Rap Music Thesis

This qualitative study takes a look at the relationship between gangsta rap music and violent behavior because there is little research devoted to this area.

Rap music has become one of the most distinctive and controversial music genres of the past few decades. A major part of hip hop culture, rap, discusses the experiences and standards of living of people in different situations ranging from racial stereotyping to struggle for survival in poor, violent conditions. Rap music is a vocal protest for the people oppressed by these things. Most people know that rap is not only music to dance and party to, but a significant form of expression. It is a source of information that describes the rage of people facing growing oppression, declining opportunities for advancement, changing moods on the streets, and everyday survival. Its distinct sound, images, and attitude are notorious to people of all

The above article discusses a study conducted that tested whether exposure to rap music increases sexism within males. The study did not give any direct concrete evidence that rap music causes misogyny. Yet it brought up some useful insights that were supported by the study. Initially, they discovered that listening to non-sexist songs still led to some type of sexist behavior. This finding is relevant as it shows that it might not solely be the lyrics that are responsible for sexism within music. People can be instinctively associating rap music with being misogynistic. Another finding was that misogynistic lyrics prime young males to behave sexually aggressive temporarily. This reading is important for this topic as it disregards the popular belief that rap music causes sexism, but it also takes in account that rap music can prime young males to be slightly more aggressive. While this study cannot be used to promote any type of censorship in media, it can still encourage the music industry to reevaluate the material they are launching to public, especially the young generation.

Parents were and still are on the fence of their kids listening to rap music. The explicit types of rap music are poisoning the minds of young teens and can even encourage them to act in the a violent manner or rebel. Although, that is for explicit lyrics, not all rap has explicit lyrics. Altogether, rap music does not encourage teen violence in any way and many individual artists even teach their audience how to act positively. Teenagers seem to click easier to song lyrics, whether it's country, rap, rock, or pop. It can affect teenagers in a positive and negative way, but violence being said in the lyrics does not cause an indication of aggression for the listener. The lyrics may describe their situation perfectly, what they go through and how they feel. That’s why we always have those catchy radio tunes stuck in our heads. Alison Churchill, a fan of rapper Eminem from Newsday feed shares her input on what it can do to younger peers. “But she thinks the song could have a positive impact, ‘if it can hit a nerve with a teenager and prompt them to go talk to someone about it.’ Because, Churchill says, ‘The more we talk about a subject, the easier it is to fix.’” If teens don't usually have anyone to talk to, it can cause an empty feeling of loneliness that can turn into urges of depression, anxiety, mental health issues. When rap music hits home for the younger generation it's telling them to open up to somebody and share what you have to say. Talking about something that is bothersome can be a great solution for those who need or want it.

Like many musical genre before rap, some people believe that rap music influenced teenagers in a negative way that could lead to violence. Some criminals have blamed movies, books, and music as inspiration for their crimes. However, one cannot solely rely on these sources as the main reason for any act whether good or bad. “Millions of heavy metal and gangsta rap fans spend hours with their chosen music genres and never threaten others or themselves. Moreover, most researchers concerned with the causes of suicide and violence point to a broad array of risk factors unrelated to popular culture (e.g., depression, access to guns, substance abuse, etc.) that seem to be precursors of such

Hip Hop changes lives, but not the way you are told to believe. The media false advertises that music is the main stimulus for bad decision making and ultimately for violence. Teens are influenced by many different factors with each factor dictating a percentage of their decision making. Majority of the time these factors are unavoidable. Factors such as environment, family, and music are key to the teens decision making. Hip-hop is believed to have a huge negative impact on teens decision-making and we are to blame for this false allegation.

