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The Effects of Rap Musice Have on American Culture

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The Effects of Rap Musice Have on American Culture
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The Effects of Rap Music on American Culture

Nicole Gilmore

Com/156

Oct. 1, 2012

Virginia Fontana

Growing up in a middle class area and attending public schools. I have experience seeing youth being easily influence by the hardcore lyrics that hip hop music has put out. Teens that are in violent gangs, and spending most of their time behind bars at a very young age. Rap music has caused bad social behavior toward our American youth and young adults in many different areas and communities. Rap music is often offensive, and degrades young women. It also encourages hatred and crimes towards one another. Rap music has sexual content imbedded in the lyric that teach our youth undignified messages. When youths are listening to the music, they are being introduced to sex, drugs and alcohol. In most cases rap music is the blame for the many problems that occur in households. Especially with teenagers who are exposed to television inside of their homes. They tend to watch music videos that have a lot of sexual content that is being shown for the teens to watch. The youth of America can be easily influence by the activities that rappers are seen doing in music videos. They then rein act the things they see that are glorified by the rappers. This may cause problems later on in life. “Many experts have agreed that raps greatest effects are on children where its influence can be particularly strong n.d.www.newsnet.byu.edu/story”. Teens often listen to rap music as a way out when they are going through personal issues at times. This is especially true for teens that are from broken homes. These teens “live what they learn and learn what they live”, n.d.www.newsnet.byu.edu/story. Teenagers also look up to rappers as role models but I feel that there is too much exposure to lead and suggestive material being shown. Rappers tend to wear a lot of high fashion trends and jewelry in the music videos. This is a really big influence that may cause teenagers to steal things that they really want but cannot afford. It is also a heavy emphasis that influences and makes our society into a materialistic and superficial one. Though stealing can be very tempting at times when you see popular celebrities and rappers wearing trendy clothing and shoes, stealing can affect the entire rest of your life if you get caught. It’s also hard for those aren’t as fortunate to buy nice things. Music encourages rage and anger towards each other that will cause senseless behavior. Rappers have a way of expressing to their fans that it is okay to call women sexually explicit names like” hoe”,” bitch”, “slut”, “tramp”, “whore”, etc. I believe that this is one of the biggest influences on young men. They grow up to think that it is okay or cool to be disrespectful towards women. This is not okay and it is not cool to put down women. Rap music forces young women to have low self-esteem physically and mentally. Along with low self-esteem, rappers have caused young women to feel a lack of self-resect and self-worth. This situation is a very hard one. I have witnessed seeing women trying their hardest to meet everyone’s expectations. It is very hard trying to feeling pretty and trying to look flawless and perfect like video vixens that you see wearing hardly any clothing and showing a lot of skin in magazines and videos. There are more women making a lot of changes with their bodies through plastic surgery so they can land a job in the music industry. In this case I feel that they are disrespecting themselves by allowing these music videos to influence them and their body image. Women don’t see how it is affecting them the lyrics in rap music are derogatory. I don’t understand why some women want to participate in the videos when the music has insulting remarks toward them. Ice-T is an American rap artist that has a past with hardcore explicit lyrics. He is most known for the controversial song “Cop Killer” that debuted in 1990. The “Cop Killer” song has been involved in at least two shooting incidents and has inflamed racial tensions in cities across the country. This song was to inform cops that they are most hated and should stay away from their neighborhoods. This song later sparked citizens into a rage that broke out in a riot in South Central Los Angeles. There were assaults toward incident individuals which. 53 people died and thousands were wounded, there where looters and arson’s that also transpired. “Music has the power both to “soothe the savage beast” and to stir violent emotions in man. Ferrell; Jeff (1993) http://www.axt.org.uk/HateMusic/Rappin.htm “African Americans is one of the biggest cultures that have a really big effect more than any other culture in America. This has affected the African American culture and the culture of American society in many ways and transmits the wrong message to the youths of America. Rap music has caused a lot of situations to occur and it has made the crime rate go up. In conclusion rap music has affected American culture in so many ways. In most cases rap music has promoted negative habits. Toward young individuals and young adults whether for the good or bad, rap music has affected American culture literally. Hip hop music is just something that people will always hero-worship. We just have to understand that we cannot change the fact that youths are going to listening to the rebellious messages and the derogatory lyrics that are put out. Do you want to continue to hear lyrics that disrespect women and violence? The only changes society can fix the destruction rappers have cause toward American culture is to fix the society around us.

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