Hip Hop and Gangsta Rap Negatively Affects Today's Youth Essay Example
Miller 1
Is Hip Hop and Gangsta Rap Negatively Affecting Today’s Youth?
Rap music has been around since the 1970’s. People have questioned why it has only recently gotten such bad publicity. Denise Herd did a study on rap and hip hop music to determine if the lyrics in rap music have increasingly gotten worse in promoting sexism and violence. In her study she “examined 130 platinum (rap) albums with 430 songs released from 1992 to 2002 using Anderson’s conceptualization of ‘the street code’ and found that violence was the central theme of the lyrics along with wealth, violent retaliation, nihilism, and objectification of women.” (Herd p395) She also took songs from the 1970’s and discovered “that despite the stereotypes, violence is not the central focus of rap” (Herd p396). Between 1979 and 1984 only 24 per cent of rap songs mentioned violence, between 1985 and 1989 it rose to 32 per cent and between 1994 and 1997 it rose to 60 per cent. Herd’s studies made it evident that rap music has increasingly gotten worse. Nathan McCall who served nearly three years in jail for armed Robbery and now works for The Washington Post stated “We're going to take away the market value of these attacks on our person. Anyone black or white who makes money calling our women bitches or our people niggers will have to face our indignation” (Suggs p3). It’s an indignity that people are making money for putting such negative media out by which today’s youth is being influenced.
One could argue that other genres of music also have songs that could be considered degrading towards women and have hints of sexism. However, these genres of music aren’t so hateful and foul that radio stations ban them from their play lists. In this day and age music in general is becoming more and more promiscuous. However, it seems that hip-hop and gangster rap has gotten so offensive in its hatred, violence, and objectification towards women that it’s
Miller 2 become harmful for both young men and
Is Hip Hop and Gangsta Rap Negatively Affecting Today’s Youth?
Rap music has been around since the 1970’s. People have questioned why it has only recently gotten such bad publicity. Denise Herd did a study on rap and hip hop music to determine if the lyrics in rap music have increasingly gotten worse in promoting sexism and violence. In her study she “examined 130 platinum (rap) albums with 430 songs released from 1992 to 2002 using Anderson’s conceptualization of ‘the street code’ and found that violence was the central theme of the lyrics along with wealth, violent retaliation, nihilism, and objectification of women.” (Herd p395) She also took songs from the 1970’s and discovered “that despite the stereotypes, violence is not the central focus of rap” (Herd p396). Between 1979 and 1984 only 24 per cent of rap songs mentioned violence, between 1985 and 1989 it rose to 32 per cent and between 1994 and 1997 it rose to 60 per cent. Herd’s studies made it evident that rap music has increasingly gotten worse. Nathan McCall who served nearly three years in jail for armed Robbery and now works for The Washington Post stated “We're going to take away the market value of these attacks on our person. Anyone black or white who makes money calling our women bitches or our people niggers will have to face our indignation” (Suggs p3). It’s an indignity that people are making money for putting such negative media out by which today’s youth is being influenced.
One could argue that other genres of music also have songs that could be considered degrading towards women and have hints of sexism. However, these genres of music aren’t so hateful and foul that radio stations ban them from their play lists. In this day and age music in general is becoming more and more promiscuous. However, it seems that hip-hop and gangster rap has gotten so offensive in its hatred, violence, and objectification towards women that it’s
Miller 2 become harmful for both young men and