From my point of view, when people today are asked what forms of music they enjoy, some might say all forms except hip-hop or all forms except country. When they are asked why, some may say because it’s either to boring or too provocative. I believe that both hip-hop and country music both bring some form of negativity on society, not only in America, but all around the world. Some of the most common negative effects that I believe they might bring on society are violence, such as abuse, suicide, and/or drugs and alcohol.
In a article “Rap Music's Psychological Effects”, written by Suite 101, studies were conducted to assess how listening to hip hop effected teenagers and young adults, and found that overall, that listening to rap music
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From my perspective from what I’ve watch on television on a station called the Black Entertainment Television (BET), I feel that hip-hop videos such as the rap kind promote alcohol and drugs the majority of the time. A survey that was conducted at a California Community College found that young people who listen to hip-hop use alcohol and drugs and engage in violent behavior, so this raises serious questions as to whether or not rap and hip-hop should be used to market alcoholic beverages. Then again if we look at what effects country music has on society when it comes to alcohol and drugs, country music advertises substance abuse, but only to alcohol. Country music also tends to reference it more in their songs. It seems that even though both topics influence alcohol and/or drugs, it stills seems that hip-hop music has more of an effect on society when it come to drugs and alcohol.
Maybe, one day we can change these problems that music has caused on today’s society. So when we look again at today’s society and we decided to ask people what they think about music and what types of music they prefer, I believe we would continue to get the same answers. We now know that my thoughts on both hip-hop and country music were true in some ways when it came to promoting negativity on our
Is music powerful enough to incite antisocial and violent behavior? According Johnson, Jackson and Gatto’s study on the deleterious effects of exposure to rap music, subjects in the violent exposure conditions (rap music) expressed greater acceptance of violence. Subjects in the violent exposure condition also reported a higher probability that they would engage in violence (Johnson). Music plays an i...
This article is titled “Rap music is harmful to African American communities” and is written by E. Faye Williams. Williams is a chairwoman of the National Congress of Black Women (NCBW). The national congress of black women is a non-profit organization dedicated to the educational, political, economic, and cultural development of African American women and their families. Williams’s article “Rap music is harmful to African American communities” makes her qualified and a credible source to be writing on this question: If rap music and other media is harming the African American community? In her article, she states her side of the argument of how rap music and media are indeed harming the African American community, using the context, and reasoning,
Rap and hip-hop is an artistic mirror reflecting society, which is violent in some places, and needs not a moral dismemberment via the glorification of fictional violence. The history of hip-hop has some sting to it, being that deaths have been caused and childhoods are under affect; the actions that younger listeners who enjoy hip-hop are not influenced by the songs or the artists, but only by perception of their surroundings. All that hinders a strong faith in hip-hop is its “gangsta rap” counterpart. Violence is a reaction, not an action.
“The Hip Hop Wars What We Talk About - And Why It Matters” by Tricia Rose explores what hip hop has done to society in recent years and what people think it has caused. Though it has become one of the most commercially successful genres in mainstream music Tricia Rose explains that the topics in hip hop music have narrowed. Commercial hip hop mainly consist of black gangstas, thugs, pimps, and hoes. In the book she looks into the different points of views of people who think whether hip hop invokes violence or if it reflects life in a black ghetto and if it slows down advancement for African Americans in US. The author goes back and forth with the opinion of the mass on hip hop, she says people view hip hop as a music like heavy metal which people associate with violence but she refutes most of these points by showing the positives of hip hop.
People say that rock and roll had a negative influence, but they are wrong. Rock and roll had a positive influence on the teens of America. It had a positive influence because it showed the teens how not to act and how not to treat people. It also taught them to respect their parents and not act like the rockers do on TV and in live concerts. Parents did not show much kindness toward rock because of the singers and bands and how they acted and did drug, however parents still let their kids listen to rock and roll but they controlled how they acted. Police didn't show much kindness towards rockers because they were ‘poisoning the minds of teens, but as the police and parents started to show hate towards rock, the kids started to rebel more and act like their idols more which taught the parents and the police that if they don't let kids ...
Hip hop culture and its creation of rap music has been stereotypically deemed as mere violent depictions as portrayed by its black artists, and is prejudicially more criticized than white genres that also perpetuate violent language within its lyrics. They are subsequently blamed for the massive rates of homicides within the black community, as blackness is given a dangerous face and linked to criminality, as if innately part of a violent culture. However, violence must be defined through the physical utilization of certain words and actions, along with social manipulations of power and hierarchy to confirm one’s own identity (Hernandéz, Weinstein & Munoz-Laboy, 2012, pg. 595). Rap music was created in the 1970s and originated in the South
Music, like mass media and television, has such a powerful influence on our society. People think rap music is very negative towards society, which is not the case. Rappers teach people about possible consequences a person may encounter if they choose the same route. Rappers tell their life experience through their songs. Rap music does not influence violence; it educates people on what is going on in the lives of urban people.
It is surprising that music can have such an impact on American society today. The truth is that rap and hip-hop music not only affects teenagers and children that commit violence, but also affects those victims who suffer from the violent acts, Violence and Misogyny is a very serious problem that Americans face today and in order to create peace in our city streets, we must set guidelines to what our children should or should not hear.
