Hello everyone,

I have been searching for a while now in hopes of finding the perfect PhD program for me and finally convinced myself to ask for your help.

I am an MBA student at the University of Fredericton in Canada, with an undergraduate Bachelors degree in Communications, majoring in public relations, minoring in business. While I have a career I am very happy with in Investor Relations, I am extremely interested in hip hop culture and specifically how rap music has helped shape some african american societies in the USA. I have searched continuously over the last few weeks and have been unable to determine whether it is a PhD in sociology, communications, philosophy or even something else that I am looking for...

My previous education is not directly related to some of these fields at all, but I am only looking to complete a PhD program for personal interest and nothing else. My question is - does anyone know what type of PhD program would be best for research in the area of hip hop / rap music? I am also looking to complete the program online.

Thank you very much for your time - I know this is an odd expertise request but I look forward to any advice.

Sincerely,

Steven

Hi Steven, interesting area of research that you are interested in. I think the answer to your question is that it depends on what theoretical perspective or angle that you are using. If you are looking at the role of pop culture, and how it influences individual preferences for hip hop music among African Americans for instance, I think that can be from a mass communication perspective definitely. I come from Communication Studies background, and I've come across some studies related to music while doing my coursework and dissertation... What you could is conduct a Google search on online universities in the US, and possible research areas of faculty member in those universities... I hope this helps...

Thank you very much Ash79,

I really appreciate your detailed response, that helps a lot.

In your experience, do most online communications PhD programs have a mandatory in-class component where you need to convene on campus, or are there a lot that are strictly 100% online? Do you also think that an undergraduate degree in communications, with an MBA, would qualify for a PhD in communications?

Thank you very much for your time, I truly appreciate it.