"I Want the Microphone": Mass Mediation and Agency in Asian-American Popular Music

Abstract

In the spring of 1993, Pomona College-a small liberal arts school on the eastern edge of the greater Los Angeles area-held its annual Asian Pacific Islander Week, a week-long festival celebrating Asian and Pacific Americans. Noon on 2 April students, staff, and faculty gathered in a courtyard outside a dormitory and sat on the grass in the spring sun, eating lunch and watching a group of teenagers set up a large sound system and casually try out hip-hop moves on a small, concrete stage area.