https://padlet.com/w1770333/zddzr6u0ypi14gtm https://padlet.com/w1770333/zddzr6u0ypi14gtm Drill Music has had an increasing presence on young people in the UK. Inspired by the drill scene in the US, the UK drill scene has made a large impact on youth cultures in British society today and is sucessfully finding its way into the mainstream music scene. Drill music often displays youth subcultures which have evolved from poverty and marginalisation. This conceptual map explains the ways in which Drill Music is problematised, providing concepts to explain reasons for this. en-us 2022-03-25 19:24:21 UTC 2022-03-29 11:16:24 UTC hello@padlet.com w1770333 https://padlet.com/w1770333/zddzr6u0ypi14gtm/wish/2114421806 Youth subcultures, particularly those of disadvantaged youth, tend to be seen as deviant, criminal and 'other' to society. Youth subcultures are shaped by the social identities of young people and their relation to dominant culture (Brake, 1985, p3). Drill music is often an expression of urban youth culture and, like other subcultures, represents youth identities through fashion, such as tracksuits and balaclavas. Many youth cultures are criminalised, but due to racism and class discrimination youth subcultures seen in drill music are targeted as particularly violent threats to society.

Brake, M. (1985). Comparative Youth Culture : The Sociology of Youth Cultures and Youth Subcultures in America, Britain and Canada. London: Routledge & K. Paul.]]> 2022-03-25 20:26:29 UTC https://padlet.com/w1770333/zddzr6u0ypi14gtm/wish/2114421806 w1770333 https://padlet.com/w1770333/zddzr6u0ypi14gtm/wish/2114774505 The criminal behaviour and criminality of young people is often associated with the concept of adolescence and the biological changes that come with it. Adolescense describes the phase of life when transitioning from childhood to adulthood. Hall (1904) deems adolesense as 'preeminently the criminal age' when people begin to commit crimes. He believes that adolescence is a crucial factor of youth crime and delinquency. This is based on the perception that young people are biologically inferior to adults mentally and physically due to hormonal developments (cited in Cravens et al., 2006, p179).

Cravens et al., (2006). The historical context of G. Stanley Hall's Adolescense (1904). History of Psychology, 9 (3), 172-185. 


]]> 2022-03-26 12:06:00 UTC https://padlet.com/w1770333/zddzr6u0ypi14gtm/wish/2114774505 w1770333 https://padlet.com/w1770333/zddzr6u0ypi14gtm/wish/2115719875 Drill music has been targeted by police - and increasingly by wider society - as a source for inciting violent behaviour amongst young boys, particularly young working-class black boys. The policing of urban Black music is not uncommon as it has been seen with other genres such as grime. Fatsis (2019) highlights that the policing of Black British culture is a recurring issue and notes that it is based on prejudices of criminalised and racialised ideas of Black culture (p451-452).

Fatsis, L. (2019). Grime: Criminal subculture or public counterculture? A critical investigation into the criminalization of Black musical subcultures in the UK. Crime, Media, Culture: An International Journal, 15 (3), 447-461. ]]> 2022-03-27 16:47:38 UTC https://padlet.com/w1770333/zddzr6u0ypi14gtm/wish/2115719875 w1770333 https://padlet.com/w1770333/zddzr6u0ypi14gtm/wish/2115735268 Krept and Konan are a British hip-hop duo who have made some drill songs themselves. Their song/short story 'Ban Drill' tells the story of a young black boy growing up in poverty who turns to drill music in order to escape his life of crime. The song highlights how drill music is targeted as a problem in society, yet it provides a way out of a criminal life for those who struggle from socio-economic deprivation as a result of structural racism and austerity. ]]> 2022-03-27 17:06:19 UTC https://padlet.com/w1770333/zddzr6u0ypi14gtm/wish/2115735268 w1770333 https://padlet.com/w1770333/zddzr6u0ypi14gtm/wish/2115779672 Scapegoating is most likely to happen to groups with low power in society (Hammer, 2007, p779). One could argue that drill music is being used as a scapegoat for the increase in violent crime amongst young people. As Ilan (2020) notes, critics believe that growing socio-economic inequalities and austerity policies that have significantly cut youth services are more important factors for higher levels of urban youth violence than drill music (p996). Nevertheless, drill music is often blamed for the increase of violence.

Hammer, E. (2007). Scapegoat Theory. In: Baumeister, R. and Vohs, K. (eds.) Encyclopedia of Social Psychology, 1st ed. London: SAGE, 779.

