Is Hip Hop Good Or Bad
Ja’len Pompey
09/16/14
English 100-02
Prof. Jackson
It’s Not the Music, It’s Probably Just You Many people assume that the reason why young, African-American teens behave a certain way is because of the music they listen to these days. The music that these urban kids are listening to is primarily Hip Hop which is if you don’t know is a genre of music that is characterized by a performer speaking rhythmically, or rapping, over a backing track that often but not always consists of loops or samples of other music woven together (www.globalpost.com). Hip Hop gets a very bad reputation because of the explicit lyrics that talk about gang violence, sex, drug and alcohol use, and etc. that parents don’t obviously approve of. Even though …show more content…
Heavy Metal was and still is a music genre filled with violent images and drug and alcohol use that caused young angry teens to act out and harm themselves. So Hip Hop shouldn’t be the major genre of music that supposedly causes behavior change in every teenager, again this acts as a stereotype. When doing studies about Hip Hop music and behavior, the researchers should always keep in mind that “correlation does not equal causation”. That is, just because you can demonstrate a statistical link between two things doesn 't mean that one causes the other or vice versa (www.globalpost.com). For example, in the song Radical by Tyler the Creator the hook states “Kill people, burn shit, fuck school” and you know if a parent heard their teenager listen to that they will think that their child is actually going to go out and do those specific things for no reason at all. If you actually listen to the rest of the song, Tyler the Creator states before the bridge of the song, “I’m not saying just to go out and do some stupid shit, commit crimes. What I’m trying to tell you is do what the f*** you want, stand for what the f*** you believe in, and don’t let nobody tell you can’t do what the f*** you want…” (www.metrolyrics.com). Seeing or listening to the violent imagery of these lyrics has not been proven to cause kids to act violently because it is way more complicated than that. This primary example of a hip hop song directly proves that “correlation does not equal
09/16/14
English 100-02
Prof. Jackson
It’s Not the Music, It’s Probably Just You Many people assume that the reason why young, African-American teens behave a certain way is because of the music they listen to these days. The music that these urban kids are listening to is primarily Hip Hop which is if you don’t know is a genre of music that is characterized by a performer speaking rhythmically, or rapping, over a backing track that often but not always consists of loops or samples of other music woven together (www.globalpost.com). Hip Hop gets a very bad reputation because of the explicit lyrics that talk about gang violence, sex, drug and alcohol use, and etc. that parents don’t obviously approve of. Even though …show more content…
Heavy Metal was and still is a music genre filled with violent images and drug and alcohol use that caused young angry teens to act out and harm themselves. So Hip Hop shouldn’t be the major genre of music that supposedly causes behavior change in every teenager, again this acts as a stereotype. When doing studies about Hip Hop music and behavior, the researchers should always keep in mind that “correlation does not equal causation”. That is, just because you can demonstrate a statistical link between two things doesn 't mean that one causes the other or vice versa (www.globalpost.com). For example, in the song Radical by Tyler the Creator the hook states “Kill people, burn shit, fuck school” and you know if a parent heard their teenager listen to that they will think that their child is actually going to go out and do those specific things for no reason at all. If you actually listen to the rest of the song, Tyler the Creator states before the bridge of the song, “I’m not saying just to go out and do some stupid shit, commit crimes. What I’m trying to tell you is do what the f*** you want, stand for what the f*** you believe in, and don’t let nobody tell you can’t do what the f*** you want…” (www.metrolyrics.com). Seeing or listening to the violent imagery of these lyrics has not been proven to cause kids to act violently because it is way more complicated than that. This primary example of a hip hop song directly proves that “correlation does not equal