Does the music that your teen listens to affect their sexual behavior? According to a study recently reported in the August 2006 issue of Pediatrics the answer is yes. The study, done by the Rand Corporation in conjunction with the University of California, links the exposure to degrading sexually explicit lyrics to early sexual activity in teenagers.
Researchers conducted telephone interviews with about 1,000 youth over a three-year period. They evaluated the music that each teen listened to as well as 18 other behaviors known to be linked to sexual behavior. Researchers found that “teens who reported they listened to substantial amounts of music containing degrading sexual messages were almost twice as likely to begin engaging in sexual activities within two years as were those who listened to little or no such music.”
“Lyrics classified as degrading depicted sexually insatiable men pursuing women valued only as sex objects.” Lyrics such as these provide a “distorted notions about gender roles in both male and female teenagers.” Songs with degrading sexual lyrics “are more likely to trigger early sexual behavior than those where sexual references are more veiled and relationships appear more committed.”
The reason is simple. According to social cognitive theory people learn new behaviors by observing others. “This theory would predict that listening to musicians sing about having sex with no unfavorable consequences will lead teens to perceive this behavior as appropriate and desirable, thereby increasing the likelihood that they will imitate the behavior.” Likewise the sexual “scripts” found in the lyrics “establish norms and expectations about how and with whom to be sexual, why and when to have sex, and what the appropriate setting and sequence of events are.” They shape teens “attitudes and assumptions about sexual relationships and create a notion of what is expected and normative.”
When determining the amount of sexually degrading lyrics that teens listened to researchers took CD’s of 16 artists from different genres that were popular at the time and rated them to see what percent of the songs contained sexual and degrading sexual content. The results by music genre are listed in the table below. As you will see sexually degrading lyrics are found most prominently in rap music.
| Musical genre | Number of Songs per Album | % of Songs with Sexual Content | % of Songs with Degrading Sexual Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hard Rock | 12 | 50 | 0 |
| Alternative Rock | 11 | 0 | 0 |
| Alternative Rock | 15 | 33 | 0 |
| Rap-Rock | 14 | 64 | 43 |
| Rap-Rock | 11 | 63 | 45 |
| Rap | 13 | 70 | 70 |
| Rap | 17 | 71 | 59 |
| Rap | 13 | 0 | 0 |
| Rap-metal | 14 | 21 | 14 |
| R&B | 12 | 42 | 17 |
| Country | 12 | 0 | 0 |
| Country | 13 | 8 | 0 |
| Teen Pop | 12 | 33 | 0 |
| Teen Pop | 13 | 23 | 0 |
| Teen Pop | 12 | 42 | 0 |
| Teen Pop | 13 | 23 | 0 |
As parents it is important to realize that the music your teen listens to does have a serious impact upon their behavior. The genre is not as important as the type of lyrics that specific artists use in their songs. All rap music isn’t bad since one of the rap artist’s CD’s evaluated contained no sexually related lyrics. So as parents we just need to make sure that we listen to the songs our teens are listening to and evaluate which artists are okay to listen to and those that are not. Explain to your teen why you do not want them to listen to specific artists. Because as the studies conclusion states, “Reducing the amount of degrading sexual content in popular music or reducing young people’s exposure to music with this type of content could help delay the onset of sexual behavior.” We all know that artists are not going to change the lyrics in their songs because they sell. So as parents it is up to us to make sure that that our teens exposure to sexual content in music is reduced.
Read a blog I previously wrote for more suggestions about how you can teach your teen to be sexually abstinent.