Due to the introduction of violent and criminal activity in the rap music, a change in the behaviour and the approach of undergraduate student can be observed. Continuous listening to rap music is significantly related with drug abuse, alcohol use and the aggressive behaviour of the listeners. Music containing high degree of sexual or illicit contents can increase the aggression level in the youth. Listening to rap music that has references to substance use can be potentially associated with substance use and violent acts of the undergraduate student. Rap music has stayed in the criminal spotlight from the time it had entered in the music industry. There has been several incidents where rap music and rappers have faced a consequence for their work. This report shall discuss the essential definition, the legal, ethical, political context about the effect of rap music on the substance use and aggression level and the relevant literature aspect.
Definitions
Rap music: A genre of music that includes vocal delivery of street vernacular, rhyme and rhythmic speech.
Gangsta rap: A specific rap style that includes lyrics to explicitly portray the violence of American inner-city gang life.
Aggression: A feeling of anxiety or anger resulting in violent behaviour.
Substance use: An act of a person consuming drugs or alcohol on a regular basis causing an issues in their life.
A controversy was made about the fact that gangsta rap was the effect of various wrongdoing perpetrated against the underprivileged neighbourhood of African-American residents. According to the study of Denise Herd, rap music introduces the dangers and negative consequences of drug abuse to the youth (Herd, 2014). He also found that with the beginning of marijuana use in the rap album there was an increased rate observed in drug use by the young generation. In the case of Haringey Council v Fari, a rapper in UK was ordered with custodial sentences for performing and re-posting an old gangsta rap. In the murder case of R v Callum a rap lyrics having a statement of intent to kill was found on the phone of the defendant, which was considered along with the other evidences (Calvert, Morehart, & Papdelias, 2014). In R v Palmer the rap lyrics that was posted by the victim was considered to be the key motive of murder.
Role of rap music in the lifestyle of the undergraduate students
In the viewpoint of Lozon & Bensimon (2014), music has an influence on the emotion and behaviour of a person. It has been observed in studies that music is not only a measure for the listeners for entertainment, but also it affect the mental state. Music can create, alter or reinforce the mood or mental states of the listeners. Additionally, studies have shown that, being exposed to music that a person dislike, irritation or anger may arise in them. Certain music genres have been identified as a problem music, such as, rock, hip-hop, rap and heavy metal, which is associated with the social deviance and psychological vulnerability. In their study, it has been found that the problem music induce negative behaviour, substance use, criminal activities, aggression, assault and anxiety. Examining the effect of rap music on human being the authors have identified that it has more negative and less positive effect on the human being.
Rap music was originated in the year 1970 to reflect the desires, dreams and dilemmas of adolescents. Conducting a systematic review on the rap music, it can be observed that rap music taken a negative turn since it was flourished. Gangsta rap is identified as one of the famous type of rap music, which has established their place in a very controversial way as the contents of such music is misogynistic, sexist, violent as well as homophobic. Attention was brought to gangsta rap due to the violent depiction of life in the music. The African-American community culture was interpreted in the music and the blatant view of the inner city life was characterized in them. The founders of this music genre were mainly gang members and they mirrored their gang life experiences through their music. It has been allegedly promoting the physical and sexual aggression, gang culture, misogynistic behaviour and substance use. Researchers have found that the negative influence to listeners increase their antagonism, drug abuse, unprotected sexual and delinquent activities. It was also found that the undergraduate students who listen to violent rap music on a regular basis, were prone to accept aggression more easily. Rap artists like T-Bone, Eminem, Snoopy Doggy Dog and Tupac Shakur were alleged have performed serious delinquent acts and was charged with claims like rape, homicide and assault. The concern with these type of music was that the harmful lyrical contents create a negative impact on the listeners and also the adolescents are likely to attempt to emulate those artists and their lifestyles, who had been allegedly committed various crimes. On the viewpoint of some researchers rap music does not directly cause criminal or delinquent act but actually serve as the inspiration to engage into such activities.
