International Encyclopedia of Communication Online

Extract

Broadly speaking, graffiti denotes the array of words, figures, and symbols illicitly inscribed in public space. Over the past three decades this phenomenon has taken on special salience as the graffiti of youth sub-cultures has emerged as a pervasive form of public communication. Because of this, graffiti has become perhaps the most potent and visible symbol of delinquency and danger, with political authorities and the public regularly associating public graffiti with gang activity. In reality, the contemporary role of graffiti as a form of public communication, and as a communicative component within youthful sub-cultures, is far more complex than a simple equating of graffiti and gangs (→  Popular Communication ). Throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and beyond, the most prominent and publicly visible form of contemporary graffiti is in fact not gang graffiti, but hip hop graffiti . Hip hop graffiti developed during the 1970s in the United States as a component of a larger hip hop youth scene that also incorporated rap music, break dancing, and other cultural innovations. As street-level alternatives to gang life and gang conflict, hip hop music, dance, and graffiti offered new media for contesting identity and acquiring status (→  Youth Culture ). Then as now, hip hop graffiti “writers” and their “crews” wrote their “tags” (nicknames) in places of public visibility, ... log in or subscribe to read full text