Music Videos, Effects of

Music videos appeared on the Music Television Network (MTV) in New York for the first time in 1981, and almost since their inception, they have been controversial. Music videos combine popular music with video, allowing viewers to listen to the music and see the performers at the same time. Music videos also frequently include images or a video story to enhance the song lyrics. Following the advent of MTV, several other music channels emerged in the United States (e.g., VH1, MTV's sister station; Black Entertainment Television [BET], and Country Music Television [CMT]), each targeting different segments of the viewing population. Over the past two decades, music videos have become a global phenomenon, and MTV recently announced its 100th non-U.S. music station.

Most of the controversy over music videos has involved the presence of sexual, violent, misogynistic, and antisocial images. Sexual and violent content has received the most scrutiny. For example, in 1988, the National Academy of Pediatrics came out strongly against the presence of sexual and violent content in music videos, arguing that these images make music videos unwholesome viewing for children. High levels of sexual and violent imagery in music videos have been documented by numerous content analyses. High levels of antisocial behavior (i.e., rebellious and socially unacceptable behaviors) also have been documented, along with sexist and sex-role stereotypic treatment of women. A great deal of evidence has now accumulated that the themes common in music videos, such as violence and sexism, can prime listeners' own schemas for social behavior, resulting in greater affinity for and acceptance of socially negative attitudes and behavior.

A number of nonexperimental studies have been conducted to look at the relationship between exposure to music videos and attitudes and personality of viewers. Several studies have found links between exposure and sexual attitudes. For example, Tiggeman and Pickering found that among college-age women, time spent viewing MTV predicts sexual permissiveness as well as more tolerant attitudes toward sexual harassment and a “drive-for-thinness,” a potential precursor of anorexia and bulimia. Affinity for sexual content in music videos has been related to how much time young women spend viewing music videos, and for both young men and young women, heavy viewers reported a greater number of sexual behaviors in the real world than light viewers did.

The kinds of popular music aired most frequently differ greatly across music video networks, and although young people's preferences for music can cross music genres, fans tend to spend most of their time with their favorite type of music. Most research studies have explored personality and behavior attributes associated with a preference for particular kinds of popular music and music videos rather than exposure to music videos in general, and in many studies, music preferences appear to be linked to clusters of traits and attitudes.

Pop music (also called adult contemporary music), largely the domain of VH1, is considered the mainstream music for adolescents and young adults. Because pop music generally revolves around nonviolent themes of love, courtship, friendship, and having fun, it has received only cursory mentions in the research literature. For similar reasons, other less controversial genres, such as country music, soul music, classic rock, and alternative rock have not been studied. Most research has focused on the kinds of music that have created the most public controversy: punk rock, hard rock and heavy metal, and rap music. Fans of these three genres show a number of reliable differences in personality characteristics and attitudes. Studies have shown that fans of punk music, for example, appear to be less accepting of authority than fans of other music genres, and the strength of their anti-authority attitudes are directly related to the amount of time they report listening to punk music. In contrast, Hansen and Hansen found that fans of hard rock and heavy metal have been found to be higher in antisocial personality traits such as Machiavellianism [Page 603]and machismo and lower in the need for cognition. A study by Arnett showed that fans of hard rock and heavy metal are also higher in attributes related to risk taking, such as sensation seeking and recklessness. Less is known about the attributes associated with fans of rap music, but they may be more impulsive and more likely to seek external stimulation through motor activity and extroverted behavior. In studies comparing fans of heavy metal and rap music with fans of other kinds of music, heavy metal and rap music fans reported more hostile attitudes toward others and more negative attitudes toward women than fans of other kinds of music. A preference for rap and heavy metal has also been found to correlate positively with drug use, arrests, sexual activity, and school behavior problems and to correlate negatively with academic performance. Unfortunately, because studies of this type are correlational in nature, causal direction cannot be established with certainty.

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