Observing the survey of Cundiff (2013), it has been found that music containing violent lyrics influence the undergraduate students to perceive negative attributes and views. A vast research was conducted to specifically outline the rap music containing violent lyrics and their effect on the listeners. A sample list of misogynistic theme and explicit content based music were created in their research and with due observance, the effect was analysed. It was found that various rap music depicted physical violence, demeaning language and sexual conquest. Rap music were recognised to glorify physical violence. The survey conducted by the researchers affirms that misogynistic lyrical content portrays the women in a demeaning way. The sexual objectification of women depicted in the music and the derogatory naming of the female were considered to be offensive and led to increase crime rate. Constant exposure to such violent content changes the attitude of the audience and increase the issue of domestic violence. The major concern in this music was that they shape the attitude of the audience towards the decency to the women. Additionally, this misogynistic music is more male sexual satisfying and creates a disrespectful attitude toward the female. The nature of the lyrics contribute to sexist behaviour and promote offensive act with the generation. The respondents in this research considered domestic violence to be a consequence of exposure to violent music and they agreed that undergraduate students are most susceptible to experience and accept this kind of behaviour. The habit of the listeners are also effected by the contents of such music and they obtain a habit based on the music preference. It plays a major factor to shape the views and attributes of the audiences. Several acts of domestic violence was reported and after analysing it was found that they resulted due to the listening habit of rap music.
According to Slater & Henry (2013), content in music-related media has a great influence on the initiation of alcohol and substance use by the youth. In association with violent rap lyrics, the undergraduate students are likely to adopt illicit behaviour. The study supported the claim that such music containing violent lyrics directly affects the tendency of the peer-groups and increase the drug and alcohol intake within the peer-group. Their research suggested that listening to explicit rap music involves a risk factor in respect of the substance use behaviour by the younger adolescents. While examining the role of music related media in socialization to substance use, it was observed that it is also responsible for promoting such activities. This kind of music is said to promote and induce the trend in the adolescent group to illegal alcohol and drug use. Rap music has changed the concept of music listening from entertain and relaxing the moods of the audiences to illegal activities taken up by them. The adolescents are engaging in such activities to evaluate personal and social identity among them and in order to do that they end up involving in illegal activities. The popular rap music that endorse substance use implicitly, influences the audience to substance use by the peer association.
It has been found that not only the lyrics but also the situations, background, images and stories consonant with such music are subjected to influence the behaviour of the students. It was analysed from various songs that the contents are responsible for portraying substance use and promoting it in the generation. Most of the rap music nad videos contained alcohol and tobacco use. In the absence of sufficient content analysis programming, substance use is easily promoted through rap music. The wide availability of such substance use promoting music through the internet has created a major issues in countries like United Kingdom and United States. The increased alcohol and substance use in the youth can be widely spotted as the global acceptance of such music. The listening habit and music preference within the undergraduate students are spread by one to another. Therefore the researchers have also admitted a increased use of illegal drugs was noticed. Though the music does not contain any visual modelling substance use as depicted in the videos, still they have the power to shape the behaviour of the audiences. The undergraduate students are likely to acquire the norms and attitudes of the substance using peers, who are regular listener to rap music. The main issue as identified is not the music or genre, but the contents and the style of portray to the audiences. The role of socialization played by music has also the negative side that ultimately result into negative reflection in the behaviour of the listeners. Certain music genre are mainly associated with the substance using peers. Following the reinforcing spirals model, it can be argued that adolescents use the media and music for socialising and developing their social identities. Exposure to rap music for a prolong time gives the younger adolescents a chance to begin to observe and adopt the social identities in consistent with the substance using group even at the home. The experimentation with social identities encourage the involvement of the undergraduate student to embrace such kind of identities. Once an adolescent gets into touch with such peer groups, he or she will start to follow the specfic music genre in consistence with such peer group. As an outcome, increased substance use can be potentially observed within this age group. It was found that apart from the direct effect of rap music on increasing substance uptake, there are some indirect effect of it which can be observed from continuous exposure to such music. The direct effect of such music preference are connected with the socialization explanations, which may lead to adoption of attitudes and perception of norms relating to their behaviours. The youth culture is specifically shaped, in both positve and negative way, by such music. Media and music content leads to selection of communication networks associated with the norms and values portrayed in the media content, which thereby influence the behaviour or activities.
