Does Urban Music Such As Hip Hop, Rap and R&B Encourage Criminal Behaviour In Young People - Essay Example

Popular music has traditionally been perceived as having a negative influence on adolescent music lovers. Criticisms of early jazz, the blues, rap music n roll, R&B and rap have all suggested that the lyrics cause music lovers to display negative attitudes and to engage in delinquent and antisocial behaviours (Ballard and Coates, 2000; Dyson, 2004; McDonald, 2005). Of the contemporary music genres, rap music--in particular gangster rap--is seen as being the most harmful to music lovers, and as a result, has been subjected to the harshest censorship (Anthony, 2000; Binder, 2001; Dyson, 2004).

For example, rap is the only music genre to have a recording (As Nasty as They Wanna Be) to be declared as criminally obscene by a federal judge or to have a recording (Cop Killer) boycotted by the law enforcement community. (Altschuler, 2000) Moreover, in 2000, the negative effects of rap music were the primary focus of a congressional hearing on the violent and demeaning imagery in popular music held by the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Juvenile Justice (Dyson, 2004). Despite public discourse, the effects of rap music on attitudes and behaviours remain unclear, and in terms of empirical study, largely unexplored.

In this paper, I examine the relationship between rap music and youngster’s crime and violence in youngsters.