Rap Music Influence

All music is very powerful. It can change the way you think, the way you act, or even who you are as a whole. Throughout modern time, different genres were popular among adolescents. For example, disco music in the 1970’s, or grunge music in the 1990’s. However, no matter the difference in people, music brings one another together; for better or for worse. As trends move forward, people tend to follow their favourite and most popular artists, thus leaving these music stars a heavy bearing as a role model towards teenagers of each generation. In today’s era, rap music is highly popular and listened to by most youth, making these rappers a strong role model in teens’ lives. Therefore, today’s youth is influenced by the personae of rappers, the

Have you ever watched a rap song’s music video? If yes, what did you notice about it? The amount of drugs, alcohol, and violence in it, or the swearing, stacks of money, and highly expensive items? Rappers mainly associate their music with very negative aspects to life. A great example of this is the excessive talk of alcohol and drug abuse throughout their music. Drugs and alcohol are both substances which humans use in order to become intoxicated. With a boundless use of either substance, it can lead to overdose and even bring irreversible effects onto the user, such as organ damage, and in extreme cases, death. However, in rap music, drugs and alcohol are commended. This gives teenagers the impression that substance abuse is fun and cool. This contributes to the curiosity youth will have about drugs and alcohol, and can influence them to begin experimenting. On top of that, the rap industry likes to incorporate much violence and glamorize gang life in their music. For instance, many rap artists have taken part in the west coast versus east coast rivalry. This rivalry has led to the deaths of several famous rap artists, including Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. The type of behaviour shown inside the rivalry influences teenagers to believe that a violent, gang related lifestyle is okay, when in fact it is

In fact, many songs have very important social messages that adolescents take away with them. An example of this is the song ‘Same Love’ by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. It is a widely known fact that homosexuality has been a controversial issue since the beginning of time and still is considered one today. Although more socially accepted now than ever before in history, it is still viewed as a negative thing today and many people are against homosexuality. “Same Love” speaks for LGBT people all around the world with some very powerful lyrics. These lyrics explain how LGBT people are still discriminated against just for the mere purpose of loving someone of the same gender. For instance, in “Same Love”, Macklemore states how we live in ‘a world so hateful, some would rather die than be who they are’. This explains how LGBT individuals feel like they cannot express themselves and love who they love, all because of what? Something written in a book? This really shows how cruel the world we live in is. On the other hand, the lyrics also talk about how homosexual people cannot change who they are, for they were born this way and there should not be anything wrong with the way they live. Macklemore did an amazing job with this song. Thus, influencing youth on how they view LGBT people in a positive way, by showing teenagers how we are all equal. Moving on, other issues that artists rap about a lot is police