In the first year, they were taught to identify and analyze various forms of oppression in relation to the ways rap music portrayed the themes of racial identity, gender roles, ageism, stereotypes and youth problem behaviors. During the second year, they were taught collaboratively gender and violence and the effects of Rap Music Exposure on Political Opinions and Criminal Justice in which they wrote two empirical papers. It brought to my mind that they kinds of music that one listens to does influence his/her behavior or their way of being. By this, social media play a heavy role in the development of a child to the extent that they take whatever shown on television or through music videos as the ideal of life and that they should imitate similar behavior(s). For example, in Bandura’s study, the Bobo doll; the child developed aggressive behavior when he/she saw physical aggressive behavior towards the Bobo doll. In other words, adolescent(s) develop behavior(s) portrayed by social media to the extent that they imitate and believe that since others are engaging in similar behavior, thus, what they’re doing is the correct way of being. Putting that aside, Jager also explained heavily on the Wolverine

Whether you love it or hate it Rap music has come to be one of the most popular, yet arguable, music genres of the past decades. Today’s rap music has changed enormously since the 1970’s. Rap music was about having fun, being able to express what youth were feeling and a way to keep youth out of trouble. Rap songs usually use explicit and demeaning lyrics, which has huge influence on the youth of today. While rappers say that they’re plainly rapping about reality. They often use violence, the use of drugs and Guns as the main tool to tell the story of their lives and show how hard it is growing up in their neighbourhood. This surely does not set any good examples for the young men and women, listening to this trash and singing along with the

Hip hop is something that has been around since the 21st century. When it comes to the hip hop community, there are so many stereotypes that the media portrays. This essay will show that the stereotype of violent, crimes African American in rap music can become self-prognostication for the hip hop community. This is a behavior that has been corresponding in the rap music and has become accepted as a social norm by the African American community.

The impact music has on the life of people is very powerful. It can easily revamp the way people act and take control of people’s emotions. Rap music is a very common and popular type of music within the world today. Rap music has existed since the mid 1970s, nowadays it is practically everywhere. It is easily a central focus of many young people’s lives. Rap music was essentially intended to create a voicing of one’s frustrations and disappointment with society, it has recently taken a turn and is creating a negative impact on the youth. It is the root that influences and encourages degrading women, violence, and is filled with sexual content.

The corruptness of music today seems to be linked to the crude language and aggression found particularly in hip-hop and rap music. Some rap artists use vulgar language in their lyrics that are easily adoptable by teens (Holden). Not only have certain lyrics influenced the way teens speak but also their actions. An article on Headliners.org stated that “lyrics in the music are too violent and are to blame for many problems.” The problems range anywhere from suicide and aggression towards women to underage drinking and drug use. Lyrics are not only to blame, but also what people see in artists’ music videos can affect what they do (Doaks). The urge to emulate these rap musicians has escalated quickly causing a spike in rebellious tendencies among teens.

Hip-Hop is an extensive and a broad conglomerate of various artistic forms that ultimately originated in the South Bronx and then quickly spread throughout the rest of New York City among African-Americans and other African-American youth mainly from the Caribbean and from Jamaica during the 1970’s. Over the course of decades and recent years, controversy surrounding Hip-Hop and rap music has been the vanguard of the media. From the over hype of the East and West Coast rivalry to the deaths of Tupac, Biggie, and even Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin, it seems that political and broadcasting groups have been injudicious to place essentially the blame on rap and Hip-Hop music for a superficial trend in youth violence.

Rap music offers a detailed array of experience from different walks of life. It can teach kids about many other cultures and people. In turn kids have better understandings of the world around them, they also earn better perspectives on topics that are otherwise presented to them in a one sided way from people like parents, government, and police. Topics like violence, youth crime, parental trouble and relationships otherwise unseen to them are open to them through rap music. Rap music from different perspectives and places opens kids up to different forms of creativity.

Due to the stories of teens committing violent crimes like school shootings, murder, or robberies has many researchers curious about what exactly causes this violent behavior, and what is it about some violent songs that causes teenagers to react negatively to the lyrics of a song. This often results in teenagers hearing a violent song, then acting out what they see or hear in that violent song. Another factor besides the background or personality of the teen would be the capacity for that teen to learn violence or how much aggression a teen has, to begin with. Learned violence is what happens when a teenager or a group of teenagers observe and note how to be violent from their

     Most rap songs that contain violence reflects incidents that occur in today’s society such as the Rodney King incident. “Rap music brings together a tangle of some of the most complex social, cultural, and political issues in contemporary American society.” Rap and hip-hop artists write songs that promote the killing of enemies as well as targeting institutions such as the church, government, and justice system (Ro 145) Most artists relive their own painful experiences over and over again though their music, delaying their own society’s process of recovery . for example, in 1989