Raunchy lyrics trigger earlier onset of sexual activity among teens: study

If your teenaged daughter is listening to a lot of Lil Kim, it's time to educate her about safe sex. In an eye-opening study, researchers have found that teenagers who listen to raunchy, sex-filled lyrics are more likely to indulge in early sexual activity than their counterparts who don't. Especially dangerous is music that depicts women as sex objects and men as 'sex-driven studs', said Steven Martino, the lead author of the study from Pittsburgh-based Rand Corp.

Under the study, the researchers telephonically quizzed around 1,461 participants between the ages of 12 and 17 years. Teenagers who listened to sexually degrading music were twice as likely to have sex early on than those who listened to music that was more about love and romance. “Lyrics classified as degrading depicted sexually insatiable men pursuing women valued only as sex objects,” the researchers wrote in a report published in the journal Pediatrics. The study began in 2001 and most of the participants were virgins at the beginning of the study.

Between 2002 and 2004, the researchers carried out follow-up interviews to track the sexual developments in the teens' lives. Around 51 per cent of teens whose music collection consisted mainly of sexually degrading music began having sex within two years of the three-year study as against 29 per cent of those who did not enjoy such music.

Researchers said that these kind of lyrics convey a distorted version of the gender roles to both male and female teens, leading them to perceive the importance of sex wrongly. Many teenagers later admitted they wished they had delayed the onset of sexual activity. “(It) gives them a specific message about sex. We think that really lowers kids' inhibitions and makes them less thoughtful,” Martino added.

Among the genres that concentrate more on sex are rock and hip hop. But Benjamin Chavis, the chief executive of rappers and hip hop recording executives' coalition Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, felt the lyrics are only a reflection of 'social and economic realities'. “We caution (against) rushing to judgment that music more than any other factor is a causative factor,” said Chavis.
Agreeing with Chavis was New York sex researcher Yvonne K Fulbright who felt that other factors like peer pressure and the atmosphere at home play a greater part in such decisions.

“It's a little dangerous to just pinpoint one thing. You have to look at everything that's going on in a young person's life. When somebody has a healthy sense of themselves, they don't take these lyrics too seriously,” she said, adding that parents should give their children a healthy home environment to help them make informed decisions about sex and love. “A healthy home atmosphere is one that allows a child to investigate what pop culture has to offer and at the same time say 'I know this is a fun song but you know that it's not right to treat women this way or this isn't a good person to have as a role model',” she said.

At least one member of the group in the eye of the storm, however, did agree that music was a major influence when it came to shaping lives. Seventeen-year-old Natasha Ramsey, who is the editor of Sexetc.org, a Rutgers University Web site on teenaged sexual health, agrees that many a times, messages are sent through music without a person realizing it. “I won't really realize that the person is talking about having sex or raping a girl. (But the message) is being beaten into the teens' heads. We don't even really realize how much,” she said. On being sexually active, Ramsey said many of her contemporaries do it not because they want to but because they think they should.

“A lot of teens think that's the way they're supposed to be. They think that's the cool thing to do,” Ramsey said. She agreed that music is a major decision driver. “Teens will try to deny it, they'll say 'No, it's not the music,' but it is the music. That has one of the biggest impacts on our lives,” the teenager said.

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