At the moment, rap music dominates the music industry as it continues to grow from its birth in the 1970’s. While every other music genre has either stabilized or is beginning to decline, rap music is attracting the youth exponentially. Although, children should not be the audience being targeted by the rap industry, they still continue to be the main group targeted by these corporations. The violent lyrics seen in rap music has a negative impact on the youth as children are more likely to be affiliated with gangs and associate drugs along with sex as ideals for happiness, this idealogy is also visible throughout the play Macbeth.
While listening to rap music it is clearly shown that a lot of the lyrics are affiliated with gangs. When the youth is exposed to these lyrics while having fun with their friends they begin to create acquisitions that gangs aren’t bad, but that gangs are normal, but that gangs show strength, they show power. Gangs have violence tied all throughout them. When the history of gangs is studied, many statistics show large amounts of deaths and arrests for gang members. “That is, for violent lyrics to promote youth violence or for substance use portrayals to encourage experimentation with illicit drugs, young audiences presumably must find violent or substance related messages in the songs,” (Gentile 159).
Violence is the entire demographic of rap music. Due to the accessibility and popularity of this genre of music the youth is easily exposed to it. These children then become brainwashed by the music. The youth audience begins to develop a reality where violence is dominant and powerful. Some musical lyrics talk about killing others to get what is wanted. The youth isn’t smart enough to know that this is wrong, so they develop the ideology that they too can just go around and be violent to others to gain respect and privileges. What the youth doesn’t realize is that their actions come with consequences. If a person goes out and murders someone they are going to be arrested it does not matter if they say that the music told them too.
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The music gets no blame all of the blame is put onto the criminal. When people take the time to actually think about what they are doing before taking action then the lyrics effect would have little effect, but today’s society is not the brightest. Instead of thinking, people just do, which is why the lyrics of music are so important. Putting out music with healthier and positive lyrics will lead to benefits in society while putting out this trash about murder will only lead to more and more tragedies.
“Many artists, such as Post Malone, reference drugs, sex and violence in their music,” (Steil 1). In this new era industry of music, Post Malone is a leading artist. He is streamed by all ages, young and old. He is also loved by a lot of people due to his lyrics and how powerful they are. The thing that isn’t seen by most people is the violence that he uses in his lyrics. Even though fans don’t always understand the negative parts of his music while they are listening, they are subconsciously developing a more violent prejudice towards life. In some of Post Malone’s music the violence is easily seen, but everybody still sings it, like the lyrics of killing somebody are somehow positive.
Due to his popularity in the music industry and his very large fan base, people are going to listen to his lyrics and begin to act more violent because that is how Post Malone is. People are going to try to be more like Post Malone because, to them, he is an idol. The way to create a change in which these musicians will not be idolized as much is to show the bad sides of them. Show the children what they don’t want to see. Show them what they don’t want to end up like. Rap music has a tendency for creating a new nature for teens in which they act out in a more violent manner and seem to have less self control and morals.
Along with violence created due to rap music there is a growth in childrens’ sex drive and degrading of women. Throughout rap music, the lyrics cleary show a degradation of women. “adolescents who are depressed, angry, alienated, experiencing suicidal thoughts, having family problems, abusing drugs or alcohol, or having difficulty at school constitute a group that is particularly drawn to the sort of angry, nihilistic music that celebrates these “troubled” states and traits. These factors, when coupled with the high levels of identification with the music and its performers,” (Gentile 165).
In the rap community success is shown through three things. These three things are money, drugs and sex. In order for a male rapper to have sex what do they need? Women. In the rap community the men do not actually care about women, they just see them as a prize that they get to show their success. This is why rap music is full of lyrics, in which the rapper will flex all of the women that he has gotten with, along with putting names on them that hide their true value. Women have fought to be equal to men in many parts of the world and this can not just be thrown away and forgotten.
