Beating the Odds
What NWA did was against all odds. They come out of one of the worst cities in the United States. They were the first hip-hip rap group who wrote what they saw in their everyday life. They inspired lots of musicians and artist down the road. They were also a victim to racial discrimination and police brutality. All of these things could be looked at to as why their music was such a hit. Uses and gratification theory can help explain why their music and shows sold so much. Utwente.nl explains uses and gratification by stating, “Uses and gratifications theory attempts to explain the uses and functions of the media for individuals, groups, and society in general. There are three objectives in developing uses and gratifications theory: 1) to explain how individuals use mass communication to gratify their needs. “What do people do with the media”. 2) to discover underlying motives for individuals’ media use. 3) to identify the positive and the negative consequences of individual media use. At the core of uses and gratifications theory lies the assumption that audience members actively seek out the mass media to satisfy individual needs” (par.2). Trying to understand how and why their music had so much success could be the up-lifting beats or the fact it’s never been heard before. Their music was first of it’s kind and what these young men did will live on forever. Looking at this movie through perspectives of theory’s shines a different light on areas that I have never thought of like all the choices they are confronted with. With all of the oppression this group had I am glad their story will never be forgotten.
Word count — 280
References
Mass Media | Uses and Gratifications Approach. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.utwente.nl/en/bms/communication-theories/sorted-by-cluster/Mass-Media/Uses_and_Gratifications_Approach/
