I read an article a couple of weeks ago about music and aggression. It examined the effects of misogynist music and its negative impact on men's treatment of women. It seems that males had more strong negative emotions and behaviors toward women than men once they finished listening to the sexually aggressive song lyrics.
It's obvious that music can have an effect, good or bad on ones emotions and or behaviors. It has since the beginning of time. As a teen a good love song, when I was between boyfriends (smile) made me cry. When I had a boyfriend, the song made me think of him and want to hangout with him. Good house music made me want to party and dance. Not to mention my family went to church every Sunday, there was music there too.
I feel that this is still true of some teens today. The only thing is that the mind-set is that women are sex objects, whores and sexually loose. There seems to be no boundaries on language in the way it is used relating to women now-a-days. This is scary. I know that the artistes are writing about their experiences, but it's still scary. The viewing and listing audience is getting younger and younger. I work in a school and there are first and second graders coming to school asking one another, did you see that new video with 50 Cent and his boys. My concern here is that they don't have life experience to counter what they see or hear. They can't say what they see isn't true because they don't know. They're just kids.
What do you think?
3 comments:
I think there are certain genres of music that very disrespectful to women and people in general. First and second graders certainly do not have the maturity to distinguish between reality and what is usually glorified life experiences or fantasies. I would guess that these first and second graders probably have older siblings that are exposing these children to this music. i think that their parents need to monitor what their children a seeing and hearing on television and in music. If they are going to allow their children to be exposed to this they also need to help the child understand the difference between reality and fantasy to minimize negative influence.
I love all music too but I dont usually listen to rap music. I find rap music can be vulgar and it also degrades women and can glorify violence. THe way that this music is perceived by its listeners/viewers gives the okay for them to emulate what they hear and see. "We have a responsibility to criticize media that demeans men and women and contribute to attitudes that harm us and our relationships (p.282, Woods). It has to be noted that there are some rappers that don't follow the tradional patterns mentioned above but the one's that do ruin it for the rest.
Certain types of genre do tend to play off these stereotypes and unfortunately like other forms of media, teens will idolize the messages and accept them as their own personal truths!
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