Abstract
This article discusses the sponsorship by a beer manufacturer of a hip-hop club event. Hip-hop culture is on the one hand defined in terms of its sub-cultural practices. On the other hand, it has a commercial aspect, of which the record industry is a platform. This propensity is common to all other types of popular music culture, including rock. In existing literature, the commercial aspect of popular music was understood to be viable only because of the existence of record industry. However, the, commercial aspect of popular music in marketing operations has not been paid adequate attention, despite the fact that it is not a rare phenomenon. Hence my raising the example of the beer maker's sponsorship of a hip-hop club event. First, I point out that the beer manufacturer not only uses hip-hop culture according to its business plans, but also is conscious of the cultural authenticity of hip-hop culture. Second, I discuss how organizers go about running the event taking into consideration the thinking of the beer industry. Finally, I conclude that the mediating platform for hip-hop culture is not limited to the record industry but is open to other-such as the manufacturing-industry as well.
