Examining the Behavior Between Media and Antisocial Aggressive Behavior in Teenagers

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.

Music can be a reflection of our life experiences. Each genre of music invokes different emotions and reactions in its listeners. Rap has become a very popular genre of music. As its popularity has increased, some people have questioned whether it can trigger violence in teens. While some rap songs do have violent lyrics, there is no direct evidence that rap music provokes violence in teenagers.

Thesis:Rap music does not promote violent actions by teens because rap music is a very diverse genre, it is mainly for entertainment purposes only, and part of the music is involved in anti-violence efforts.

In rap music it’s not hard to find the violent lyrics with most of the music speaks about gang violence, shootings, drugs, and more. An example of a song that influences violence is J. Coles song “A Tale of 2 Cities” with lyrics like “Picked up the paper and they say my nigga Eddie caught a body, I'm convinced anybody is a killer, all you gotta do is push 'em to the limps” in this part of the song Cole speaks about how his friend, who isn’t really a person who would commit a crime, murdered somebody; Cole isn’t surprised because he believes everybody is a killer if you push them to their limits. Another example in the song is “They robbin' niggas on the daily can you blame a nigga that ain't never had things? Guess not last night they pulled up on my nigga at the light like ugh, nice watch, run it” the first part of these lyrics Cole justifies the crime of robbing because they have nothing. In the second part Cole states that somebody came up to his friend and robbed him of his watch, on this part the sound of a gun being cocked in the background is heard and is continued with the chorus saying “hands in the air now” (Genius). These lyrics not only promote violence but justify why it was okay to do such crimes. The reasoning behind why artists talk about violence is that it’s a way of telling their story. Namir, a rapper in New York says “People have to realize that rappers are just like any other artist or musician. What makes an artist an artist is his artistic portrayal of his life and how he expresses his life through whatever art form that he does” (PBS). With people growing up in terrible environments and music being a way for them to cope the reasoning for the violent lyrics is the artist trying tell their

The violence that permeates rap lyrics should come as no surprise because music is only one of the numerous forms of media, and violence in the media is often described as being too

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.

In society today, it is highly noticed that the role of rap music messages and video images of violence causes an increase in negative emotions, thoughts and behaviors which could lead to violence amongst youth. Rap music has been at the center of concern in regards to the potential harmful effect of violent media on social behavior amongst youth. This potential behavior could be seen in the music video titled “Kim” by Eminem. In this music video, the storyline, language and sound encourages hostile thoughts and feelings amongst its audience. In the music video, Kim husband catches her cheating on him in their home with another man, while he is away. However, when Marshall gets home and finds out that his wife is cheating on him, he gets upset, angry, and abusive and becomes violent towards his wife Kim. He screams at her saying that, if she moves again, he will “beat the shit out of her” (Line 11). Violence in rap music has increased in response to the complex interplay of changing social conditions such as the elevated levels of youth violence in the changing commercial practices within the music industry. Hence, the media influences violence in four negative ways, which contributes immensely to anger amongst youth which leads to aggressive behavior such as social violence, substance abuse, domestic violence, and negative perceptions of women.

A violent and angry lyric filled heavy metal rock song comes on the radio as someone is driving home from work. The person begins to get into the song and the next thing they know they are feeling angry. Is that heavy metal rock song going to be the reason that person snaps and decides to rob or possibly kill someone? Most people believe that is the case and that music is to blame for violent acts that are committed. Does music really have this power to trigger people to commit violent acts or are there various underlying factors that coincide with the committing of violent acts?

Mr. Carter, a regional chaplain for Ontario and an instructor at Queen’s University, expresses his strong opinion about music do not influence violence. The author believes that there are circumstances or factors that can lead to commit violent crimes, but music is not the source of committing crimes. The author describes that people are just using music influence as excuse when people commit crimes. Mr. Carter mentions that although he grew up listening to the music that contains inappropriate lyrics, he never hat the urge act upon it. The author blames the newspaper that in attempt to make money; the newspaper targets songs with violent lyrics because it increases their sales.