McBride states “In China, teens spray-paint graffiti on The Great Wall. In France, it has been blamed, unfairly, for the worst civil unrest that the country has seen in decades”(2, 7). Though this doesn’t make sense, how a music genre can be blamed for a violent act and not that it was a decision that the person made themselves. Hip Hop wasn’t made for young children to listen too, but due to our culture, all of the younger generations have been raised around it. It does influence people and but it doesn’t make decisions for them either, it’s the way the parents raise their children and common sense, not just some words written in a song they listen
A race issue that occurs within the rap and hip-hop musical genre is the racial stereotypes associated with the musical form. According to Brandt, and Viki rap music and hip- hop music are known for fomenting crime violence, and the continuing formation of negative perceptions revolving around the African-American race (p.362). Many individuals believe that rap and hip-hop music and the culture that forms it is the particular reason for the degradation of the African-American community and the stereotypes that surround that specific ethnic group. An example is a two thousand and seven song produced by artist Nas entitled the N-word. The particular title of the song sparked major debates within not only the African-American community thus the Caucasian communities as well. Debates included topics such as the significance and worth of freedom of speech compared with the need to take a stand against messages that denigrate African-Americans. This specific label turned into an outrage and came to the point where conservative white individuals stood in front of the record label expressing their feelings. These individuals made a point that it is because artists like Nas that there is an increase in gang and street violence within communities. Rap and hip-hop music only depicts a simple-minded image of black men as sex crazed, criminals, or “gangsters”. As said above, community concerns have arisen over time over the use of the N-word, or the fact that many rappers vocalize about white superiority and privilege. Of course rap music did not develop these specific stereotypes, however these stereotypes are being used; and quite successfully in rap and hip-hop which spreads them and keeps the idea that people of color are lazy, all crimin...
However, just this year a song by Miley Cyrus sparked a “twerking” outbreak, and there simply is no denying the impact it had on teenagers throughout the entire country. The problem, though, is that hip-hop music promotes things far worse than the provocative dancing that was advocated in Cyrus’s song. Others argue that culture is not actually being affected by the music, and it is actually the opposite. They claim that the lyrics in hip-hop music are poetry of the streets, and it embodies black victimhood in the ghetto. However, if we accept this, we are accepting the fact that the “ghetto life” is so hopeless that an explosion of violence is justified. By encouraging rappers that promote this type of behavior we are deeming the behavior acceptable just because the “ghetto life” is tough. However, rape and murder should never be seen as acceptable, and nor should the advocacy of it
Hip hop has permeated popular culture in an unprecedented fashion. Because of its crossover appeal, it is a great unifier of diverse populations. Although created by black youth on the streets, hip hop's influence has become well received by a number of different races in this country. A large number of the rap and hip hop audience is non-black. It has gone from the fringes, to the suburbs, and into the corporate boardrooms. Because it has become the fastest growing music genre in the U.S., companies and corporate giants have used its appeal to capitalize on it. Although critics of rap music and hip hop seem to be fixated on the messages of sex, violence, and harsh language, this genre offers a new paradigm of what can be (Lewis, 1998.) The potential of this art form to mend ethnic relations is substantial. Hip hop has challenged the system in ways that have unified individuals across a rich ethnic spectrum. This art form was once considered a fad has kept going strong for more than three decades. Generations consisting of Blacks, Whites, Latinos, and Asians have grown up immersed in hip-hop. Hip hop represents a realignment of America?s cultural aesthetics. Rap songs deliver a message, again and again, to keep it real. It has influenced young people of all races to search for excitement, artistic fulfillment, and a sense of identity by exploring the black underclass (Foreman, 2002). Though it is music, many people do not realize that it is much more than that. Hip hop is a form of art and culture, style, and language, and extension of commerce, and for many, a natural means of living. The purpose of this paper is to examine hip hop and its effect on American culture. Different aspects of hip hop will also be examined to shed some light that helps readers to what hip hop actually is. In order to see hip hop as a cultural influence we need to take a look at its history.
The lyrics of many rap songs encourage violent and aggressive thoughts in teenagers. Many teens don’t realize that the music they are listening to affects the way they think. According to Morrison, a columnist whose writings focus on the impact of the choices people face every day, “Words do have meanings, meanings suggest thoughts, and thoughts lead to action” (Morrison). Even if the person isn’t affected right away by the violent lyrics of most today’s rap songs, eventually they will become more prone to certain thoughts. As Morrison stated, “In experiments on over 500 college students . . . subjects were found to experience an increase in aggressive thoughts after listening to songs with violent lyrics. Those subjected to the mean music were more apt to connect hostile meanings to words deemed to be violence neutral by the researchers” (Morrison). In time, words that aren’t intended to cause malicious thoughts, suddenly take on new meanings. Travis L. Dixon, who studies Communication at the University of ...
Dr. Boyce Watkins compares Hip Hop to “Adolph Hitler’s Mien Kampf as a harmless little book or the bible has no impact on Christianity” (KultureKritic). Basically he is trying to say that when you control of a few group of people’s minds you are controlling the people themselves. By corpora ting the airwaves with message serve as a blueprint for our youth to self-destruct by creating a large army of pants-sagging, Blunt-smoking, tattooed-up, uneducated, STD-infected, impoverished thugs.
Is today “Gangster rap” and rappers corrupting society, introducing drugs and provoking violence? In the mid-1980s Gangster rap came to be depicting images of violence, guns, gangs, drugs, and sexism. By the 1990s rap music became a major part of the industry and topped the charts. As people began to want different things; different music was created and that contributed to the variety of music that we have today. This is one of the many things that makes America different but is severely under looked by everyone. The way it effects your emotion can either get the blood pumping with a quick adrenaline boost or can cause severe depression. It can be a positive or negative mental change, physical, and psychological change.