Rap music is starting to have a negative infulenece on teens

Although many of us – myself included – would be reluctant to subject our ears to some of the most popular hip hop songs of the day, we must not be so quick to blame the genre for the bad decisions and questionable behavior of teenagers. The central question of this debate is whether hip hop causes teenagers to engage in risky acts or merely mirrors the modern teen's desire to experiment with harmful drugs and premature sexual intercourse. I believe that the latter holds more weight. The New York Times cites a study that measured the impact of sexually suggestive hip hop music on the sexual attitudes and behaviors of a sample of teenagers who frequently visit hip hop dance clubs. The study found that hip hop music was not the main influence on the group's sexual appetite, but rather factors like peer pressure and drug and alcohol use. (Parker-Pope, T. "For Clues on Teenage Sex, Experts Look to Hip-Hop," The New York Times. November 6, 2007. Available: http://www.nytimes.com...) The study suggests that teens who engage in risky behavior have a positive affinity for music that describes such behavior. This makes much more sense. I doubt that every rap song contains some subliminal message that places its listeners into a trance that compels them to wear gold plating on their teeth or to wear pants around their knees or refer to women solely as ‘bitch' or ‘ho'. Even if we assume that the impact of hip hop music is cumulative – that the risk of engaging in dangerous behavior increases with the frequency of exposure to rap music – the blame that we place on it will remain misplaced. Teens do not contemplate having sex or smoking pot solely because 50 Cent or Lil' Wayne rap about it; they do it because they believe that it would yield social currency that can be transferred for greater acceptance within the more exclusive circles of their social environment. If the price of admission for hanging out with the cool kids at school is dancing to the newest album by T.I. or being as sexually adventurous as Plies, then those teens who value belonging above all else will engage in behavior that is necessary to pay such social costs. Not only is hip hop a scapegoat for the social ills of modern adolescence, but rather it is vital to reversing these trends and fostering unity among American teens across existing barriers of race and class. Bakari Kitwana writes in his book "Why White Kids Love Hip Hop": "…hip hop music, no matter how widely accepted in the mainstream, isn't entertainment alone; it's also a voice for the voiceless. More than just a new genre of music, hip-hop since its inception has provided young Blacks a public platform in a society that previously rendered them mute. It has done the same for youth of other cultures as well." (xiii) Hip hop music creates a space where young people of all backgrounds, cultural or otherwise, to make their feelings, hopes, pain, and sorrows manifest through rhythmic lyrics and infectious beats. It has mass appeal to not only American teens, but teens all over the world. Though we may object to some of the content in many songs, rejecting it wholesale as a bad influence on teens will forgo the opportunity to reshape and embrace it as a better influence.