Raunchy music and teen listeners

One thing I know by experience is how heavily music can influence one's moods. Have you tried listening to hard rock and heavy metal the whole time you're driving? And around Metro Manila at that? I think it was the closest I had gotten to experiencing the Jekyll-and-Hyde transformation (with the monstrous persona more dominant). There was also a time when I shifted to a classical-station listening fare whenever I was out on the road, and the change was remarkable. Mozart's pieces filled the car with a very contagious serenity; Strauss and his waltzes, of course, conjured images of ballrooms and dancing couples in Victorian-era garb. Pachelbel's "Canon in D major" (the only classical piece whose title I could remember, besides "Ode to Joy" and "Four Seasons") always worked like a glimpse of the seashore: it put me on instant tranquility mode.

Now what do you think it would do to an adolescent if he were constantly exposed to today's songs with lyrics that don't exactly convey messages of pure love and wholesome affections for the opposite sex? Here's what science has discovered (though it's not really surprising):

TEENAGERS whose music players are full of music with raunchy, sexual lyrics start having sex sooner than those who prefer other songs, a study has found.

Whether it's hip-hop, rap, pop or rock, much of popular music aimed at teens contains sexual overtones. Its influence on their behaviour appears to depend on how the sex is portrayed, researchers found.

And here's more...

Songs depicting men as "sex-driven studs," women as sex objects and with explicit references to sex acts are more likely to trigger early sexual behaviour than those where sexual references are more veiled and relationships appear more committed, the US-based Rand Corporation study found.

I had never heard it put that way ("sex-driven studs") but then come to think of it, a glimpse of MTV and a sample of songs' lyrics -- especially of today's hip-hop music -- would indicate that kind of portrayal of men.

From another feature:

Natasha Ramsey, a 17-year-old from New Brunswick, N.J., said she and other teens sometimes listen to sexually explicit songs because they like the beat.

"I won't really realize that the person is talking about having sex or raping a girl," she said. Even so, the message "is being beaten into the teens' heads," she said. "We don't even really realize how much."

"A lot of teens think that's the way they're supposed to be, they think that's the cool thing to do. Because it's so common, it's accepted," said Ramsey, a teen editor for Sexetc.org, a teen sexual health Web site produced at Rutgers University.

"Teens will try to deny it, they'll say 'No, it's not the music,' but it IS the music. That has one of the biggest impacts on our lives," Ramsey said.

The Recording Industry Association of America, which represents the U.S. recording industry, declined to comment on the findings.

Full article at The Age

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Here's a related article that shows a sign of hope -- because someone's calling for action to be taken. It's about perception. It's about image. And it's about cleaning up what actually gives off that degrading image of black women to viewers and listeners.

Read Take the debate over degrading rap videos off mute
By Michele Goodwin