In their study of Tucker, Miles & D’Amico (2013), the authors have examined the relationship between increased rates of illegal or legal drug use with the media or music related exposure and their potential effect on the undergraduate students. The structural equation modelling is used by the authors to analyse the association in the media exposure and substance use. It was found that in modern world, youths are mainly and mostly exposed to violent music and they accept it as a trend to evolve their social identities. Continuous media exposure provides the adolescents or undergraduate students a flow of various massages based on a wide range of topics, such as substance use. In various studies it was found that a huge part of the rap music contains reference to alcohol and substance use. The substance use portrayed in the music can significantly shape the drugs and substance related attitudes of the youth adolescents and promote the use of such products. They are so influenced by the wordings of such songs, that they are willing to adopt such behaviour and a potential change can be observed in their attitude towards substance use. It influence the undergraduate students and perceive them to use the substance by their own. It has been recognised as a major concern that how the exposure to negative music portrayals in respect of substance use plays an important role to encourage the youth to experiment with the substances. A growing evidence has been found that exposure to such violent content in the rap music spread a massage to the future adolescent to engage in such activities. However, it was not found whether the connection between rap music exposure and increased substance use in the undergraduate students are moderated by ethnicity or gender.
As pointed out by Sharman & Dingle (2015), music has the ability to influence the attitudes and emotions of people. They have established and affirmed in their study the fact that listening to extreme or violent music can cause expressions of anger such as aggression and delinquency by using their experimental methods. The heart rate were examined and found to be increased. It has been shown in different studies that anger and stress induction is higher at the starting of the music and is eventually decreased after the end of the music. The subjective ratings of positive and negative affect scale of hostility, irritability level is also notifiable increased during listening to the music. While listening to the music, the positive and negative affect scale was not seen within control. These kind of behavior matched the physiological arousal of the listeners who were angry and resulted in an increased positive emotions. In some case, rap and other extreme music represent a way to process anger for the listeners. Music is widely available and accessible through the internet and has the ability to influence the attitude of the listeners. Specific music genre has specified capacity to manipulate emotions of the audiences. They are likely to attract to those music or music genre, which reflects or improves the emotional state of the audiences. Rap music comprising lyrical themes of anger, anxiety, social isolation, depression, as a result of the fact, influence the behavioral outcome of the listeners. Considering the aggressive nature of the music as well as the negative theme provoke the listeners to adopt anger and aggression. The main controversy regarding such kind of music is the aggressive title and the lyrics. It is held responsible for the social problems such as aggressive behavior, depression, and substance misuse, which can be referred as problem music in reference to their genre. This can be associated with the social deviance and psychological vulnerability. A relationship can be found between the anti-social behavior and the genres of music. The rap music fans were reported have increased aggression and no control over their mood. As a result of which they were reported to have engaged in the antisocial activities.
Examining the emotional states and the preferences in the music in different mood, it can be found that rap music has an actual effect over the mood of the listeners. In a research, the rap and other heavy music fans was found to have higher symptoms of aggression and depression and they were tend to more psychological sensitivities. It was also found that such music genre had a negative influence on the fans as well as on the non-fans. Rap music reported to shape the self-control of the listeners. It was found in a research that, people tend to listen to a genre of music when they have the specific mood that is consistent with the genre. According to the reasoning of the research, extreme music including rap, rock, hip-hop are expected to experience higher rate of anger while listening to the music. Therefore, it was found that anger and aggression is endorsed by listening to the rap music. Some listeners are reported to feel alleviated of their aggression after listening to music containing theme of aggression. Though it has been claimed by several listeners that it helps them to process their aggression, still it affect the mood of the other listeners who were not listening to those music knowingly. An increased heart rate, irritability and aggression was found after the experiment as a result.
