Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 6-21-2019 1:00 PM "I Need to Fight the Power, But I Need that New Ferrari": Conspicuous Consumption, New-School Hip-hop and "the New Rock & Roll" Emmett H. Robinson Smith The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Keightley, Keir The University of Western Ontario Coates, Norma The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Popular Music and Culture A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Master of Arts ©Follow Emmett this andH. Robinson additional Smithworks at:2019 https:/ /ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the African American Studies Commons, American Material Culture Commons, American Popular Culture Commons, Art Practice Commons, Cultural History Commons, Music Performance Commons, Music Practice Commons, Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Other Languages, Societies, and Cultures Commons, and the Social History Commons Recommended Citation Robinson Smith, Emmett H., ""I Need to Fight the Power, But I Need that New Ferrari": Conspicuous Consumption, New-School Hip-hop and "the New Rock & Roll"" (2019). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 6322. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/6322 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Abstract 2017 marked the year in which hip-hop officially became the most listened-to genre in the United States. This thesis explores hip-hop music’s rise to its now-hegemonic position within the music industry, seeking to provide insight into the increasingly popular sentiment that hip-hop is “the new rock & roll”.