Introduction
Imagine this. There are 21,689,114 teenagers living in the United States according to the 2008 census. On average, teenagers listen to 2.5 hours of music per day. That means across the United States in one single day, approximately 54,222,785 hours of music is played. Considering the large amount of music played every day, it’s apparent that music is extremely influential in the lives of today’s teenagers. Music has always been a meaningful and influential tool in the lives of Americans. Whether it’s our national anthem or a rap song, there is always significance in then music that we hear.
Music plays an important role in most adolescent’s lives. They listen to these artists because the artist is popular or the artist’s music sounds good, but one of the main things kids use music for is to express themselves. In the 90’s as “gangstas” like Tupac and Ice Cube started rapping about their lives in the hood and their repressed lives as African American citizens, which teenagers listened to like music was going out of style.
Rap music is generally associated with negative outlooks and negative messages passed through the artist’s lyrics and lives. While critics sit back making the connection between misogyny and violence tendencies of adolescents to rap lyrics, these lyrics are simply push factors for teens to involve themselves with these behaviors, as the music cannot force you to pick up a gun and cock it. The lyrics and lives of artists like Tupac makes adolescents more aware of struggles within society like misogyny, poverty, and violence.
Music plays an important role in most adolescent’s lives. They listen to these artists because the artist is popular or the artist’s music sounds good, but one of the main things kids use music for is to express themselves. In the 90’s as “gangstas” like Tupac and Ice Cube started rapping about their lives in the hood and their repressed lives as African American citizens, which teenagers listened to like music was going out of style.
Rap music is generally associated with negative outlooks and negative messages passed through the artist’s lyrics and lives. While critics sit back making the connection between misogyny and violence tendencies of adolescents to rap lyrics, these lyrics are simply push factors for teens to involve themselves with these behaviors, as the music cannot force you to pick up a gun and cock it. The lyrics and lives of artists like Tupac makes adolescents more aware of struggles within society like misogyny, poverty, and violence.