Music Videos, Amount of Viewing and

The Kaiser Family Foundation's 2005 study, Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8–18 Year Olds revealed that children and adolescents spend an average of 1.44 hours a day listening to music. Boys spend about an hour and a half a day listening to music; girls spend about 2 hours. About a third of those listening to music were often using other media at the same time. Music videos make up a significant part of music listening among youth in the United States. The Parents Television Council reported in March 2004 that the MTV network was watched by 73% of boys and 78% of girls between 12 and 19 years old. Boys watched an average of 6.6 hours per week, and girls watched for an average of 6.2 hours per week. Although music listening can play positive roles in the lives of teens and adolescents, parents and policymakers have expressed concerns about their exposure to music videos with violent or sexual content, as well as content that portrays substance use. Amount of viewing is a key variable, however. Moderate exposure to the negative content in music videos appears unlikely to adversely affect healthy individuals who have many other interests and activities, good family relationships, and strong academic and social skills. For those with fewer strengths or options in their lives, the potential for negative influence appears to be much greater.

MTV, now almost 25 years old, was a cornerstone of the movement to make the music video the accessible medium it is today. In 2001, PBS On-line reported [Page 601]that MTV reached more than 350 million households globally, and in 2004, the Parents Television Council reported that MTV was watched by 73% of boys and 78% of girls ages 12 to 19. In addition to music videos, however, MP3s are now everywhere, and music lyrics and video clips, some of which contain more sex and violence than those available in stores, can be downloaded and shared, increasing the presence and potential impact of music in children's lives. A Yahoo press release in 2003 indicated that its music section, LAUNCH, streamed more than a billion music videos to consumers that year. That quadrupled the number streamed in the first 10 months of the previous year, underscoring the increasing popularity of using the Internet to watch music videos. According to the Kaiser Foundation study, nearly two thirds of 8-to-18-year-olds have downloaded music from the Internet, and almost half have streamed a ratio station through the Internet. Nearly one in five has an MP3 player.

Children and adolescents sometimes use music to relax, to fill time, to avoid doing other things, to provide a background as they do homework, or to escape into a more fanciful world. At other times, they may use music in more social ways such as listening with friends. As one of their strongest media influences, music helps children and adolescents express, think about, and deal with the complex social, family, identity, and school/work challenges they face. The potential for significant impact on their use of other media and on their developing beliefs and attitudes is huge, and they can learn both positive and negative lessons about how to live their lives.

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