Head-nodders, Gang Signs, and Bounce: Authenticating Music-Accompanying Body Practices in Rap.

Eisewicht, Paul; Dietrich, Marc

Abstract

(Youth) scenes are often described as micro- or social subcultures that form around a specific theme, are linked to ways of acting oriented towards it and are stabilised by their own norms and values. What appears chaotic and incomprehensible from the outside is a coherent, consistent and vivid whole from the inside perspective. From this perspective, the text deals with the largely unexplored practice of bouncing in rap as a specific music-accompanying bodily practice. By means of a material analysis of the connection between rap music, the self-presentation of rappers and the music-accompanying actions of concert-goers, it is to be shown that such specific actions are by no means arbitrary, but are embedded in the scene's knowledge predecessor and can be interpreted with a view to this.