Music , Sex, and teens By Lauren Gill

Question Do sexually explicit music lyrics and videos have negative effects on teens’ views on women, sex, and relationships?

Music in the lives of teens Listens to music 1.5- 2.5 hours a day Watch about 15-30 minutes of music videos Contain large amount of sexually explicit content Most prevalent in rap music and rap heavy metal

Music and Teens Listen for the beat “I don’t really realize that the person is talking about having sex or raping a girl, but the message is being beaten into the teens’ heads”- Natasha Ramsey, teen editor sexetc.org

Music LyricS Every Girl Wait( The Whisper Song) Back that Ass Up How did you react to these songs and how you think teens react to these songs?

Women In Music Videos Focus mainly on appearance Seen as sex objects “Women are mostly props, not characters, not even people”

Teens Perception of sexually explicit content Study of African American Teens in a Southern City in 2001 Ages 13-17 70% Female Showed 3 hip hop videos Choppa The Clispe Lil’Jon and the Eastside Boys

Teens Perception of sexually explicit content 59% said they tried to emulate the behavior they saw in music videos Do you think that guys prefer girlfriends that look like or act like women in rap music videos? 63% Yes 37% No Do you think that girls prefer boyfriends that look or act like men in rap music videos? 73% yes 29% No

Relationship between Sexually explicit music and teen’s Sexual behavior 4 yr study done 1461 teens between 12 and 17 Compared the effect of listening to degrading music versus non-degrading music Teens who listened a lot of sexually degrading music Twice as likely to start having sex 51% of heavy listening began having sex within two years 2/3 of teens wished they waited

Questions Do sexually explicit music lyrics and videos have negative effects on teens’ views on women, sex, and relationships? Is there validity in the statistics? If there is a negative effect on teens, what could be done to stop it?

Ways To Prevent Music Affecting Teens Parental involvement Monitor what music teens purchase Do not listen to explicit music around children Have open dialogue with teens on explicit content in songs Advertisers Advertisers pull dollars from shows that show explicit content Media literacy Help teens become critical consumers of music