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In the Battle for Teens' Attention, Suggestive Music Could Be Winning

A study of 1,461 teens, which appears in the August issue of Pediatrics Today suggests that teens whose taste in music flows to raunchy and sexually explicit lyrics start having sex sooner than other teens.

"Sexually degrading music gives them a specific message about sex," said lead author Steven Martino, a researcher with Rand Corp.

Teens who listened to "lots of music" with degrading sexual messages were almost twice as likely to start sexual activities within the following two years as were teens who listened to little or no sexually degrading music.

Why is that so hard to believe?

When we were young, many of us got steamed up every time we heard Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On." But we didn't hear lyrics like that all the time. That's the difference. We also had the Isley Brothers with "I've Got Work to Do," and Aretha Franklin's "Respect."

By now, teens ought know they can't eat up these sexually demeaning lyrics without experiencing negative side effects. If you listen to the same message over and over and over again, it will soon soak into your subconscious. But just like you can't eat junk food all day and feel healthy, you can't liste

Really, it is both fascinating and frightening that the images of sex-driven black studs and lascivious black women that some teens mindlessly emulate can be traced back to the good ol' plantation days.

Why is this happening? Honestly.

It's happening because, we, their parents, have been bamboozled into believing we have to endure nasty speech to ensure we have free speech.

'Cultural expression'?

A century from now, slurs and curse words will still be derogatory, and folks will still be trying to figure out what effect the constant barrage of perverse language had on a teen's developing intellect.

Meanwhile, we have people like Benjamin Chavis -- once an honorable elder in the Black Power movement -- who is now making his living as the chief executive officer of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network.

He defends the offensive lyrics with the old lame excuse: "Explicit music lyrics are a cultural expression that reflects social and economic realities."

I've never understood whose culture people like Chavis are talking about. If anything, the dissemination of raunchy lyrics is actually a counter-cultural expression. People are getting paid, and they don't care how much the music defiles, as long as the CDs fly off the shelves.

Meanwhile, another study -- this one by the Washington, D.C.- based Child Trends -- reported that most sexually active teenagers don't regularly use condoms.

In fact, younger teens are the ones least likely to use contraceptives the first time they have sex. The study found males (76 percent) were more likely to use a method of contraceptive at first than females (65 percent).

You can argue over the accuracy of these studies, but there's one thing we know for sure: The teens who engage in unprotected sex are likely to tumble down a huge hole called poverty. Some of them will never make the journey back to solid ground.

There's just no excuse for taking that fall -- not in these times.

Except for the teens who are stuck out in the backwoods, most young people have access to the Internet. The Internet has empowered teens by giving them private access to knowledge. Teens who squander that knowledge don't have a clue about what they are going to be up against when they must make it on their own.

More important, given that so many teens are willing to start their sexual lives without protection, we've obviously failed to communicate the seriousness of HIV/AIDS.

No, it's not something that's happening in Africa. It's happening right here, in every city and in every neighborhood.

In 2005, it is estimated that 2.3 million people under 15 were living with HIV.

No one is rapping about that.

Instead, some of the most popular songs are about oral sex. But what these performers don't tell young people is that oral sex is still unprotected sex. And the sad thing is, a lot of teens will believe the hype that could lead to pregnancy and HIV infection, before they believe these reports about HIV/AIDS. If they believe, they don't believe enough to protect themselves.

And even though a lot of adults have devoted a lot of effort to getting their message out, too many teens don't believe they can be infected with a sexually transmitted disease that will be with them for the rest of their lives.

We need help saving our kids from themselves.

I wish some of these culturally sensitive rappers would rap about that.

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