No longer are rock stars the ones that young people look up to. Rather they have been replaced by young hip-hop stars and rappers who drive fast cars, wear expensive jewelry, date beautiful women, and fight amongst themselves to see who can come out on top. The lyrics in their songs are harsh. They speak of gang life, life in the ghetto, gunfights, drug use, and they often degrade women. Yet wherever one turns these songs and being played over and over again on the radio and the music videos are being show on TV. As harsh as they may be they are in fact the real lives of many of these stars.

Susan Buttross, MD, FAAP, chief of child development and the University of Mississippi Medical Center and spokeswoman for the American Academy of Pediatrics (as cited by Kirchheime

According to a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (as cited in the Brown University Child and Adolescent Behavior Letter 2003) researchers from Iowa State University and the Texas Department of Human Services looked at five experiments involving over 500 college students that examined the effects of seven violent songs by seven artists and eight non-violent songs by seven artists. After listening to the songs, students were given various psychological tests to measure aggressive thoughts and feelings, such as having them classify words that can have both aggressive and non-aggressive meanings. Results showed that violent songs led to more aggressive interpretations of words, increased the speed in which they read aggressive vs. non-aggressive words, and increased the proportion of word fragments that were filled in to make aggressive words. According to this study the violent songs increased feelings of hostility without being provoked, and that even humorous violent songs increased violent thought ( The Brown University Child and Adolescent Behavior Letter 2003).

Rapper Common believes that rap music can have both a negative and positive effect on young black men. He says it has such a big effect on them because they don’t have a role model within their family to guide them, and because young people relate to people their own age they look to rap stars. He says that kids need to realize it is only entertainment and cannot base their lives on the stories told in the lyrics of the artist (Waldron 1996). Common admits to using profanity in his lyrics because that is the language of the streets and it is what reflects the inner city life, and in the long run that is what sells.

One of Eminem’s popular songs, titled “Murder, Murder” obviously puts women down and includes the lyrics: “We were backin out this lady’s Jag started blackin it out/Pulled the Mac-10 out, stuck it in her face/Shut ya yakkin mouth, ‘fore I blow the brain from out the back ya scalp/Drug her by her hair, smacked her up/Thinking fuck it, mug her while you’re there, jack her up...”(www.ohhla.com)

“That\'s the sound of a bottle when it\'s hollow/ When you swallow it all wallow and drown in your sorrow/ And tomorrow you\'re probably gonna want to do it again/ What\'s a little spinal fluid between you and a friend? Screw it / And what\'s a little bit of alcohol poisoning? And what\'s a little fight? Tomorrow you\'ll be boys again /It\'s your life, live it however you wanna / Mari-ju-uana is everywhere, where was you brought up?” (www.ohhla.com)

“Rap music is the central cultural vehicle for open social reflection on poverty, fear of adulthood, the desire for absent fathers, frustrations about black male sexism, female sexual desires, daily rituals of life as an unemployed teen hustler, safe sex, raw anger, violence, and childhood memories. It is also the home of innovative uses of style and language, hilariously funny carnivalesque and chitlin-circuit-inspired dramatic skits, and ribald storytelling. In short, it is black America’s most dynamic contemporary popular cultural and spiritual vessel.”

There is no denying that the images portrayed in today’s rap lyrics and music video depict a violent lifestyle, one full of drugs and guns and dominant male figures. However it can be held responsible for violence amongst today’s young people. The effect that the music has on a young person is a purely individual response and one that is influenced by many factors including parental figures, family life, peers, and surroundings. Whether or not a young person has a positive role model in his or her life has a huge impact on how they perceive media images through radio and television. Parent’s need to instill from a young age that entertainment is a way to make money and a majority of these rappers are doing just that. By glorifying life on the streets they are selling records. They ar

Some topics in this essay:
African American, Behavior Letter, MTV Dre, Los Angeles, Academy Pediatrics, Rapper’s Delight, Human Services, Dr Dre’s, Rapper Common, Women Inc, rap music, et al, music videos, al 1995, et al 1995, krohn et al, krohn et, adolescent behavior letter, university child, brown university, adolescent behavior, behavior letter, brown university child, child adolescent, child adolescent behavior,