Social and Dynamic Productions of Breaking and Hip Hop Culture
School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry “Our Lives are Lived in Freestyle”: Social and Dynamic Productions of Breaking and Hip Hop Culture Lucas Marie This thesis is presented for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy of Curtin University September 2018 DECLARATION To the best of my knowledge and belief this thesis contains no material previously published by any other person except where due acknowledgment has been made. This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any other university. Signature: ………Lucas Marie………….……….. Date: …28/9/2018… ABSTRACT Based on fieldwork with breakers living in New York, Osaka, and Perth, as well from prior experiences within my field of study, this thesis builds on a growing body of scholarship which examines the productions, expressions and consumptions of hip hop culture. This study looks at how breakers—hip hop dance practitioners—work to produce, sustain and transform hip hop culture in ways that are local and unique. It is not, however, my intention to set out a definitive list of good or bad, authentic or unauthentic, notions of hip hop, or to suggest that there is one true or correct way in which to participate and identify as a member of. What is emphasised are the ways in which breakers, through their embodied dance practices, negotiate, express, understand and conceptualise hip hop. The title of this thesis, “Our Lives are Lived in Freestyle”, is a line from a spoken word poem, by a breaker from Texas named Marlon. In breaking, to “freestyle” means to improvise in the moment; to use the tools one has at their disposal to perform and create.
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