed. Allan F. Moore (Cambridge University Press, 2003), 43.
[5] Catherine Tabb Powell, “Rap Music: An Education with a Beat from the Street,” The Journal of Negro Education 60, no. 3 (zomer 1991), 245; Wayne Au, “Fresh out of School: Rap Music's Discursive Battle with Education,” in The Journal of Negro Education 74, No. 3 (zomer 2005), 216; Rupa Huq, “6. Selling, Selling Out or Resisting Dominant Discourses? Rap and the Uses of Hip-hop Culture,” in Beyond Subculture: Pop, Youth and Identity in a Postcolonial World (Routledge, 2006), 112.
[6] Powell, “Rap Music: An Education with a Beat from the Street,” 245, 256, 257; Wayne Au, “Fresh out of School: Rap Music's Discursive Battle with Education,” 216, 217; Huq, “6. Selling, Selling Out or Resisting Dominant Discourses? Rap and the Uses of Hip-hop Culture,” 116, 117.
[7] Powell, “Rap Music: An Education with a Beat from the Street,” 245, 256, 257; Wayne Au, “Fresh out of School: Rap Music's Discursive Battle with Education,” 216, 217; Huq, “6. Selling, Selling Out or Resisting Dominant Discourses? Rap and the Uses of Hip-hop Culture,” 111, 123-125.
[8] Huq, “6. Selling, Selling Out or Resisting Dominant Discourses? Rap and the Uses of Hip-hop Culture,” 128.
[9] Huq, “6. Selling, Selling Out or Resisting Dominant Discourses? Rap and the Uses of Hip-hop Culture,” 114.
[10] Kwinten Crauwels, ‘Early Funk & P-Funk,’ in Rhythm & Blues (R&B) (België: Musicmap, 2016) http://musicmap.info/# .
[11] Ken Gelder, Subcultures: Cultural histories and social practice (Routledge, 2007), 3, 4.
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Used Literature
Au, Wayne. “Fresh out of School: Rap Music's Discursive Battle with Education.” The Journal of Negro Education 74, No. 3 (zomer 2005): 210-220.
Crauwels, Kwinten. Rhythm & Blues (R&B) (België: Musicmap, 2016). http://musicmap.info/#.
> Jamaican (music)/Reggae (België: Musicmap, 2016). http://musicmap.info/#.
Gelder, Ken. Subcultures: Cultural histories and social practice. New York & Londen: Routledge, 2007.
Griffiths, Dai. “3. From lyric to anti-lyric: analysing the words in pop song.” In Analyzing Popular Music, ed. door Allan F. Moore (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 39-59.
Huq, Rupa. Beyond Subculture: Pop, Youth and Identity in a Postcolonial World. Routledge, 2006.
Powell, Catherine Tabb. “Rap Music: An Education with a Beat from the Street.” In The Journal of Negro Education 60, no. 3 (zomer 1991): 245-259.
‘Sesame Street: Elmo Sings Rap Alphabet Song.’ Youtube video, 1:29. Geplaatst door ‘Sesame Street.’ 9 april 2010. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0WELUxl7gc.
‘The hip hop years part 1.’ Youtube video, 49:43. Geplaatst door ‘Firehouse SoundLabs.’ 6 januari, 2011. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhrSlOa2bsA.