The influence of hard rock and rap music on teenage behavior

¶ … Music on Teens Actions

In the past 40 years all kinds of music has turned out to be more and more overt predominantly towards the negative side like sex, drugs, aggression and violence. Lately two of the genres which have caught great attention is hard rock music and rap music. In most of the cases, the lyrics of the music are made in such a way that they induce negativity in the developing minds of the teenagers. This negativity is reflected in their actions in the form of drug abuse, aggression, violence, sex and rebellious actions towards parents, family, family and society in general. This kind of negative music is a major concern these days because it poses mental and physical threat to the teens of today. Some of the other alarming effects of such music are pregnancy, STDs, accidents, killing and this has resulted to be the normal lifestyle for most of the teens today. This paper discusses the different types of music and the effects each one has on the actions and behavior of teens.

Introduction

In the past, there had been doubts about music related to teens. A lot of philosophers believed that music is very dangerous for individuals in particular and society in general and must be prohibited because of the effects it has on human brain and body.

Regardless of the combination of rebellious subjected lyrics and offensive language used in all the genres of music, the majority of the lyrics which have been labeled by the record companies as "explicit content" belong to rap and heavy metal genres (Martino, 431). Other genres such as pop, country music and reggae are rarely labeled as explicit material although most of the time they also contain material which is objectionable. Rock music and rap are over rated as explicit material although in some of those songs there is no objectionable content.

More negative media attention is given to hard rock and rap although other genres of music are equally responsible for inducing negative behavior in the people especially teenagers. Media suggests that only rock, rap and heavy metal music is solely responsible for instilling the negative ideas of fornication, drug abuse, aggressive behavior, suicide, revenge, Satanism etc. (Martino, 432). If a rock star portrays rebellious behavior, the media over exaggerates the impact of such music on the actions of teenagers and often the abusive language and the negative content used in the country or pop music is ignored, although it has the same negative effect on the teenagers as that of the rock or metal music.

Since the media has labeled rock, metal and heavy metal music as the main cause of inducing anti-social and violent behavior in the people, the adults believe that only such music is harmful for their children, especially teenagers, although there is less statistical evidence to support this claim. This misleads the adults, and people do not realize how harmful other forms of music can be for their teenagers. People think that pop and country music is harmless, although if their lyrics are heard, most of them have negative themes (Burns, 175- 181). Due to this, the parents are less likely to monitor what their young children are listening to, as they think that only heavy meat and rap have negative effects.

Influence

A. Statistics

American Statistics regarding music show 47% of the mothers of teenagers believe that violent messages in music like rap and heavy metal are responsible for violence at school. And 66% of parents believe that negative music lyrics are responsible for violent crimes committed by teenagers. A study showed that teenagers who preferred rock, heavy metal and rap music reported increased depression, inflicting harm to oneself and others, suicidal attempts, drug abuse and involvement in sex (Martino, 441). It was found that 20% of males and around 60% of females listening to extreme music had attempted to hurt or kill themselves. 1 out of 3 songs contain ideas about sex, drug abuse and rebelliousness which mean that teenagers get around 35 references to negative ideas in every one hour of listening to music (Martino, 441).

B. Teen Point-of-View

On the contrary the teenagers state that they hardly pay attention to the lyrics of the songs therefore, good or bad, the lyrics do not affect them. And also that, lyrics are not the reason for liking or disliking the song, it's the music which they give importance to.

Behavior

A. Are These Teen Behavior Really Brought On By Music

It is known that the subconscious mind interprets it all and the negative ideas induced by the negative lyrics play a vital role in the actions and behavior of a person especially if young. Studies have shown that that there is a direct relation between the music choice and rebellious behavior or actions which includes suicide (Martino, 431). It has also been found that sensational arousing music promotes fornication in the young minds of teenagers.

B. Does The Mood Of The Teens Have To Do With The Behavior To The Music

After a hard day, it is easy to take refuge in your favorite musical artist. But for teenagers listening to music can often be linked to depression, according to new research shows. The study (which appeared in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine), researchers found a relationship between depressive disorder, also known as clinical depression and hear great music (Connell, Gibson, 145-147).

Music

A. Types of Music

The themes of music such as pop, rock, alternative rock, heavy metal etc. are mostly anti- social which instill the idea of rebelliousness in the young minds of the teens. Teens are not mentally mature enough to recognize the good and the bad. Nonetheless, the media have paid attention on rebellious and harmful content contained in the music, which mainly originates from the heavy metal and rap genres, due to their supposed damaging results on adolescent, vulnerable listeners (Martino et al., 430)

B. Effect of Each Kind of Music

Most of the lyrics of heavy metal songs are based on subjects like rebelliousness, isolation, revenge, depression, anger etc. The meaning of majority of the songs refers to premarital sex, drug abuse, devil's actions, aggressive behavior etc. Although most the teenagers state that they are mostly interested in the music and not the lyrics. But it is proved y psychologists that even if a person does not pay attention to the lyrics, the subconscious mind uses that information and interprets it and the person does not even know about it (Ward, 347). Additionally, it has been found out that heavy metal lyrics are mostly symbolic and open to interpretation.

Rap music is part of the subculture of hip-hop music that originated mainly in African-American population and has spread to other cultures and musical genres. This powerful medium of expression allows young artists to use the strong beat of the music to the lyrics of rap accompaniment. The effects of rap music listeners, especially teens, show a strong link between music preferences and emotional and mental health. Rap, like all music, is a means of expression. Young people listening to rap music can become more aware of society and the injustice in it. The rappers say their music is about "social change" and standing by itself to earn respect in an inhospitable society (Selvan et al., 779). Many teenagers listening to rap music can rebel against the pressure of society to enforce them, and gain confidence in the outcome. They may also have more energy and a stronger voice. For an impressionable young mind, the strong lyrics of rap music could create hostility and violent behavior towards society, parents and the law. Rap music lyrics encourage aggression and violence in some teenagers because rap music often describes the social injustice that exists in society and how the "respect" is important for survival. The money and fame or disrepute is often the desired objectives for the acquisition of this. A teenager listening to rap can become materialistic and superficial, unable to differentiate between good and evil, and that rap can absolve them of a sense of personal responsibility (Martino, 431). The lyrics of rap music are generally simple to understand. And thus ideas like fornication, drug abuse, revenge, violence are promoted through the songs and since they are easy to comprehend, the negative ideas are instilled deep inside an immature teenagers mind.

Lyrics of pop music contain a variety of subjects like, materialism, money, status, sex, Satanism, drug abuse, fame, aggression and most often contain offensive language. The audience of pop music is way larger than that of any other genres of music (Hawkins, 121).

Country music is the most comprehendible because of the mild music, less use of musical instruments. The lyrics are more prominent and thus if the subject talked about in the song is negative then there is a direct effect of that theme in the audience especially if the audience is teens. The most common subjects used in the lyrics of the country music songs are related to depression, losing a loved one, sexual infidelity, alcohol and drug abuse, alienation from the society etc.

Conclusion

The message given through the lyrics and the music (formed by instruments like guitar, piano etc.) both have an impact on the behavior of the listener. The rebellious content in the lyrics induces negative behavior in the listener and the positive content induces positive behavior.