Teens who listen to lots of music with raunchy, sexual lyrics start having sex sooner than those who prefer other songs, a study being released today found.
Whether it’s hip-hop, pop, rap or rock, much of popular music aimed at teens contains sexual overtones. Its influence on their behavior appears to depend on how the sex is portrayed, researchers found.
Songs depicting men as “sex- driven studs” and women as sex objects and with explicit references to sex acts are more likely to trigger early sexual behavior than those where sexual references are more veiled and relationships appear more committed, the study found.
Teens who said they listened to lots of music with degrading sexual messages were almost twice as likely to start having intercourse or other sexual activities within the following two years as were teens who listened to little or no sexually degrading music.
Among heavy listeners, 51 percent started having sex within two years, versus 29 percent who said they listened to little or no sexually degrading music.
Exposure to lots of sexually degrading music “gives them a specific message about sex,” said lead author Steven Martino, a researcher for Rand Corp. in Pittsburgh. Boys learn they should be relentless in pursuit of women, and girls learn to view themselves as sex objects, he said.
The study, based on telephone interviews with 1,461 participants ages 12 to 17, appears in the August issue of Pediatrics, being released today. Most participants were virgins when first questioned in 2001. Follow-up interviews were conducted in 2002 and 2004 to see if music choice had influenced later behavior.
Natasha Ramsey, a 17-year-old from New Brunswick, N.J., said she and other teens sometimes listen to sexually explicit songs because they like the beat.
“I won’t really realize that the person is talking about having sex or raping a girl,” she said. Even so, the message “is being beaten into the teens’ heads,” she said. “We don’t even really realize how much.”
Benjamin Chavis, chief executive of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, a coalition of hip- hop musicians and recording-industry executives, said explicit lyrics are a cultural expression that reflects “social and economic realities.”
“We caution rushing to judgment that music more than any other factor is a causative factor” for teen sex, he said.
Martino said the researchers tried to account for other factors that could affect behavior, including parental permissiveness, and still found explicit lyrics had a strong influence.
In another study in Pediatrics, teens who watched pro wrest ling on TV were found to be more likely to behave violently than other kids, and girls seemed to be more influenced than boys.
The findings were part of a study suggesting teens who watched wrestling had a tendency toward violence, including carrying weapons and fighting on dates.
The researchers also found that students who were most likely to fight on dates after they had been drinking or using drugs were the ones who watched wrestling most often.
“It’s yet more evidence that, when it comes to kids and media, learning happens,” said Kimberly Thompson, a professor at Harvard University’s School of Public Health who was not involved in the study. “Parents have to pay attention to what’s in their kids’ media diet.”
Gary Davis, a spokesman for World Wrestling Entertainment, rejected the report.
“In contrast to the findings of this flawed study, many of our fans attest that watching World Wrestling Entertainment programming has been a positive experience for them and their children,” he said. “More than half of these parents consider watching our programs with their children as important family time.”
