Exposure to Degrading Versus Nondegrading Music Lyrics and Sexual Behavior Among Youth

Sex has always been a controversial topic in society. Sex is a subject that was hard to bring up because when you did bring it up people thought negative things about you. More specifically, girls would be labeled as "whores" or "sluts" if they brought up sex. Throughout the years though, people have gotten more open about sex. The article, "Exposure to Degrading Versus Nondegrading Music Lyrics and Sexual Behavior Among Youth" discusses how today's popular music has an impact on teens' sexual activity. According to Pardun et al,"...the more teens listened to music that contained such references, the more likely they were to be sexually active and to anticipate future sexual activity." I agree that this music can encourage teens to have sex, but at the end of the day it all depends on the individual. We all have different interpretations of the songs we listen to, some of us listen to the music without constructing a personal connection and others find that a certain song is telling their life story. The situations described in these lyrics are truthfully unrealistic and if you're dumb enough to buy into them, that's your own fault. I've listened to sexually explicit music since I was 12 and it has not affected my judgement towards sexual activity.

Hip hop is a significant genre of music and it would not be successful without its derogatory lyrics. Sure, terms like "bitch" and "ho" may be offensive to many, but again, it all depends on the person. Personally, I don't find these terms offensive because they are just that, words. A lot of the lyrics in rap songs are degrading to women, but this should be ignored because those lyrics are simply for entertainment purposes. When you usually ignore something it goes away. I'm not saying that rappers will stop degrading women in their lyrics, but it won't have that big of a meaning. At the end of the day, it's all just music.