Copping the blame: the role of YouTube videos in the criminalisation of UK drill music

Schwarze, T. and Fatsis, L. (2022) Copping the blame: the role of YouTube videos in the criminalisation of UK drill music. Popular Music, 41(4), pp. 463-480. (doi: 10.1017/S0261143022000563)

Abstract

UK drill music frequently features as a prime suspect in newsrooms and courtrooms that charge it with driving the ‘knife crime epidemic’ in Britain's major conurbations. Such prejudicial assumptions about the role of drill in inciting violence are largely unfounded, but nevertheless inform criminal justice policy that leads to unjust and discriminatory outcomes. While drill rappers consciously post violent content on YouTube to increase viewership and gain popularity, the role of YouTube in facilitating and profiting from this traffic in violent imagery is rarely questioned in criminal proceedings – enabling, as it does, the weaponisation of such videos as ‘bad character evidence’ in court. Drawing on a selection of YouTube videos that represent drill rappers as dangerous ‘criminals’, this article argues that such videos function as a resource for the criminalisation of drill by police and prosecutors who present drill lyrics as personal testimony that is robbed of its fictive qualities, and makes rappers vulnerable to prejudicial ruling and discriminatory treatment within the criminal justice system.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Schwarze, Dr Tilman
• Authors: Schwarze, T., and Fatsis, L.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Sociology Anthropology and Applied Social Sciences
• Journal Name: Popular Music
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• ISSN: 0261-1430
• ISSN (Online): 1474-0095
• Published Online: 03 November 2022
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2022 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Popular Music 41(4): 463-480
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy