Rap Music: How does it influence today’s youth?

(POSTED FOR CHERRYH)

Music is a huge part of today’s society. Either in the car, on the computer, or on the television, music is all around us. The question is though, is rap music harmful to our society? Today’s youth looks up to people they admire. They want to dress and act just like their favorite singer or dancer. This is not always a good thing. According to Associated Content News, rap music is all about money, fame and women. If you listen to a random rap song, usually the artist is singing about one of the three. Many young kids are dropping out of school to try and make it as a professional rap artist. As you could probably guess, most do not make it and often turn to illegal activity to obtain some kind of money income. Another reason rap music is harmful to today’s youth is how they portray women. They talk as if women are objects and should be treated with no respect. Today’s youth thinks that’s “cool” because their favorite artists treat women like this so they should too. The women in music videos and in songs that send out this message do not help with the situation either. Many young girls think it is okay to be treated like this because it’s in their favorite songs or music videos.

Rap music also affects the choices kids make about sex. According to Web MD, teenagers who listen to rap music and look up to rap artists are more likely to do these behaviors in everyday life. They are more likely to be involved in gangs, have children out of wedlock, and to disrespect authority. In a study, after interviewing 522 girls between the ages of fourteen and eighteen who spent fourteen hours per week watching music videos were three times more likely then girls who do not watch them to hit a teacher, over 2.5 times more likely to get arrested, twice as likely to have multiple sex partners and 1.5 times more likely to get a sexually transmitted disease, use drugs, or drink alcohol. When I read these statistics the first thing I thought of was why are artists continuing to rap about things that have such a negative influence on the youth of today? The answer is simple. According to The Coalition against Violence, the entertainment industry has invested billions of dollars into promoting rap artists with music influenced by gangs, gangsters and the pimp culture itself. Is this money worth corrupting the future of America?

As you can see, there are definitely some reasons why rap music is harmful to our society. In reality though, all rap music is not bad. There are actually some artists out there that rap about their problems and the issues going on in the world. They tell their listeners how they are feeling and what their life is like. I support the artists that rap about this because they can really connect to teenagers that are going through similar situations as themselves.