Does hip hop music make people violent?

[BlackWolf]

KARACHI: Highlighting the power of music in young people’s lives, a new study suggests that fans of rap and hip-hop could be more likely to drink, use drugs and engage in violence.

The findings were released just a few days after a 32-year-old rapper, a friend of rap superstar Eminem, was gunned down inside a Detroit nightclub after reportedly shooting another man. Similar killings also took place in 1996 and 1997.

The new research, reported in latest issue of the ‘Journal of Studies on Alcohol’, doesn’t settle the issue of whether rap changes the way the listeners act, or whether they’re drawn to the music because of their outlook on life.

However, one specialist in teenage behaviour said it does raise important questions.

“A link between rap music and aggressive behaviour is certainly plausible, particularly for males,” said Ralph DiClemente, a professor of public health at Emory University.

The new research was inspired by previous findings that suggested young people drink more alcohol - malt liquor in particular - because rap stars promote it, said study author Meng-Jinn Chen, a researcher at the Pacific Institute for Research & Education’s Prevention Research Centre, in Berkeley, California.

She and her colleagues decided to expand their focus and examine connections between music-listening habits and substance abuse and aggressive behaviour.

In 2002, researchers surveyed 1,056 community college students aged 15-25 from California’s Central Valley about their music-listening habits, drinking habits and use of marijuana and “club drugs” such as ecstasy. They were also asked whether they’d recently engaged in violent behaviour, such as getting into fights or attacking other people.

Chen declined to identify the college or colleges where the surveys were distributed; it also wasn’t clear why some of the community college students surveyed were as young as 15. Nearly 60 percent of those surveyed were females.

The design of the study didn’t allow the researchers to say the exact level to which rap and hip-hop listeners were more likely to drink, do drugs and engage in aggressive behaviour. The study did confirm, however, that there is a “strong and significant association” between listening to those types of music and engaging in those activities, Chen said.

The researchers also found that fans of “techno” and reggae music were more likely to do drugs and drink alcohol than people who weren’t listeners of these types of music.

Rap songs often glorify drinking, drug use and violence; one study from the 1990s found that nearly half of all rap songs referred to alcohol. Reggae music, meanwhile, is often associated with marijuana use; techno music is a mainstay of the urban dance-club scene, long linked to “party” drugs such as Ecstasy or crystal meth.

What do the findings mean? Experts say that’s not yet clear, because they have yet to figure out the chicken-and-egg puzzle of whether it’s the music driving the behaviour, or the other way around. “It could be that people who are drinking alcohol and using illicit drugs are drawn to this type of music,” Chen said. Or it may be that the music spurs young people to drink, do drugs and become violent. And the researchers say there may even be an unknown “third factor” that ties music-listening habits to the way the students act. PPI

I think it's a load of rubbish, but I don't listen to much hip-hop so what do I know.

[SilverSpoon]

Oh, I'm sorry, I thought it was Judas Priest and Marylin Manson that made people prone to drugs and violence?

they always need to blame it on something. movie violence. violence in computer games. music....

I have never killed anyone and I don't like hip hop. I think that's pretty conclusive.

[pravus]

The music doesn't create people, or rather doesn't make people do anything, people already prone to such actions/behavior may be drawn to a certain types of music.

People with particularly violent tendencies may be drawn to styles because of the image or perhaps because of the release it gives them (having a form of entertainment that 'understands' how the person feels, well, you get my point).

Just as people with absolutely no violent tendencies whatsoever may be drawn to the very same music for the very same reasons. It doesn't mean that they are outwardly violent, or portraying the "negatives" that the music might involve, or that they ever will. Music is enjoyment.

There are many other things that can be said (to further/contradict) this point as well as many others.

[edawg99]

I say it has to do with the type of environment you live in.

The researchers also found that fans of “techno” and reggae music were more likely to do drugs and drink alcohol than people who weren’t listeners of these types of music.

That's crap. I listen to 'Techno' (well, Trance, Hardtrance, House, Hardhouse... Electronical Music in general but the 'softer' versions *bragging*), but they cannot generalize that people who listen to this kind of music tend 'to do drugs and drink alcohol' (alcohol is a drug, actually!!!). I know several people who listen to 'Techno' and do not do any kind of drugs... OK, they drink a beer sometimes, but not more than other people.

It depends whether Hip Hop-music does make people violent or not... on the audience. In Germany, we had a big discussion last year because of the German label "Aggro Berlin", the artists of this label are extremely provocative, chauvinistic etc., and they were (and still are!) very, very popular for the younger people, especially boys (of course). Some of their CDs have been banned from the market because the lyrics were really 'hardcore'. I see lots of young boys who try to act like a 'gangsta' (I always have to laugh when I recognize them!!!), and Aggro Berlin seems to be kind of a 'role model' for young boys [living in Germany]. I think, it's right that they banned some of their CDs, because the lyrics are very inappropriate for young people, especially for those who cannot distinguish whether something's bad or good.
The artists write also now "Parental advisory/Explicit content" (they didn't do that before they had this big argument with the German politicians), and that they want to fight with words, not with fists.

However, I have to admit, that, though I am a girl, I listen to the music of Aggro Berlin, especially when I am kind of aggressive. If I listen to Aggro, then my bad mood disappears, so I won't get angry at someone else.