"Cause and Violent Effect: Media and Our Youth" (part 2)

Taken from: "Cause and Violent Effect: Media and Our Youth".
By Barbara Hattemer

In 1989, the American Medical Association concluded that music is an even greater influence on teens than television. This is because they have more exposure to heavy metal music than to either pornography or horror films. MTV has introduced a whole generation of children to songs that glorify pleasure seeking and irresponsibility. Its videos contain thirteen violent acts per hour, and four out of five of them mix violence with sex.
Rock stars are always available to young people starving for attention and understanding. They offer children unqualified acceptance. They appear to meet their needs and understand their chaotic emotions better than their parents. Prolonged listening to hard-rock music correlates with many negatives, from the mildly troubling to the very serious: increasing discomfort in family situations, a preference for friends over family, poor academic performance, increased chemical dependency, violence, stealing, and sexual activity. It makes disturbed adolescents feel powerful and in charge.
There is a strong relationship between antisocial or destructive behavior and listening to rock music with destructive themes. The preference for heavy metal music among juvenile delinquents is almost three times as high as among the general population of high schoolers. This music is filling our children's heads with rebellion, raw sex, violence, and a hatred and abuse of women of a degree never seen before.
Research has found that the best defense against the media is a strong family that makes an effort to impart values and gives children clear boundaries. Youths from families with well-defined value systems use them to interpret what they observe. Teenagers from homes in which family members communicate openly and engage in an active viewing style, discussing programs with their children, are less influenced by what they see.

This excerpt explores the link between behavior in adolescents and the type of muic they listen to. In this section, the author begins by talking about the popularity of music. It has more influence and affect on people becauses it is used constatnly, and exposed to adolscents and teens all time. This is true for my poll aswell, so far, listening to music is the leading activity with 100% of the votes. The author foucuses specifically on rock music and heavy metal. She states that "prolonged" listening to music with distructive themes lead to negative behvior and other lifestyle changes such as: increasing discomfort in family situations, a preference for friends over family, poor academic performance, increased chemical dependancy, violence, stealing, and sexual activiy. Although this may be true in some cases, this is not true for all listeners. As my first post on this article explained, pepole in different situations react differently to violence and other themes in music.
One statistic I found intersting was the one involving juvenile delinquents. It stated: "The preference for heavy metal music among juvenile delinquents is almost three times as high as among the general population of high schoolers." This is strong evidence for people who believe that this type of music is negatively affecting our youth, and makes a strong point about the influence of rock and heavy metal on adolescents and teens.