Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Researching Research

So I've done a little digging around trying to figure out what I want to study when we finally make the jump to Berlin.

At first, I tried to explore how technology development and the proliferation of social media has affected the youth in Berlin. Alas, I didn't have much luck finding any substantial information or resources on modern technology use in Berlin, any searching I did mainly led me to stuff about national science research on physics, chemistry, etc... Not really what I'm into.

So I decided to go in a different direction and explore the music scene in Berlin. Once I started going down this path, I was overwhelmed by the amount of stuff I found; the music scene in Berlin is HUGE and very diverse. The typically underrepresented people of Berlin, especially immigrants, seem to use music as an outlet for their political expression, adding another layer of appeal to the music scene. This also results in a powerful underground presence that is usually either politically/socially charged, or culturally experimental.

Specifically, I'm interested in exploring electronic and hip hop; both genres are big in Berlin, and both have a huge underground presence that is fueled by the youth and immigrant populations. From the brief research I've done, it seems that the hip hop/rap scene blew up with influence from the States, but then quickly lost force and went underground. Since then, it's developed in it's own direction, but that direction is influenced by the starting point of American rap and hip hop. By contrast, the electronic scene has developed independently, and has been pretty influential to other parts of the world. I think comparing the two would be very interesting, in addition to looking into the effects the music scene as a whole functions as an outlet for political and social expression.

Here are a couple sources I skimmed across in my research:

Maybe when I get over there, I'll be able to find some more resources on technology in Berlin. If not, I'll be perfectly happy exploring the booming music scene; it's already got my attention a little hooked!

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