Degrading Sexual Lyrics May Increase Teen’s Sexual Behavior

American teens listen to between 1.5 to 2.5 hours of music a day and researchers have found that music with degrading sexual lyrics has been linked to early sexual behavior.

A recent study in the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics shows that listening to certain types of music may lead to more sexual behavior in youth. Over 1,400 teens between the ages of 12-17 took part in this study. The study used hard rock, alternative rock, rap-rock, rap, rap-metal, R&B, Country, and Pop music which all contained sexual references in this 3-year study.

Researchers found that while not all sexual lyrics have a negative impact on teens, degrading sexual lyrics are directly related “to advances in a range of sexual activities among adolescents.” Although it is difficult to determine the exact number of teens who engage in early intercourse as a result of degrading music lyric’s influence, researchers estimate that the numbers are fairly high. This study found that, on average, American teens listen to 1.5 to 2.5 hours of music a day (not including the amount of time spent being exposed to music via music videos).

According to the study, “by the time they reach 12^th grade, 3 of 5 young people in the United States have engaged in sexual intercourse,” and even more disturbing, 1 in every 5 sexually active teen girls will become pregnant each year. With numbers like these, it is clear that early sexual activity is a problem in the U.S. and degrading sexual music is only fueling the problem.1