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.That's a start. The Rand Corp specializes in national security issues, though it does other stuff. Martino has written reports for them on developing Air Force space and missile officers and on the effects of marijuana use on teenagers.
He and other researchers surveyed 1,461 adolescents in 2001 about their sexual experiences and related factors. The researchers followed up with similar questions in 2002 and 2004.That's a more measured version of the story.
Throughout the study, participants reported how often they were listening to 16 artists chosen by the study's authors based on their popularity. In every case - across racial and gender lines, and after accounting for factors like a heightened interest in sex or more permissive parents - increased exposure to sexually degrading lyrics (though not merely sexual ones) led to increased sexual activity. [...]
"This uses a more precise methodology than previous studies have, particularly around the issue of content," says Michael Rich, director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Harvard University. "We as a society have lulled ourselves into thinking that if it's entertainment it doesn't affect us. There's this artificial dichotomy we've drawn between education and entertainment - education is at school, and then kids turn their brains off when they go home and listen to misogynistic lyrics." [...]
Still, such studies are notoriously difficult to conduct and are often inconclusive - merely finding an association, for instance, doesn't necessarily mean that one activity leads to another. Even Martino acknowledges there are still variables his team might not have accounted for. While it's impossible to prove that lyrics were responsible for his study's observations, Martino says he hopes that by tracking the adolescents over time - as well as by accounting for other factors such as an expressed desire to have sex at an earlier age - the study has demonstrated a strong causal connection.
Determining which lyrics were degrading and which were merely sexual constituted another challenge. Two separate researchers made that subjective decision and generally agreed. They looked for lyrics that either objectified women, viewed men as insatiable studs, or treated sex as an inconsequential game.
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People who want to have sex are more likely to enjoy raunchy music than people who don't.
Of course that doesn't have the same scare-monger appeal as the implication that the music causes sex.
posted by Tacos Are Pretty Great at 12:14 AM on August 8, 2006