Todd Callais, an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati's Blue Ash College, is one of the select sociologists from across the world to be named to present at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association.
Professor Callais' presentation, Music and Social Movements: Historical Hip-Hop Participation Frames and Modern Rap as Social Movement Participation, explores the evolution of hip-hop from party music into a political platform.
Callais focused on this particular music industry because of its impact on society and because there is a clear timeline.
"You can identify a beginning to the hip-hop culture that was fairly recent," said Professor Callais. "It started in the mid-70's and the performers were primarily interested in entertaining and expressing themselves. By the early to mid-90's performers began more consistently looking at hip-hop as a political opportunity with social movement implications."
He points to 'The Message' by Grandmaster Flash as the first song by a major artist to address social issues and achieve widespread popularity. It highlights the social and economic barriers that force many African-Americans to live in poverty in the inner city and the frustration that results from these inequalities.
Professor Callais uses 1995 as the turning point for this shift when hip-hop truly evolved into a platform for social movement. For his research, he interviewed 25 people involved with hip-hop before 1995 and 25 who were in the industry after. These included performers, writers, producers and critics.
"I argue in my presentation that musical participation in itself can be a social movement, as opposed to the soundtrack for a movement that is already happening, like we saw in the 1960's," said Professor Callais.
"Hip-hop gives performers another way to reach and influence a larger audience. Many of the rap artists in the last 15 to 20 years identify themselves as being more overtly political in their efforts."
He notes that the movement being led by key figures in the rap industry these days is countering the mainstream rap stereotypes of violence, misogyny and crime to help create a better image for rap music. The modern movement leaders ironically cite early hip-hop artists as their influences, even though these early artists may have lacked truly political intentions.
Professor Callais presented his research in a roundtable session titled Race and Ethnicity: Identities and Institutions. "I am really excited to have this opportunity to share my research and discuss it with other sociologists."