Kids Today...

A new study goes further than any before it in finding that pop music with degrading, hyper-sexualized lyrics isn't just associated with early and unhealthy sexual behavior, but that it can help influence teenagers to make stupid sexual decisions. Here are the facts as soberly reported by Reuters.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Music that depicts women as sex objects and men as insatiable studs may encourage some teenagers to become sexually active, according to a study of U.S. teens.

Much more here...

While popular music, from rap to country, is full of sexual content, that depiction of sex varies widely. And in the new study, researchers found that the distinction between "degrading" and "non-degrading" sexual lyrics may make a difference in teenagers' behavior.

Of the 1,461 adolescents aged 12 to 17 they followed, those who regularly listened to music with degrading lyrics at the start of the study were more likely to start having sex over the next two years. In contrast, there was no evidence that sexual yet non-degrading music swayed teenagers' behavior.

The study was conducted by the RAND Corporation and published in the journal Pediatrics. The whole article is here.

The critical question anyone should always ask about a study like this is whether it's proposing a correlation or a causation. Do A and B tend to turn up in the same kinds of people for some unknown reason, or does A actually cause B? Statisticians and sociologists use regression analysis to filter out as many of the possible other causes of B (in this case early and/or risky sexual behavior) to measure whether A (in this case noxious misogynistic music) is a bigger factor than all of the others. Turns out the numbers said yes. Kids who listened to standard issue boy band gushy lyrics about getting into you and making love were significantly less likely to have early, risky sex over the next three years than those who listened to Ja Rule rap "Half the ho's hate me, half them love me/The ones that hate me/Only hate me ‘cause they ain't f----d me/And they say I'm lucky/Do you think I've got time/To f--k all these ho's?"

So, the stunning conclusion, from the report itself: "There is good reason to believe that music may have an important influence on adolescents' sexual behavior."

I've found that musically hip, progressive types tend not to believe that music could "cause" deviant or anti-social behavior. And the Rushniks jumped up to sanctimoniously decree this the smoking gun smoldering next to the corpse of our nation. But this one's interesting because RAND folks aren't agenda driven and they know what they're doign with numbers. And because those who defend nastiness as just another form of free speech would also, in my experience, be likely to agree that music could evoke other kinds of behavior or attitudes, like brotherhood or dancing.

We're not arguing over the same kinds of content our grandparents tsk-tsked about when Elvis gyrated. Bad rap and psycho-metal and nihlistic ranting is not really a new style of music as a new form of media, and it's not without consequences.