The Negative Effects Of Rap Music

Throughout history the human population has been attracted to music. Whether it be part of a ritual, an emotional release, religious reasons, or just for listening pleasure music has been at the center of our society. We have used music to express ourselves, tell stories, and let others into our thoughts. From infancy to adulthood it is an integral part of our lives. Adolescents become absorbed in songs they believe help better define them into this rocky transition into adulthood. However, we often wonder whether what we are saying has an effect on the listening audience. Recently, in the 1990's references have often been made to link violent, early teen sex, drugs and deviant behavior to music and certain music genres. Music recordings should
Women are constantly referred to as a h** or a b**** in many songs, while the men refer to themselves as a pimp or a "playa". Rappers intentions are misinterpreted by their listeners when young boys begin to see every woman as a b**** or a h**. Yvonne Bynoe, of Fordham University School of Law and a business Coach for High-Achieving Women Entrepreneurs, supports this claim by stating “ One can speculate that if a young “black” man is in inundated with the video “sex-object” image as the ideal for a “black” woman, then he may be less disposed to want and value the “real” Black women that he encounters daily.” The worst part of it is that young girls look up to these women in the music as role models and ultimately making this degradation socially acceptable and the young girls who look up to them begin to think that this behavior is okay. Consequently young girls accept this mentality and young boys enforce it. Young girls learn to use their sexuality as a tool. Additionally they learn a distorted version of what “sexy” is (being half naked and showing off one’s assets). They imitate the dancing, wear more revealing clothing, have eating disorder, and generally use their sexuality as a tool when interacting with the opposite sex. This also increase the rate of teenage pregnancy, thus lower the chance that those girls would have a good education, and ultimately ruining our whole
The question now becomes what can be done about it? Singer or rappers have a right to express themselves so censorship is not an option and telling teenagers to stop listening to it will not work. It is the music producers’ jobs to understand the type of influence they have over the youth and make the change themselves. For example, some rappers in sub-Saharan Africa promote abstinence in their rap songs and the youth are positively affected by this message. So if singer changed their messages and talked more about safe sex or abstinence, committed relationships, respecting women, not drinking, smoking, using drugs, or violence as a way to solve problems then teenagers would not be as reckless and they would make more responsible decisions. But many music companies are not willing to make this change, so it is up to the individual to realize the effect music has on them and make a change for