“Today's rock music extols everything from rape, and homosexuality to sadomasochism and bestiality.... Other lyrics glamorize drug and alcohol use, and glorify death and violent rebellion” (Betz, 2004, p. 1). Music is and always has been a major influence on teenagers around the world. Is music today taking it a step too far? According to Smilkstein (1999), violence occurs in 57% of rap and rock videos and sexual intimacy in 75%. Of videos with violence, 81% also contained sexual references, (p. 1). Music has been around for centuries and affecting teens in all sorts of different ways. Violence and bad situations are not the only thing that comes out of music. Christian music affects religious listeners in a much different way than rap music would affect a teen today. This paper will deal with all the effects, positive and negative, of music and teenagers. The music being discussed will be rap, rock and roll, heavy metal, country, and Christian. Each section of music will be thoroughly explored and how each individual aspect affects teenagers will be brought into light.
“Teens who spend more time watching the sex and violence depicted in the ‘reel’ life of ‘gangsta’ rap music videos are more likely to practice these behaviors in real life” (Kerchheimer, 2003, p. 1). Five hundred and twenty two black girls between the ages of 14 to 18, all who listened to rap and watched rap videos, were studied. Compared to girls that rarely or never watched the videos, the 522 girls were far more likely to put themselves in bad situations. According to the one year study, these girls were three times more likely to hit a teacher, over 2.5 times more likely to get arrested, twice as likely to have multiple sexual partners, and 1.5 times more likely to get a sexually transmitted disease, use drugs, or drink alcohol (Kerchheimer, p. 1).
Not only are the teens that