Degrading lyrics lead to early sex, study says

Pittsburgh Post Gazette ^ | August 07, 2006 | Timothy McNulty

[prisoner6]

Degrading lyrics lead to early sex, study says

Monday, August 07, 2006

By , Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Common sense says exposing children to sexually degrading song lyrics cannot be a good thing. Now, a multiyear study of teen sexual behavior and listening habits, led by a researcher in Pittsburgh, is setting out to prove it scientifically.

The Rand Corp. study, released today, shows that the more often teens listen to sexually degrading songs -- marked by obscenities and stereotypes of women as sex objects and men as sexual predators -- the likelier they are to have sex at an early age.

< snip - excerpted >

[prisoner6]

... the more often teens listen to sexually degrading songs - the likelier they are to have sex

Who could have guessed..

Paging Captain Obvious

prisoner6

[goldstategop]

I've never listened to rap. As for music being sexually suggestive, if we go along with the Iranian mullahs/Salafist sheikhs - we should ban it all for inflaming people's minds with lascivious thoughts.

(Go Israel, Go! Slap 'Em Down Hezbullies.)

[prisoner6]

we should ban it all for inflaming people's minds with lascivious thoughts

Oh, I'm no prude. A lot of the songs I do are sexually suggestive in a light, farcical manner. (Let's talk Dirty in Hawaian, Rub it in, My Baby Don't Wear No Panties...TONS of Bobby Bare stuff for example) I also do believe adults have a right to be entertained...ummm adultly. Perhaps that's not the best wording but I think everyone will know what I mean.

Here's a sample from the study.

Ja Rule's "Livin' It Up" was judged degrading:

"Half the ho's hate me, half them love me/The ones that hate me/Only hate me 'cause they ain't [expletive] me/And they say I'm lucky/Do you think I've got time/To [expletive] all these ho's?"

That's the stuff kids are listening to, idolizing and Big Music is pushing to them.

prisoner6

[GSlob]

I could imagine an early Paleolithic parent humming with disapproval and whacking his offspring for grunting obscenely.

[Names Ash Housewares]

Garbage in, Garbage out.

What we feed our brains determines our actions.

[prisoner6]

BTW...I just recalled getting into "trouble" with Wife and a few of her friends a while back. I didn't realize they were around and was playing a couple of songs on my guitar.

"Pour Me Another Tequila, Shelia...Then Take Off That Red Satin Dress" and "In Spite of Ourselves" that goes...

(John Prine sings...)

She don't like her eggs all runny She looks down her nose at money
Gets it on like the Easter bunny
She's my baby, I'm her honey
Never gonna let her go

(Then Iris Dement checks in)

He ain't got laid in a month of Sundays
I caught him once and he was sniffin' my undies
He ain't too sharp but he gets things done
Drinks his beer like it's oxygen
He's my baby
And I'm his honey
Never gonna let him go

There were a couple of lines in there that got Wife and friends...well undies...all knotted up. If I had realized they were nearby I wouldn't have played the songs.

Happily for me Wife and her friends aren't so sensitive now, and they've even asked me to play the John Prine song a couple of times. NOT when kids are around though, LOL.

prisoner6

[Pro-Bush]

..Sounds like Algores wife in the 80's.

[BossLady]

I am partial to Insane Clown Posse lyrics.....always make me laugh out loud...lol

[ricardobaltazar]

Well, I guess I have a few observations about this.

Hip hop is in a close tie as being my first musical love. (House music is a close second) I think most of the mainstream hip hop today is crap because it lost the social awareness and commentary that groups from Grandmaster Flash and Slick Rick to NWA and Public Enemy had.

Sex is a prevelant theme in modern society and hip hop music is no exception. Not all of it bothers me though. There's a big difference between complete trash like Bubba Sparxx "Miss New Booty" and other tracks like Eminem's "Shake That". The former is without any redeeming value; a complete objectification of women and features lackluster rhymes and production. The latter is very witty, humorous and it is obvious that the writers and performers of the song meant it to be a joke track.

I am a DJ and I do a lot of parties for high schoolers and college age kids. They are a very sexualized bunch and I can't disagree that the music is a sizeable factor. The problem as I see it is that they get through ~20 years of school and parenting without ever learning to contextualize the things they watch, read, and listen to. I can listen to those same songs and have a good laugh yet these kids seem to take them as a philosophy towards life.