The nineteenth amendment said that anybody could vote no matter their gender. This was a right that was fought for over many years. Men are not dominant to women and can not just take anything they want from them because in reality women have benefited to society more than men ever will. “From songs like these, young boys may get the wrong idea that treating women poorly and engaging in drug use makes them popular,” (Steil 1). The larger proportion of the population that listens to rap music at a younger age are males. These adolescent males are going to hear these lyrics that degrade women and think that women are not equal to them. They are going to think that they are the dominant race while women are just what a male gets like a toy or a car.
As these boys turn into men they are not going to lose this belief that they are the dominant gender. This will eventually lead to even greater conflict than is already seen throughout history, as well as the present time period. One day soon, if there is no change in the lyrics of rap music, there could be a war derived from the degradation of women. In the rap world women are generally just seen as a prize, in which the winner takes home the best looking. A simple way to see how the music industry is to picture a Dave and Busters. MAny people go there and they play games to earn tickets. In the music industry these tickets represent money. Now at the end of the day the person with the most tickets is able to obtain the best prize. In the music industry, this prize is the woman. As teen boys listen to this music they are going to create an ununified society as they don’t value women equally. The final way that rap music tears apart society and leaves marks on the youth is through the use of drugs in lyrics.
The new music that is currently “hot’ is composed largely of drug use throughout the lyrics. “I have drugged their possets” (Macbeth 2.2.8-9). When people want to change their perception of reality they begin to experiment with drugs. As seen is Macbeth, a way for the king to be murdered was needed in order to change reality so that Macbeth would be king was needed, so drugs were used to hide evidence of the murder. When drugs are put into the wrong person’s hands very bad things can happen. A lot of drugs allow little to no control of your body when you are under the influence. The use of drugs by teens could lead to self harm or harm to other people without control.
Teens that seem to be depressed and have problems in their life turn to more angry and violent music to cope with their problems and make themselves feel normal. These teens are not fighting their depression and problems, yet they are just creating a mindset that what they are is normal (Gentile 165). Due to the overuse of drugs in song lyrics teens are no longer afraid of them, yet they see them to be a normality in today’s society. Due to the fact that drugs are no longer frowned upon by the youth more and more adolescents will begin to experiment with them like their idols do. For some of these childrens drugs may be beneficial but for a majority there will be consequences. Drugs being referenced in rap music has a negative effect and major consequences as teens will begin to get hooked on drugs and their futures will vanish right from their fingertips.
A world where everybody is addicted to drugs will create a catastrophic downfall in life on earth. There is a negative impact between modern pop and rap music on the youth as this generation is becoming more likely to use drugs sex and violence for happiness. The impact that music has on people is enormous as it influences their views and actions. When a teen experiments with drugs for the first time they do not see all of the long term effects. This is the same for the sex part. People are going to end up doing some very bad things and getting into a lot of trouble for doing what is portrayed in these lyrics. Music needs to become sought after because of its positive messages. Music should start to go back to its roots lyrically and put out a positive message. The benefits of having positive vibes out in the world outweigh the negatives of having bad vibes by a landslide.
Bibliography
- Gentile, Douglas A. “The Effects of Violent Music on Children and Adolescents.” Media Violence and Children , 16 Oct. 2003, pdfs.semanticscholar.org/4bd4/0af73efd39198c6d2ba3d2f8a97afbca7858.pdf. Date accessed: 12/14/19
- “Impact of Music Lyrics and Music Videos on Children and Youth .” American Academy of Pediatrics , 1 Nov. 2009, www.public.asu.edu/~dbodman/candv/aap_musiclyrics_videos.pdf. Date accessed: 12/14/19
- Scott, Kim A. “Rap Music and Its Violent Progeny: America’s Culture of Violence in Context.” Journal of Negro Education , 2002, users.clas.ufl.edu/marilynm/Theorizing_Black_America_Syllabus_files/Rap%20Music%20and%20Its%20Violent%20Progeny.pdf. Date accessed: 12/16/19
- “Violent Song Lyrics Have Negative Effect on Youth.” The Eagle Eye , 18 Sept. 2018, eagleeye.news/artsandleisure/how-do-violent-song-lyrics-affect-people/. Date accessed: 12/17/19
