Under the Influence of Music

On average, teens listen to two and a half hours of music a day; out of this one in three of these popular songs contain references to alcohol and drug use. In this, up to seventy-five percent of music and or music videos contain sexually suggestive material.

Songs and lyrics from this generation, which have explicit language or have a loud, angry rhythm, seem to affect the listener too. For example, in heavy metal, which usually portrays the themes of alienation and angst, usually have references to violence, suicide, drug use and rebelling. “Korn” states in their song:

“Stereotypes, feeding their head. I am ugly, please just go away!”

With the loud lyrics and distorted rhythm there are not many interpretations to the lyrics that are screamed at you. The second line promotes isolation and bullying setting a bad example on the younger generations forcing the listener to view themselves and others in a negative manner. “Korn” have sold nineteen million albums in the U.S and thirty-five million worldwide making them a well publicized band with opportunity to affect our younger generations.

Rap is often connected to urban life, drug use, alcohol abuse or violence. Even so the problem is more with songs or artists that glorify the problems still around in our world:

"Give me your girlfriend or I'm gonna kill ya"

This constantly repeated line by worldwide artist “Eminem” is plainly shown as a threat of violence. With “Eminem” selling over 86.5 million albums to date his music is shown to be extremely popular with impressionable personas with his target audience being fourteen to twenty-five year olds.

Sexualisation and provocativeness are also becoming big problems. The controversy created by a mere music video can make or break an artist’s career. A recent survey taken by the guardian showed that over 50% of parents believed that celebrity culture, adult style clothes and music videos are encouraging children to act older than they are. Certain...