sex lyrics and teens

Teens who listen to music with degrading sexual lyrics have sex sooner than teens who don't, a new study says.
The research, which will be published today in the August issue of Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, is the first study to examine the relationship between what teens hear through their headphones and what they do in their bedrooms.
Among heavy listeners of sexually degrading music -- where men are "studs" and women are objects -- 51 per cent started having sex within two years, versus 29 per cent of those who listened to little or none of that type of music.
The authors analysed the music of 16 top artists and categorized as degrading any lyrics that "depicted sexually insatiable men pursuing women valued only as sex objects." They then assessed the sexual behaviour and music tastes of 1,461 U.S. adolescent participants, tracked through a series of telephone interviews over three years.
"Adolescents who listen to a lot of music containing these objectifying and limiting characterizations of sexuality progress more quickly in their sexual behaviour, regardless of their race or gender," the study concluded, emphasizing that there was no correlation found between behaviour and sexualized lyrics that were not degrading in tone.
Steven Martino, the study's lead author and a researcher for the Rand Corporation, a non-profit Pittsburgh-based think tank, said degrading lyrics teach boys that they should be relentless in pursuit of women and teach girls that they should view themselves as sex objects.
"We think that really lowers kids' inhibitions and makes them less thoughtful" about sexual decisions, he said, adding that the music may lead teens to make decisions they regret.
"There is good reason to believe that music may have an important influence on adolescents' sexual behaviour," the study says, noting that American teens between the ages of 15 and 18 listen to 1.5 to 2.5 hours of music a day, with a quarter of them listening to more than three hours.
The degrading songs are not the love songs of yesteryear.
"These types of portrayals objectify and degrade women in ways that are obvious, but do the same to men by depicting them as sex-driven studs whose individual desires are subsumed to their gender role," the authors noted.
The study mentioned the boy band 98 Degrees as a group whose lyrics are sexual but not degrading, while Ja Rule's Livin it Up was cited as an example of a song filled with four-letter words and derogatory references to women. No other artists were specifically identified, but researchers categorized them according to musical genre and assessed what percentage of each song catalogue contained sexually degrading lyrics. Four acts categorized as "teen pop" and two labelled "country" contained no degrading lyrics at all, while 70 per cent of one rap artist's songs and 59 per cent of another's contained sexually degrading lyrics.
The authors state clearly that in their view "early activity is a significant problem in the United States." They note a recent survey that suggested most sexually experienced teens regretted they had not waited longer.
Natasha Ramsey, a 17-year-old from New Brunswick, New Jersey, said she and other teens sometimes listen to sexually explicit songs because they like the beat.
"I won't really realize that the person is talking about having sex or raping a girl," she said. Even so, the message "is being beaten into the teens' heads," she said.
However, some urge that music is not the only factor affecting teens' behaviour.
"We caution rushing to judgment that music more than any other factor is a causative factor" for teens initiating sex, said Benjamin Chavis, chief executive officer of the Hip-Hip Summit Action Network.