Additionally, a high number of sexual contents can be noticed in the rap music, which greatly impacts the emotional and behavioural conditions of human beings, as per Van Oosten, Peter & Valkenburg (2015). From past few years, music are reported to contain sexual and illicit contents which results into increased sexual and physical aggression level. It has become a modern trend that modern music and videos contains severally stereotypical sexual beliefs and portrays women as a sexual object (Herd, 2015). In this regard two issues can be found. The first being that there are no sufficient research on the effects of such music in the aggression level of the adolescents. The second issue is based on the lack of process underlying the effects of such music. Rap music displays and depicts mostly the women in a demeaning and offensive way. The objectification of women in music creates an impact in the mind of the listeners. Offensive word are used in such music to characterise the women in a derogating way. High levels of abusive words are used for the women in such kind of music, which reflects a negative image of them in the mind of the audiences. That obviously results into physical, mental and sexual aggression within the male about the women. The female submissiveness and misogyny depicted in such artistic work affects the mental and behavioural state of the listeners in such a way that an increased level of aggression comes out as a result.
To explain the effects of violent music media on the aggression level of undergraduate students, the General Aggression Model proposed by Anderson and colleagues (Coyne & Padilla-Walker, 2015). According to this model, dispositional and situational factors influence the behavioural outcome of a human being. Exposure to violent media may evoke aggressive behaviour. There are evidence that demeaning of women in rap music is associated with violence against them (Apa.org. 2018). It was also found that the undergraduate students who prefer rap music reported more hostile attitudes than the others and were more distrustful.
References
Apa.org. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/psp-845960.pdf
Callum v R, Court of Appeal – Criminal Division, June 16, 2010, [2010] EWCA Crim 1325
Calvert, C., Morehart, E., & Papdelias, S. (2014). Rap Music and the True Threats Quagmire: When Does One Man’s Lyric become Another’s Crime. Colum. JL & Arts, 38, 1.
Coyne, S. M., & Padilla-Walker, L. M. (2015). Sex, violence, & rock n’roll: Longitudinal effects of music on aggression, sex, and prosocial behavior during adolescence. Journal of adolescence, 41, 96-104.
Cundiff, G. (2013). The influence of rap and hip-hop music: An analysis on audience perceptions of misogynistic lyrics. Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications, 4(1).
Haringey v Fari, Court of Appeal – Queen’s Bench Division, January 22, 2013, [2013] EWHC 757 (QB)
Herd, D. (2014). Changes in the prevalence of alcohol in rap music lyrics 1979–2009. Substance use & misuse, 49(3), 333-342.
Herd, D. (2015). Conflicting paradigms on gender and sexuality in rap music: A systematic review. Sexuality & Culture, 19(3), 577-589.
Lozon, J., & Bensimon, M. (2014). Music misuse: a review of the personal and collective roles of “problem music”. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 19(3), 207-218.Palmer [1838] NSWSupC 52
Sharman, L., & Dingle, G. A. (2015). Extreme metal music and anger processing. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 9, 272.
Slater, M. D., & Henry, K. L. (2013). Prospective influence of music-related media exposure on adolescent substance-use initiation: A peer group mediation model. Journal of health communication, 18(3), 291-305.
Tucker, J. S., Miles, J. N., & D’Amico, E. J. (2013). Cross-lagged associations between substance use-related media exposure and alcohol use during middle school. Journal of Adolescent Health, 53(4), 460-464
Van Oosten, J. M., Peter, J., & Valkenburg, P. M. (2015). The influence of sexual music videos on adolescents’ misogynistic beliefs: The role of video content, gender, and affective engagement. Communication Research, 42(7), 986-1008.
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