Rap music and hip hop, with their particular emphasis on sex and demeaning depictions of women, were blamed for encouraging early sexual behaviour, leading to the spread of disease and underage pregnancies. Dr Steven Martino, who led the US study published in the latest edition of the journal 'Paediatrics', said that "sexually degrading lyrics" - many graphic and filled with obscenities - caused changes in adolescents' sexual behaviour. He said, "These lyrics depict men as sexually insatiable, women as sexual objects, and sexual intercourse as inconsequential. Other songs about sex don't appear to influence youth the same way. "These portrayals objectify and degrade women in ways that are clear but they do the same to men by depicting them as sex-driven studs. Musicians who use this type of sexual imagery are communicating something very specific about what sexual roles are appropriate, and teenage listeners may act on these messages. "These lyrics are likely to promote the acceptance of women as sexual objects and men as pursuers of sexual conquest. Despite the fact that degrading sexual lyrics are particularly demeaning for women, they affect adolescent boys and girls similarly." The same disturbing messages were contained in videos which endorse the portrayal of women as sexual objects, the report said. The research team surveyed 1,461 children aged from 12 to 17 from across the US, asking them about their sexual behaviour and how often they listened to music by various artists including rock, country, rap, blues and pop. They found that the youngsters listened to an average of 1.5 to 2.5 hours of music a day - not including what they saw on television or videos - but that 40 per cent of the songs referred to sex or romance. Adolescents, who listened to a lot of music containing objectifying and limiting characterisations of sexuality, progressed more quickly in their sexual behaviour than teenagers who preferred different kinds of music. This was regardless of race or gender, the report said. The study, called "Exposure to Degrading Versus Non-Degrading Music Lyrics and Sexual Behaviour among Youth," was carried out by the RAND Corporation - a leading healthcare research organisation in the US. It also said that there was a danger that children's opinions about the opposite sex would be affected for the long-term by constant exposure to the lyrics. "These expectations may then have lasting effects on their relationship choices. Boys, on the other hand, may come to interpret reckless male sexual behaviour as 'boys being boys' and dismiss their partners' feelings and welfare as unimportant." He said that the findings were worrying for teenagers who have more unplanned pregnancies and are more likely to contract sexually transmitted diseases. Increasing rates of sexual activity have serious public health implications. In the US, about 750,000 teenagers become pregnant each year, and an estimated four million contract sexually transmitted diseases. The study recommended that parents set limits on what music their children buy and listen to. "Censorship is not a solution. But talking to children about music's sexual content can give parents a chance to express their own views, and may prompt teens to think more deeply about the ways in which sex is portrayed - and perhaps distorted - in the music they listen to," Dr Martino said. He would not name the artists whose lyrics had the worst impact although the stars L'il Kim and Ja Rule were referred to in the report. He said, "We feel that, given how prevalent these types of portrayals are in popular music, it doesn't make sense for us to pinpoint individual artists."
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