Also, as a final point. Hip hop is forever demonized as being the worst, most vulgar music ever. I've heard plenty of country songs that were just as bad if not worse. Hank Williams was no angel. Yet I've heard to many country music listeners harp on that dirty rap music then they put on a honky tonk tune about boozing and shacking up and somehow that's ok.

[ExtremeUnction]

The Rand Corp. study, released today, shows that the more often teens listen to sexually degrading songs -- marked by obscenities and stereotypes of women as sex objects and men as sexual predators -- the likelier they are to have sex at an early age.

Well, maybe... I went to a Catholic elementary school in the late 50's - early 60's and myself and a young girl (we were both in the 8th grade) figured out how to do it. Now I know it was wrong and a sin, etc, but sometimes kids just figure things out at an early age. I believe this has been the case for thousands of years. 40+ years later we are both in strong marriages, but from time-to-time, we exchange a wink at Mass.

Finally, and back to the point, we never listened to, "sexually degrading songs." We just had chemistry (very early chemistry).

[Riverman94610]

"It wasn't wine that I had too much of
It was a double shot of my baby's love"
Now THATS nasty!

[dayglored]

Parents: Don't blame music. You're responsible for your kids, and for what they listen to, and for how they act, until you kick 'em out of the nest.

Every new generation freaks their parents out with music, and their parents decide the music is the reason the kids:

1. Aren't obedient.
2. Have sex.
3. Drink / smoke / whatever.
4. Dance / gamble / whatever.

Yaaaaa-awwwn. My Dad freaked his parents out with Frank Sinatra and be-bop Jazz. I freaked my parents out with Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Grateful Dead. My daughter (just turned 13) is going to freak me out with something else.

Clue #1: It ain't the music.

[dayglored]

> Hip hop is forever demonized as being the worst, most vulgar music ever. I've heard plenty of country songs that were just as bad if not worse. Hank Williams was no angel. Yet I've heard to many country music listeners harp on that dirty rap music then they put on a honky tonk tune about boozing and shacking up and somehow that's ok.

That's a really good point, and one that may get you flamed on a forum that's heavy into country. But you're right.

Now, full disclosure: I can't stand most hip-hop for more than about 10 minutes. Nothing personal -- and I grant that there are some fine artists in the hip-hop realm. I tend to view the genre as the modern equivalent of the 50's Beat poets, and I think it's quite genuine. Hip-hop has every right to exist, and to be played; I have every right to not have to listen to it.

A buddy of mine, a big Aerosmith fan, has a 15-yr old daughter who is into hip-hop, and it's driving him crazy. Oh well. Probably my daughter will settle on something I find equally appalling -- that's the way it goes.

Music is a big part of life. Everybody should find some style that they like, but nobody has to like all of it.

[beyond the sea]

Common sense says exposing children to sexually degrading song lyrics cannot be a good thing.

Oh for ........ "I Want To Hold Your Hand".

[hunter112]

Clue #1: It ain't the music.

Agreed. I'm inclined to believe that any parental figure that would tolerate misogynistic music would probably not do much to discourage rampant sexual behavior.

[durasell]

In the future all music will be suitable for children. Barney the dinosaur will fill arenas!

[CheyennePress]

You've heard country songs as dirty as "Magic Stick" and "Candy Shop?"

I don't think so. lol.

The day I hear a rap group produce a song as moving as Alan Jackson's "Remember When" is the day I've heard everything.

[durasell]

Rap artists are stampeding to the mainstream for obvious reasons.

[L.N. Smithee]

The study recommends parents monitor their children's music; set purchasing and listening limits; be careful of listening to their own sexually-themed music around children; and discuss sexual messages and imagery with their children.

It also recommends providing media education to children -- explaining how media outlets use sex to sell music and other goods -- and alerting the recording industry to the negative impacts of the sexually degrading material they sell.

I've been waiting for years for someone to do a study like this. If I was willing to give up my anonymity, I would have started a program that would randomly record one hour of content on the highest-rated hip-hop station in every major market and print out the lyrics of the songs played. Parents who would think themselves unshockable would be shocked.

As a black man, it annoys me to no end the way that the hip-hop culture winks at illegitimacy and deadbeat dads and glorifies a lifestyle of drunken carousing and tossing dollar bills at thong-wearing women. When such behavior is blamed on institutional racism, I get infruiated. Bill Cosby's lectures are just the beginning of what needs to happen to change the inner-city attitudes about teen and pre-teen sex. The consumers of hip-hop have got to stop dancing and realize the music is part of the problem.

[durasell]

Rap is now seen as a gateway into mainstream entertainment.