Understanding America through Music: The Analysis of OneBeat USA as United States Cultural Diplomacy Program 2014 – 2016

Abstract

Logonta VK T Sibero, International Relations, 2014, President University

Thesis Title: Understanding America through Music: The Analysis of OneBeat USA as United States Cultural Diplomacy Program 2014 – 2016

Hip-hop, social development that achieved boundless prevalence during the 1980s and '90s; likewise, the sponsorship music for rap, the melodic style fusing cadenced as well as rhyming discourse that turned into the development's most enduring and persuasive fine art. The term hip-hop alludes to a perplexing society containing four components: "deejaying", or "turntabling"; rapping, otherwise called "MCing" or "rhyming"; spray painting or graffiti painting, otherwise called "graf" or "writing"; and "B-boying," which incorporates hip-hop move, style, and frame of mind, alongside the kind of virile body language. Hip-hop began in the dominatingly African American monetarily discouraged South Bronx area of New York City in the late 1970s. With the development and influence of Hip-hop as a culture that is now easily accepted by the world and is a culture of the United States, the author wants to analyze how United States Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs expand the world with its soft power in which is Hip-hop culture and how US can do cultural diplomacy with other countries. What the author will pay more attention to is US diplomacy during Barack Obama's term as President of the United States in 2014-2016 and how does the US government utilize music especially hip-hop music as a tool for cultural diplomacy especially OneBeat USA is the leading US government organization to carry out many cultural exchange programs to countries around the world.