Music Listening, Impact of

Since the early 20th century, various sectors of society have expressed concerns about the effects of exposure to popular music on children and young adults. More recently, research has addressed the effects on young people of listening to a variety of music genres, especially heavy metal and hip hop. Such research has examined the effects of music listening on attitudes toward women and girls, attitudes toward racial stereotyping, general aggression, and other personality traits. Models using priming theory and information processing theory are among the explanations offered for such effects.

Beginning with jazz and blues in the 1920s, and then moving to rock and roll in the 1950s, commentary about the effects of secular music on attitudes, thoughts, and behavior have appeared in both major and local newspapers, as well as periodicals. In particular, some parents, politicians, school officials, and clergy have charged that such music fosters negative attitudes about women and girls, incites violence, and promotes drug use and reckless sexual behavior. For example, in a Washington Post article on January 29, 1922, the Chicago school superintendent describes jazz music as an evil force that corrupts dancing and decreases respect for womanhood.

Beginning in the 1980s, however, the genres of metal and hip hop music, particularly the subgenres of death metal and gangsta/pimp rap, have drawn even greater ire from these groups. In addition to the aforementioned concerns, some people have criticized both genres for being nihilistic and homophobic. In addition, some citizens have assailed metal music for celebrating what they perceive as Satanism and occultism, while condemning some types of political rap music for promoting militancy or racial separatism. An extreme example of public disapproval for these genres is exemplified by former U.S. Senator Robert Dole's attack on the film and music industries in 1995 for marketing what he described as “nightmares of depravity” to American citizens. Dole singled out rap music and media giant Time Warner, which had previously distributed the song “Cop Killer,” which was recorded by rapper Ice-T's speed metal band, Body Count. Thus, concerns about the deleterious effects of rap, rock, and metal music provide the impetus for most of the research on the effects of listening to popular music.

Ethical concerns about exposing children and adolescents to sexual, violent, and other controversial content in popular music genres, such as rap, rock, and metal, have limited research on effects of popular music primarily to college students and other young adults. Thus, only two published studies have investigated the effects of popular music on adolescents, and both of them involve research by Johnson and various colleagues on the effects of exposure to rap music videos. One study concerned violent themes, whereas [Page 589]the other entailed the depiction of young women in sexually subordinate roles.

Most of the research on popular music deals with the effects of viewing music videos, rather than listening to music without visual accompaniment. However, although such studies greatly contribute to the literature, they do not reveal information about the effects of exposure to violent lyrics without video. In fact, such studies actually confound or make it difficult to tease apart the roles that visual and aural content play in any observed effects. Thus, research on the effects of music listening would be quite valuable.

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