New Scientific Research Finds That Horny Teenagers Are Probably Going To Get It On With Or Without Hip-Hop

Scientists have finally taken note of this secret society called “hip-hop” and the Pied Piperish hold its hypersexualized lyrical content has over our secondary schools. To gauge the threat level, researchers at Columbia University and the RAND Corporation, among other institutions, have been scrutinizing lyric sheets and even leaving the lab to mingle among dancers, hoping to find out if rap is making kids pet a little heavier than they should. Their findings? That no one should tap Ja Rule to teach junior high sex ed.

The researchers [at the RAND Corporation] interviewed more than 1,400 teenagers over two years, asking them about the music they listened to along with factors like peer pressure and parental supervision. They found that adolescents who were exposed to the highest levels of sexually degrading lyrics were twice as likely to have had sex by the end of the study.

The researchers defined degrading lyrics as those that portrayed women as sexual objects, men as insatiable and sex as inconsequential. One example they cited was from the rapper Ja Rule, whose song “Livin’ It Up” includes the lyrics “Half the ho’s hate me, half them love me.” Notably, lyrics that celebrated sex, like those crooned by the band 98 Degrees — “I’m dreamin’ day and night of making love” — had no effect on sexual behavior, the study found.

Perhaps because no one under the age of 50 uses the term “making love” with a straight face? Other pertinent facts gleaned from Columbia’s three years spent “studying the hip-hop club scene, talking to dozens of teenagers and watching them dance” include: Grinding on the dancefloor doesn’t necessarily lead to grinding on the bathroom floor; despite hip-hop’s fucked up gender roles, ladies still have no trouble telling a sucker “no” if he gets too close; and kids’ ears prick up to public health messages when you try to “rap” with them using a little hip slang, rather than affecting a finger-wagging Ward Cleaver stance towards their “confounding” subculture. At least our tax dollars aren’t tied up in this.

For Clues On Teenage Sex, Experts Look To Hip-Hop [New York Times via the Stranger]