Ilan, J. (2020). Digital Street Culture Decoded: Why Criminalizing Drill Music is Street Illiterate and Counterproductive. The British Journal of Criminology, 60 (4), 994-1013.]]> 2022-03-27 18:02:07 UTC https://padlet.com/w1770333/zddzr6u0ypi14gtm/wish/2115779672 w1770333 https://padlet.com/w1770333/zddzr6u0ypi14gtm/wish/2117835147 Some youth subcultures are labelled as dangerous or as a threat to society leading to moral panics and sensationalism. Cohen (2011) demonstrates this in his 1972 study of the mods and rockers who were labelled as 'folk devils'. Folk devils are stereotyped as deviants with bad morals who commit crime and cause other social problems. This concept certainly applies to the case of drill music and drill artists, and links to the concept of scapegoating as, in this context, drill music has created moral panics and has been blamed for wider problems in society.

Cohen, S. (2011). Folk Devils and Moral Panics. London: Routledge. ]]> 2022-03-28 18:53:26 UTC https://padlet.com/w1770333/zddzr6u0ypi14gtm/wish/2117835147 w1770333 https://padlet.com/w1770333/zddzr6u0ypi14gtm/wish/2117905719 Neoliberal policies have significantly affected the most vulnerable groups in society. As Wacquant (2008) explains through his concept of advanced marginality, neoliberal governance has led to 'new forms of exclusionary closure' which has expelled disadvantged groups, often working-class and ethnic minority groups, to 'the margins and crevices of social and physical space' (p232). The criminalisation of poverty and disadvantage has been increased by these policies. Consequently, this has provoked a sense of social insecurity for vulnerable groups (Wacquant, 2009).

Wacquant, L. (2008). Urban Outcasts: A Comparative Sociology of Advanced Marginality. Cambridge: Polity.

Wacquant, L. (2009). Punishing the Poor. The Neoliberal Government of Social Insecurity. Durham: Duke University Press.

]]> 2022-03-28 19:37:02 UTC https://padlet.com/w1770333/zddzr6u0ypi14gtm/wish/2117905719 w1770333 https://padlet.com/w1770333/zddzr6u0ypi14gtm/wish/2118013104 An increasing number of disadvantaged young people are being deemed as excess. They are also increasingly under surveillance by the state leading to them being assigned to zones of abandonment and incarnation. This is described by Giroux (2014) as the Politics of Disposability.

Giroux, H. (2014). Neoliberalism and the Machinery of Disposability.Truthout. Available from: https://truthout.org/articles/neoliberalism-and-the-machinery-of-disposability/ [Accessed 25 March 2022].]]> 2022-03-28 20:59:11 UTC https://padlet.com/w1770333/zddzr6u0ypi14gtm/wish/2118013104 w1770333 https://padlet.com/w1770333/zddzr6u0ypi14gtm/wish/2118992331 Neoliberal policies have not only affected young people's home lives but have also affected young people's lives at school. Perfomance indicators, such as school league tables, puts pressure on schools to achieve the best outcomes. This pressure has led to more schools adopting a zero-tolerance approach, leading to an increasing number of students being excluded from school. These exclusions are disproportionately given to students who already suffer from socio-economic deprivation, particularly black and ethnic minority boys (Joseph, 2020). School exclusions contribute towards further marginalisation of these groups. Youth subcultures, such as those associated with drill music, might provide a space where these young people do not feel vulnerable in the way that they do in wider society.

Joseph, A. (2020). Navigating neoliberal school spaces: Parent and school staff perspectives on racially disproportional school exclusions in England. International Social Work, 63 (4), 445-458.]]> 2022-03-29 09:34:58 UTC https://padlet.com/w1770333/zddzr6u0ypi14gtm/wish/2118992331 w1770333 https://padlet.com/w1770333/zddzr6u0ypi14gtm/wish/2119116541 The Western concept of adolescence has been critiqued as not being applicable to many non-Western cultures and societies. This is because adolescence is often not a clear stage in many global communities due to children starting work early and getting married early (Koffman, 2015, p259).

Koffman, O. (2015). Fertile bodies, immature brains?: A genealogical critique of neuroscientific claims regarding the adolescent brain and of the global fight against adolescent motherhood. Social Science & Medicine, 143, 255-261.]]> 2022-03-29 11:11:00 UTC https://padlet.com/w1770333/zddzr6u0ypi14gtm/wish/2119116541