Available Formats
Ballad of the Bullet: Gangs, Drill Music, and the Power of Online Infamy
By (Author) Forrest Stuart
Princeton University Press
Princeton University Press
20th July 2020
United States
Tertiary Education
Non Fiction
Social and cultural anthropology
Social discrimination and social justice
Media studies
Violence and abuse in society
Ethnic studies
364.10660977311
Hardback
288
Width 156mm, Height 235mm
How poor urban youth in Chicago use social media to profit from portrayals of gang violence, and the questions this raises about poverty, opportunities, and public voyeurism Amid increasing hardship and limited employment options, poor urban youth are developing creative online strategies to make ends meet. Using such social media platforms as Y
"Forrest Stuart, Winner of a MacArthur fellowship, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation"
"Winner of the CITAMS Book Award, Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association"
"Honorable Mention for the Outstanding Book Award, Inequality, Poverty and Mobility Section of the American Sociological Association"
"Finalist for the PROSE Award in Cultural Anthropology & Sociology, Association of American Publishers"
"The global cross-pollination of drill music is not a coincidence. Young people suffering from inequality and violence are harnessing social media to be heard and valued. Ballad of the Bullet is a detailed, sensitive toolkit for understanding cultural production in the modern city; essential reading for educators, community workers and music fans alike."---Ciaran Thapar, youth worker and writer, speaking on BBC Radio
"Mr Stuarts recent book, Ballad of the Bullet, is an often gripping account of what he learned from his association with teenage members of an up-and-coming drill grouphe dubs them the Corner Boysdesperate to win fame, status and money from rapping. He shows how their musical and lyrical talent is only a minor part of what determines success."---Adam Roberts, The Economist
"The book completely reshaped the way I thought about micro-celebrity and youth culture, and it opened my eyes to how discussions of the internet have been largely oblivious to the worlds of those who are not class-privileged, white and female. As people have been sucked ever deeper into their digital worlds in 2020, Stuart shines a light on how social media offer both hope and danger for some of our cities' most disadvantaged young."---Ashley Mears, Times Higher Education
"Poignant, written with great clarity in a lively style, Stuarts book belongs to a tradition of ethnographic studies conducted in Chicago on urban poverty since the 1930s."---Clment Petitjean, Books and Ideas
Forrest Stuart is associate professor of sociology and director of the Ethnography Lab at Stanford University. A 2020 MacArthur Fellow, Stuart is the author of Down, Out, and Under Arrest. Twitter @ForrestDStuart