The media has a lot of influence on people’s lives. Music is very powerful. It can control people’s emotions and change the way they act. What people see in music videos or lyrics may affect what they do, especially teens. One of the music genres, hip-hop, caused many arguments since its appearance in the late 20th century.
The reason is some hip-hop song lyrics include violence, sex, vulgar language, drugs, and alcohol use. Unfortunately, teenagers are the number one fans of this music. Most parents worry about these negative influences of hip-hop and rap on the teenagers still too young to choose what is right or wrong. They as well as educators need to control or even stop this music. I strongly believe that hip-hop and rap music have lots of dangerous effects on today’s youth, especially the violence, sex, and bad language. An example of the negative effects of rap and hip-hop music is violence.
Rap and hip-hop music provides teens with a sense of mimicking of singers. Some of them have no important role model in their lives, so they look up to a rap or hip-hop artist. When a role model influences teens, they tend to do and say the same things that person does. In some ways, this could have a negative impact on youth. For example, one of rap groups, N. W.
A. sang a song, “F_ _k the Police” in 1988. This song expressed hatred and violence towards police. The words, “Beat the police outta shape, When I’m finished, it’s gonna be a bloodbath, of cops, dying in L. A. , Put in my clip, it all depends on the size of the gat.
” This song depicted images of gangs, guns, and violence, yet it became very popular. These violent lyrics in songs can be a trigger for some teenagers to start fights, even kill others. Teens can act violent like their role model listening to and singing along with the lyrics. It tends to send harmful messages to its listeners and does not lead to moral lives.
Next, one of the negative effects of rap and hip-hop music is sex. Not all rap or hip-hop music has sexually obvious lyrics, and some help healthy sexual relationships. However, according to The New York Times, “Teenagers who said they listened to lots of music with degrading sexual messages, were almost twice as likely to start having intercourse or other sexual activities within the following two years as were those who listened to little or no sexually degrading music. The article is very shocking because it shows how much rap and hip-hop music is affecting American youth.
By listening to rap and hip-hop music, teens will be more likely to make bad and quick decisions about sex that they may regret. For these negative effects, parents and educators need to monitor and control the type of music their youths listen to. Last, rap and hip-hop music can also have a negative impact on language and speech. Some lyrics involve potentially harmful messages.
In many rap and hip-hop songs, vulgar language and grammatically incorrect sentences are used. For example, the song, “Ain’t No Fun” by Snoop Doggy Dog, contains eight times f_ _k, twelve times b_ _ch, and three times the nigga word. Sadly, this is one of the harmful hip-hop songs. The more youth listen to these bad and slang words, the more they will use them in their daily speech.
Some musicians may have the opinion that this is simply a music lyric and it represents only a part of real life they live, so the youth will not be deeply affected. However, as parents, we know that teens are eagerly accepting and mimicking the messages that they hear in the hip-hop music. In conclusion, even though rap and hip-hop music is a way for teens to express themselves, the negative influence is very strong. Unfortunately, since the rise of rap and hip-hop music, teens try to find the solutions to their problems in this music. Various studies have shown a correlation between teenagers’ behaviors and lyrics describing violence, sex, vulgar and slang language. As parents, we need to intervene by controlling, monitoring, and talking about the type of music our children are listening to.
Also, musicians need to be careful when writing their lyrics because teens are easily affected.
Bibliography:
Joyner, James. “Sexy Songs Lead Teens to Have Sex. ” Outside the Beltway. N. p.
, 7 Aug. 2006. Web. 10 Oct. 2014. Kirchheimer, Sid.
“Does Rap Put Teens at Risk?” N. p. , 2003. Web.
07 Oct. 2014. N. W. A. “F_ _k The Police.
” Straight Outta Compton. Priority Records, 1988. Snoop Doggy Dogg. “It Ain’t No Fun.
” Doggystyle. Death Row Records, 1993.
