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Sexual Lyrics and Youth Behaviors

Opening: Hi, My name is William McCloud and I want to talk about sexual lyrics and the behaviors of youth today.
I want to bring to everyone’s attention my issue of the day. I want to speak on the sexual lyrics that the youth of today are so adamant on listening to. Songs that would include artists like: Chris Brown, Avenged Sevenfold, The Black Eyed Peas, Jeremih, Janet Jackson, and the list go on. Lyrics that would include lines like “Reach up in the dresser where them condoms is”, “we switching positions, you feel so rounded” etc. Studies show that sexual activity among adolescents in the US result in over 750,000 teenage pregnancies each year and up to 25 percent of all female adolescents in the US are suffering from Sexually transmitted diseases. Steven Martino, the lead researcher in a study by the Rand Corporation, found that music lowers kids’ inhibitions and makes them less thoughtful about the consequences of having sex at a young age.
So what does music specifically have to do with youth sexuality? Well artists such as Trina and Lil Kim use sex as a publicity stunt to boost record sales. Songs with titles like “How Many Licks” “One Minute Man” and others describe sexual in graphic detail and they are played on the radio in heavy rotation. And what censors the youth from listening to the songs when they just come up? Songs are censored to a certain point, but the imagination of young people is an amazing device. Words aren’t changed into other words, but they are just bleeped out. I think that if there is a way to just have edited music instead of just censored music, things could begin to get better with the youth mentality. It also doesn’t help that parents buy music for their kids and not check to see what it is or who the artist is.
Sex in the media has been a major issue lately, but it’s not a new concept for artists. Songs by very popular bands have been overlooked by the media, while still having sexual undertones. “Afternoon Delight” By the Starland Vocal Band is a very good example of how music can have a certain sense of class, while still talking about something that the youth can’t understand fully. Other songs like “Pour Some Sugar” by Def Leopard, “Love Hangover” by Diana Ross, “Natural Woman” by Aretha Franklin and others all have songs that you would just think of as dance hits, or slow dancing songs and all have an alternate meaning. Which shows that sex has been selling for a long time and it’ll probably continue to sell for some time to come, but what can we do about it? Well we can definitely start by paying attention to the sexual innuendoes that are very present in the music we have today. If we start calling the radio stations, and writing letters to the television stations we can definitely make a difference. I think that when there’s no one listening and paying for this type of stuff to be on the air, they have no choice but to fix what they put on the air.
Closing: Thank you for listening to my podcast about sexual lyrics and youth behaviors. For more information about my topic there are recommended readings at the bottom of the page.

Recommended readings:
http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics;124/5/1488
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-401684/Rap-music-blamed-teen-pregnancy.html
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/under-the-influence-ofmusic/
http://www.communicationstudies.com/the-effect-of-sexualized-lyrics-on-adolescents-study
http://www.rand.org/about/people/m/martino_steven.html
Reference
Elsevier Health Sciences (2009, February 24). Sexual Lyrics In Popular Songs Linked To Early Sexual Experiences.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090224132903.htm
Hall C; West J; Hill S. Sexuality & Culture (2011, September 01). Sexualization in Lyrics of Popular Music from 1959 to 2009: Implications for Sexuality Educators.
http://www.springerlink.com/content/u777062808r5j228/