Paper short abstract:

The paper will present ethnographic material from various park groups, and will try to explore the meaning of Black Music for marginalised park kids in Vienna - adolescents who spend most of their time in parks and public space and places.

Paper long abstract:

All young people need to be with their peers. They seek to meet, and it is most important to see and be seen (scene). Special and very obvious groups are adolescents who spend most of their time in parks and public space and places. These teenagers are regarded here as marginalised by society due to several reasons, belonging to low-income families and non-access to costly leisure time activities included. These young people, while inevitably feeling the economic pressure, act according to their means: they leave their often small homes and acquire considerable social and cultural skills by using public space and places for meeting, playing, sports, dancing, and sexual activities.

In 1997, Street Heroes for park kids were Michael Jackson, Tupac, Ronaldo, Muhammed Ali, and Michael Jordan. Graffiti and BreakDance as favorite pastimes were well established in youth centers. Via MTV, Gangster Rap (Snoop Dogg) entered parks and parties. Presently, HipHop from Germany has been modified into Viennese park style by some groups, mainly as mode of expression, aggression, and myths of male dominance. For park groups, black music cultures - mainly gangster rap - serve as models for fighting discrimination and for seeking their images of self.

The paper will present ethnographic material from various park groups, and will try to explore the meaning of Black Music for marginalised park kids in Vienna.

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