Is Rap Music Really a Negative Influence?
Music is the ultimate form of expression. As an artist, everything they have ever been through and everything that has molded them into the creative entity that they are is left out for all to hear. Be it love songs, party songs, gangsta rap, country blues, just any genre of music. No artist demands an audience, the audience comes if they simply find the artist interesting. Likewise no artist forces anyone to listen to their music in the first place. However, in the eyes of many older generations, the artist are 100 percent responsible for the aftermath of their music. Society as a whole will always choose the easy way out of a problem by targeting something so vague and obscure as the source of it. In this case it is rap music.
Many parents have no control of their kids, and their kids always aim to do exactly the opposite of what their parents tell them. Kids are rebellious by law. Now of course even the most strict parent can not monitor their child in every aspect of the day. Eventually they will be exposed to something that their parent would not allow, be it drugs, sexual encounters or in this case rap. Rappers don’t target the youth with their music. They should not be responsible if they youth gets their hands on it. They target audiences who are mature enough to listen and enjoy their music without being influenced negatively by their own lifestyles that they express. An older audience can appreciate the music much more, it is not fair making older people sacrifice for the responsibility of parents and subsequently their kids. If an artist such as Lil Wayne makes a song with vulgar language and explicit content obviously that is bad. But if Miley Cyrus appears in a video half naked and promotes her notoriety with twerking and sticking her tongue out in a sexial manner that is much more easily condoned.
With that being said, why does rap music get most of the blame? Rap music is highly influential as we seen. Similarly to blaming rap music for negative behavior, in the Columbine school shootings the boys were highly influenced by playing the violent Video Game DOOM and parents targeted video game violence as the source of all school shootings after that because it is the easy, vague source that most people can relate to. The solution? Even more relatable: Ban all video games with violence and crime! There is always much more to it than that. Parenting plays an unbelievably huge role. It is true that rap music can be influential, however if treated responsibly it should not be. Children are always malleable. They can change in an instant and if they see something they like they will try their hardest to emulate it. As stated before, kids will naturally rebel their parents. This is when parents must be firm and strict in their ruling. As a parent you must let your child know that this type of behavior will not be tolerated.
Rappers use their music to express themselves. Sure they may talk about all the money that they have or the women they’ve slept with, and of course that will make any teenager jealous. But this is America and rappers can express themselves however they see fit. There is no law against it. These rappers can flaunt their wealth in our faces if they choose to. They can rap about drugs if they choose too. It is their choice. Citing rap music as the blame for negative behavior of children is not only unfair but also untrue. There are rappers who have a positive aim. They do get overshadowed by the negatives of rap but that is simply a stereotype.
Society as a whole will always choose the easy way out of a problem by targeting something so vague and obscure as the source of it. In this case it is rap music.