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Almost from the day of the launch of MTV (Music Television) on August 1, 1981, music videos have been accused of being excessively violent and of contributing to the culture of violence in the United States and around the world. Such allegations of social and psychological harm from watching violence in music videos are often based on fallacious assumptions or other informal or scientific fallacies, but some evidence of antisocial behaviors resulting from watching violence-laden music videos does exist.

Violent Content

Music television has evolved into several channels, the most popular of which are MTV, VH-1 (Video Hits 1), BET (Black Entertainment Television), and CMT (Country Music Television). Researchers have conducted several systematic content analyses to determine the level of violence portrayed on these music television networks. A 1997 study reported that between 11.5% and 22.4% of the videos shown on these music networks contained violent acts, and that 63% of the videos that were violent showed young people engaging in interpersonal violence. That same year, the American Academy of Pediatrics commissioned research evaluating 518 music videos. Approximately 15% of the videos contained interpersonal violence, with six violent acts on average per violent video. A 2002 study found that BET and MTV were more likely to feature violent videos than other music television networks, and 15% of all music videos contain at least one act of aggression. Summarizing across findings, it seems that roughly one out of every seven music videos aired on the major music television networks contains violent content.

A particularly detailed 1998 content analysis assessed characteristics of the perpetrators and victims of violence in music videos on the four major music television networks. In 391 videos in which gender of the aggressor and the victim could be determined, males were depicted as aggressors in 78.1% of the videos, and females perpetrated violence in 19.9% of the videos. The researchers indicated that gender of victims often was not as clearly identified as that of aggressors, but when coding of gender was possible, females were the victims 78.3% of the time. This finding suggests that, at best, music videos are perpetuating societal stereotypes; at worst, they are exacerbating them.

Exposure

One of the periodic “criticisms” of music videos is that they are the provenance of young people, who are avid consumers of them. In other words, they are criticized because they are effectively marketed. Indeed, they are. A large-scale Annenberg Public Policy Center survey conducted in 1997 found that 53% of 10-to-17-year-olds watch MTV regularly. Another study found that 80% of 9th to 12th graders watch the channel, with an average viewing time of 2 hours per day. A third study reported that 73% of boys and 78% of girls between 12 and 19 years of age watch MTV, with an average of 6.4 hours per week viewing. Although the normative exposure data provided by these investigations differ rather substantially, it is obvious from all three sources that children and adolescents spend a great deal of time watching music videos. The argument is often made that such viewing displaces other, more productive activities. The argument that such regular and prolonged exposure to violence has antisocial effects is also common.

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