Madeline Cohen
Online platforms and social media accounts offer access to all people, no matter the person’s race, ethnicity, religion, or economic status. Therefore, social media has the power to be used as tool to increase social mobility. In sociologist Forrest Stuart’s book, Ballad of the Bullet, he argues that disadvantaged youth use social media to commodify violence and the urban poor by promoting negative stereotypes through the exaggeration of authentic lifestyles. Stuart aims to find what, why, and how by following a gang of young men, who call themselves the Corner Boys, throughout Taylor Park, a neighborhood in the South Side of Chicago, in their journey to becoming microcelebrities through drill music (slang for shooting music).
Stuart is successful in proving his argument through interactions and lived experiences with the Corner Boys. Stuart explains early on in his book that the spread of drill music across the internet became very popular in the digital attention economy. People around the world are fascinated with violence in urban America. In Chapter 2, ‘Algorithms, Analytics and AK-47s’ Stuart lays out the two steps drillers use when creating content – grab attention and hold attention.
In order to grab attention and hold attention from online viewers, drillers’ content must be authentic. They can do this through music video production. Music videos provide a glimpse inside the neighborhood by capturing what the streets actually look like. However, are these accurate depictions of the streets or are they catering to the attention economy?
Stuart brings into discussion the term “fourth wall,” which is the invisible barrier separating a performer from their audience. When the fourth wall is broken the viewer knows the performance is fictional. Although when the fourth wall is intact, the viewer is under the impression that the performance is real. Throughout the book the drillers grapple with the idea of the fourth wall by always trying to keep the fourth wall intact because if they do not there could be major consequences.
“The history of rap music is full of artists who have lost credibility (and their careers) not because they lack talent, but because they couldn’t adequately authenticate their claims of criminality, gang affiliation, and ghetto biography” (Stuart, 2020, p. 68).
One notable instance of the fourth wall that Stuart describes is when he experienced a music video shoot between a driller named Junior and a videographer named Chucky. Junior caught a ride with Stuart and the two traveled an hour outside of Taylor Park to a suburban neighborhood where Chucky lived. The violent song Junior would be rapping to did not quite match the peaceful streets of the suburbs. So, the two sought out places that could pass as “the ghetto.” They landed on a dark basement that could be where a drug dealer operated out of with money and guns on the table. Chucky successfully pulled off a video of the stereotypical and “authentic” life drillers aim to convey through their social media accounts.
In addition to the fourth wall, Stuart aims to understand the use of social media to commodify violence and urban poverty through media theorist Joshua Meyrowitz’s term the “side stage.” The famous sociologist Ervin Goffman theorized that people live their lives through a series of performances either on the front stage or the backstage. On the front stage people display their ideal social selves. Whereas, on the backstage people’s performance is more relaxed. However, digital media creates a side stage where people display behind the scenes behavior.
When drillers perform on the side stage, they give their viewers and fans the impression that they are always tough, doing drugs, carrying guns, and living out the stereotypical gangster lifestyle. When in fact the Corner Boys social media does not demonstrate what they are doing in the moment they post. Social media allows users to post pictures from any point in time and make it look like it is occurring in real time. Stuart points out that some drillers only touch guns when they are posing with them for photos and videos.
The view into drillers’ daily lives on the internet showcases a level of intimacy that grabs and holds the attention of fans around the world. This fascination with the “other” attracts many to drillers and their music. In Chapter 6, ‘Digital Slumming’, Stuart and driller AJ travel to Beverly Hills, California to meet up with a fan. During the visit, the fan appropriates gang culture because he found a way to “fill his life with excitement, danger, and unpredictability” through driller’s music and social media posts. AJ and other drillers hope to economically benefit from their fans’ interest in authentic content.
Ballad of the Bullet provides an understanding of what, why, and how disadvantaged youth use social media to commodify violence and the urban poor. Even if drill music is not of interest, Stuart describes patterns and theories that apply to any microcelebrity or anyone for that matter who posts on social media. Stuart’s findings will have people questioning the authenticity of social media posts and evaluating one’s own intentions when making a post to social media.