debate.org raised the question 'Is rap music good or bad for our society?' and allows people to vote in favour or against this topic . THe website also allows people to give their opinion by posting their view. This is a great way to gather different people's perspectives and gain a greater understanding. Currently, 36% say YES and 64% say NO. However, there they proposed another question, 'Does modern rap and pop music have a negative infliuence on children?' and currently it stands at 63% for YES and 37% for NO. These two results contradict each other, which shows that there is a divide in society on whether rap music has a positve or negative influence on society. Below I picked several response to give an insight of the perspectives of different people.
RAP MUSIC IS BAD
"I am a Dad with children, and I have personally witnessed a drastic change in the attitudes of our youth, especially concerning respect for self, adults, and peers. We as adults should understand what the music is telling our children, that SEX, DRUGS, and MURDER is OKAY. With this kind of message, it can lead to a number of things, like, Senseless VIOLENCE, Decline of EDUCATION and the list goes on. Of course we should all know that proper child guidance begins in the home, However, we as adults should take a stand against any negative influence's that rape our children's innocence, and undermine our efforts to instill the right values in them. This isn't to band this type of music, but to put it back where it belongs and not on Public Radio. Yes I've put the message out there, trying to let parents know the concerns of the radio content, and some parents would say, "well that's not my fight, cause my child does not listen to that kind of music", but I say, "its all our fight", so let's take a stand now, to avoid a LOST GENERATION that becomes DESTRUCTIVE to themselves and others." "It's about the persuasion of the mind.Kids and young adults try living by the lyrics of their favorite rap song, not noticing that they are beginning to poison their own mind. Most rapper don't live by their own lyrics...It's just a way to make money. Once young people understand that a rap song suppose to stimulate the mind, {not meant to live by} the more we will start to see more positive results of influences from the rapper. They feed from each other... Negative attract negative and positive attract positive... That's what I believe." "If it sounds like fun, children will want to try it. Now, not all modern rap and pop music is bad but most hip hop and gangster rap is. The dream is sold of selling drugs, stealing money and hurting people to be "king of the world". The thoughts are so subliminal to children that they actually believe that if they do that too, they can be just as cool as the artists performing the music. Children are so easily influenced and since the mainstream of gangster rap and hip hop, crime has gone up." |
RAP MUSIC IS GOOD
"I'm 16 listen to rap. I rap. Honors student with all the nerdy kids. I listen to all kinds of rap. Wu-Tang, Of course some eminem, tupac, biggie smalls, ice cube, and even rap as dark as Odd future I won't keep listing them as I listen to tons. I rap but I keep my stuff adressed on problems lots of people face. I don't go "west side till I die g living for the C.R.E.A.M and ice, all women are hoes in this life" that's not me. I will admit sometimes it has influenced my actions but usually for re better. I rap and sometimes say bad things yes. But I'm an honors student raised with very proper manners. Rap dosnt influence who you are unless you have minuscule brain power and poor judgment in the first place. I don't go shoot everyone up, I do cuss people out and get in fights but what highschool student dosn't? Rap helps me focus in on things. I love all music types except for screamo and "death rap" or whatever stupid ICP does. I hate that. That's garbage and can't teach me things, but some rap can. Thank you." "On the bad side, I acknowledge that most of mainstream rap tends to promote counter-productive things to our society that may dampen our growth (e.g drugs and sexism etc). But on the good side, it also promotes pretty much an equal amount of enlightening messages that may prove to foster our minds (e.G awareness of surrounding world and positivity etc). What people don't know is that Rap is a very broad genre and has much varied songs as they are different colors in the light spectrum. However, the more "positive" rap songs don't get as much attention (even if they're a tonnn of them). If you actually dive into the rap genre, you'd notice topics arraying from drugs, sex, and violence to philosophy, conceptual stories, and political views etc. And there are all sort of different perspectives for all of those topics. A lot of rap requires a sharpened mind to analyze the intricate metaphors and wordplay that they contain. It's a genre of music that has the most substance as its narrative structure makes an in-depth approach for topics more inviting. Just listen to almost any song by Lupe Fiasco, and you would see exactly what I mean." "While rap does provide negative messages a lot of the time, it is- like many other types of music- only telling the hardships of life. It may be true that there are rap songs that encourage the negative message, but many don't support it and just discuss the problems." |