Several studies have demonstrated that preference for certain types of music could be correlated or associated with certain behaviors, such as the association of drug and alcohol use. The highly violent content in this type of music is infamous. Some songs refers to killing, and gang rivalries. The majority of these songs explains how your near friends could go on your back and treason you for money and power, this provokes the audience to have a violence mind and create rivalry groups, and it all passes under radar due to the mix of this lyrics with catchy beats. For example “the Psychiatrist Jose Miguel Gomez explains that songs with negative content can influence the emotion of a person, if it is violent or angry it can change the structure of though and make it more aggressive”(Moon Par 5). Songs like “Yo Te Prendo” by Chimbala, “Pa Que Tu Me Saludas” (Why are saying hi?) by Don Miguelo “Oigo Cosas” (I hear things)by Black Jonas Point or “No Hay Amigos” (Theres not friends) by Omega are just some examples of this event. Another violence incident that happens constantly around this genre is Shootings and fights were this urban music venues are

In life, music affects everything many people look at all the different stories of teenagers committing violent acts and have begun to wonder can violent songs make teens violent? With all the violent acts that music glorifies as of recently many psychologists and parents alike have begun to wonder why certain types of music cause their children and teenagers to become so violent. Because of the questions that violent songs raise and why teenagers have started to gravitate towards violent songs more than ever before. Some factors that could be reasons as to why violent songs have such a powerful effect on teenagers could be that: teenagers learn violence from their surroundings, teenagers can have a history of violence, and violent songs give teens a place to vent their frustrations at,

But teenagers often do not understand what is being said, in fact in one study only 30 percent of those questioned knew the lyrics to their favorite songs and they all had varied comprehension as to what the message was(Rense,2000,para 3). Certain music that an artist writes can be violent and harsh even if the artist does not see their creation as that. For example, if a singer is writing about some life experiences they took on, such as being harassed as a child and wanting to kill themselves because they felt as if they were not beautiful enough, therefore, they tried attempts of cutting their wrist, or hanging themselves from a ceiling. Even Though the attempts did not play out, there can be a child who is going through the exact situation, overlooking the fact that the singer has overcome their obstacles; the child will continue to attempt episodes of cutting their wrist or trying to hang themselves from a ceiling until they succeed at it. The singer made the child feel comfortable because their music showed that they were not the only individual who wanted to die because of something they were going through, the child too was going through the same situation and wanted it to end

Media takes all forms of shapes, from video games to music it influences people daily because we are always surrounded by it. Music especially impacts individuals because in a lot of ways it can say what we want to say in times when we as individuals cannot say it. In those times we lean on music to help us understand the hardship we are going through, or as a mechanism to face our feelings or to block them out. Interpersonal violence which is defined as an individual using power over another in the form of violence whether that be emotional, physical, or sexual. With the many forms of interpersonal violence it’s apparent that it has been expressed in the form of music for quite a while, and sometimes not always in a preventative way. By

A range of studies assert that causes of violent behavior are complex at the level of environmental influence and compare other learning, modelling and disinhibiting factors. This is an area where opposition to the hypothesis is more common. Two longitudinal studies assessing levels of violence pre-and post the introduction of television found a positive correlation, however

As evidence has shown, children view many violent scenes while watching television, movies, or playing video games, but the question still remains: What psychological effect does violence in the media have on children? Research over the past 10 years has consistently shown that there is a cause-and-effect relationship between media violence and real-life aggression (Strasburger 129). Violence in the media can lead to aggressive behavior by children and teenagers who watch the various programs. Of course, not all children who watch television, or movies, or play video games develop aggressive behavior. However, there is a strong correlation between media violence and aggressive behavior. A study, published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, examined how children's television viewing practices are related to aggressive behaviors. The results revealed that children who reported watching greater amounts of television per day had higher levels of violent behavior than children who reported lesser amounts of television viewing (Singer 1041). Witnessing violence is an important determining factor in violent behavior. The media serves as a means for children to witness violence. According to Bandura's Social Learning Theory, children imitate behavior that they see on television, especially if the person performing the behavior is attractive or if the