Introduction
This week, my assignment was to select a mass medium that could create controversy in terms of the messages it sends out to the public. I chose to look at the various effects of rap music since I’m one of the few people that enjoy listening to it. I was asked to find and read three academic journal articles about my topic and reflect on them afterwards using Toulmin’s model once again.
Claim and Qualifiers
From the journal articles that I’ve gathered, I do agree that rap music can generate troublesome behaviors in the younger groups of listeners. However, I hold strong disagreement to the fact which states that rap music is at complete fault when a child or teenager becomes more violent.
Grounds
The first report that I read was about an interview with some of the well-known rap artists of our generation. It’s harder to find valuable rappers these days, but we need to realize that there are still artists around who work at using their rapping skills to convey a positive message to their young listeners. Therefore, we cannot label the entire rap music industry as insulting. As Houston rapper Trae said, “There’s a lot in rap music that does influence, but you cannot sit here and just blame it on hip-hop. If you do blame it on hip-hop then blame it on all the fake rappers out there.”
The second article of mine was a research on the relationship between rap and the level of sexism in college students. The study involved three groups, one that did not listen to any music whatsoever, another which listened to songs that had no sexist lyrics, and the third group was provided with songs that did have sexist lyrics. The results of the experiment revealed that every male in all three groups became more sexist afterwards. The fact that even males who didn’t listen to sexist lyrics had undergone a higher level of sexism later on does not prove that rap music causes sexist behaviors.
The third article examined how the issue of race is entailed in rap music. Carrie Fried evaluated the outcomes of her survey, which had asked people’s responses based on the lyrics they were given. The lyrics had a picture of either a Caucasian man or an African American man. The study indicated that people still correlate racial stereotypes with lyrics. When lyrics were presented with a picture of a black rapper, every viewer’s reaction was more negative than their reactions toward lyrics with the image of a white rapper.
Warrant
The findings about the causes and effects of rap music are relevant to the rap industry as it shows that the music is not responsible for the rising of youth violence altogether. It confirms that those who listen to that kind of music need to change their perspectives. Rap has rotated more and more around the subjects of sex, drugs, and violence. It is true that Hip Hop nowadays is evolving in a way that is not truly seen as an evolution due to its obscene lyrics. The contents of most songs are becoming more explicit. However, if listeners were to be more educated, they wouldn’t be easily swayed into following those kinds of lyrics and putting them into action.
Rebuttal
Rap music falls under the “Agenda Setting Theory” because the theory states that media tell people what to think about, not what to think. I truly believe that the two matters associate with one another. It’s evident that sex, drugs, and violence are some big concerns in our world. Rap artists communicate those issues so that we’re not ignorant about them. They merely share those realistic affairs, but it is our own job to absorb what they say in way that we learn how to better ourselves. Parents cannot just blame rap music for their children’s mischievous manners because they’re the ones that are strictly in control of how their kids conduct themselves.
References
Llobet, E. (2007, November 19). Rap artists assess hip-hop music’s effects. The Daily Cougar, Retrieved October 29, 2008, from http://media.www.thedailycougar.com/media/storage/paper1206/news/2007/11/19/News/Rap-Artists.Assess.HipHop.Musics.Effects-3109639-page2.shtml
Mancini, G.. Rap music: ‘Danger’ to society or just another waltz?. Indiana University, Retrieved October 29, 2008, from http://www.iuinfo.indiana.edu/homepages/0919/text/rap.htm
Unknown. (2008, February 21). Study: Rap Music Linked to Sexism. North Carolina State University, Retrieved October 29, 2008, from http://www.physorg.com/news122832232.html
