[Pale RIder]

</span><blockquote><span class="smallfont">Quote:</span><hr size="1" />Originally Posted by (Automatic Nate,)
  I'm not clear on how the subculture of "Bling bling" is an extension of socialism.  Could you say more?<hr size="1" /></blockquote><span class='postcolor'>

It is my thinking that the subculture of "Bling bling" arose from the projects that were in turn a product of the welfare state. Rap music speaks of a subculture in which people, especially women, have no real value.

The welfare state set up a situation in the 1960's that put women in the position of accepting "free" money and steady housing from the government, or to marry a man who may or may not have been able, or willing to support her long term. Many of these women were of high school age and saw having a kid or two as a small price to pay to get their own place away from their family and to have money of thier own.

A culture was born wherein the women had money and housing and children, and adult males hovered on the periphery. Many of them had fathered the kids living with the women, but they had no real positive impact upon the children's lives. They were seen to come in, party with the women, and then leave.

When the children "matured", the girls joined their moms as single mothers, and the boys moved out to the fringe with their male role models. So here we are. The music is that of a subculture with no real core values except to get what you can while you can by any means necessary. This would seem to be the extent of their philosophy. Live fast, die young, and leave a beautiful corpse.

This music seems to be an order of magnatude away from the "youthful rebelion" type music that we have heard from successive generations of young people since the 1940's.