The Straight Black Boom Box

Ideologies on records and gender are also present in the use of the ‘boom box’ in the narrative of Spike Lee’s film ‘Do the Right Thing’. The ‘boom box’ in this text, is a technological object that is gendered in a masculine way within the hip-hop genre. This is enforced in the film by a male character that usually carries the boom box around. Within the film however, the concept of a social object, or an object that imposes upon society is the concept that is explored. This imposing nature of the ‘boom box’ is not simply its visual aesthetic, but more so the impact of sound and music upon the public and society in general. An invasion of sound space is therefore a representation of an invasion of social space. The boom box is a musical technology that in this text is an instrument that undermines social hegemony and questions power even within racial interaction. The concept, therefore, of the boom box as a social and gendered object are supported within this text.