Are aggressive lyrics a response to or cause of violence in society and why?

Answer 1

no, but these kids have got to blame something, it can't be their fault that they behave so poorly

Answer 2

Aggressive lyrics are both a response and cause of violence in society. However, their influence over people is I would say marginal compared to other factors that can make someone violent. Poverty, stupidity, ignorance, low self esteem, poor parenting, poor schooling, these are all far more pressing matters that any potential government needs to address before waving their hands at musicians.
Media like music and violent games or movies have always made fitting scapegoats for lunatics and psychopaths alike, but it isn't the media that makes them violent, it is the things listed above.
Over time, people have become hugely desensitized to the environment around them. Nothing shocks people, especially young people any more. It's not shocking when a child kills another child in a school any more. It's not shocking when a child hurls bricks at a smaller child. What we need is a much harsher penal system, that actually punishes violence. We don't need to ban Snoop Dogg or 50 Cent, we need to ban cable tv and pool tables from prisons. We need a system that potential criminals are scared of. Some people are violent because our current penal system is such a joke. They either go unpunished, or if they are lucky they go to a jail cell, where they have more food, more activities, better t.v etc. If you want to punish criminals, follow the Americans example. Jails are about the one thing they can do right. Would there be as much violent crime as there is if the criminals knew they would get sent to jail, to a cold concrete cell, with no t.v, no newspapers, no magazines, no playstation, no anything, except a loudspeaker on the wall preaching the works of Archimedes. I dont think there would. Of course there are alot of other issues too, but get some sense, it's not the media.

Answer 3

We live in a society that marginalisies and alienates people, where opportunities are severely limited for some because of inequality and discrimination. The self-esteem and overall wellbeing of the marganilised is adversely affeceted because of this. We live in a society where identity very often relies on what you have rather than who you are. It's no wonder there is so much anger and violence. At least being an angry, violent person is some kind of identity with some kind of power. Aggressive lyrics are a response to a violent society, but that doesn't make it all right. The people who put out these horrible, degrading, mysoginistic, violent lyrics validate violence by making it seem like violence makes you powerful and respected. Of course, all violence does is reinforce all the negative stereotypes society has about young people, particularly young men and, more specifically, young black men. However, it is understandable that people who will never get the respect they deserve as a human being through our institutions and society in general should gain power and control in other easier ways. Aggressive lyrics are a product of racism and sexism, but they don't challenge it, they perpetuate it.

Answer 4

No. In the case of rap the aggressive lyrics reflect the gangster rap culture. The music promotes that culture, but the lyrics themsleves are not the cause of it. Even if there wasn't rap music there would still be the culture of gangs and violence within that section of society.
A few years ago there was a lot of focus on Rock music and lyrics. At the time many religious groups claimed that artists like Ozzy Osbourne and bands like Twisted Sister were responsible for violent acts in kids. They failed though to convince anyone else since the evidence was not there to support their claims and the musicians in question did not actually lead a lifestyle based on their music. Dee Schnieder of Twisted Sister may have sang about teenage rebellion in 'We're not going to take it' but was in fact a familly man with young children. The trouble rap has is that often these people are singing about their own lifestyle and things that actually happen. Ozzy may have sung about worshipping the devil but he never did. When Snoop dog sings about killing somone he may well be speaking from experience. That is the fundamental difference, but it still does not change the fact that rap music is not the cause of violence it is merely a relection of a certain lifestyle.

Answer 5

I think aggressive lyrics are a product of society. I know it seems a bit pedantic to say product rather than response, but I think it is better to say product.

If you are singing about the society you live in, and it is a violent one that glorifies aggression then you have to use aggressive terms. It's inescapable. If you want to change a society's focus from aggression you use different words, and highlight less glorified topics.

I don't think you can blame a singer/songwriter who uses real language to portray real life issues that affect them or matter to them. To do otherwise would be fake.

I think though that aggressive lyrics can be self-perpetuating. Aggression and violence appeal just as much as they repel. If we were repulsed by violence we wouldn't watch the films, listen to the music, or play the games that glamorise it. Being exposed to violent entertainment is de-sensitising. It ceases to shock after a while, which means it's become the norm. This is what I'm getting at when I say self-perpetuating.

How do we change this? We need to educate people. Strength should be used to protect and defend. We need to reintroduce the idea of chivalry and nobility. As old-fashioned as it sounds, encourage and reward good manners. It isn't cowardly to be polite, it isn't weak or spineless to hold doors open for people, or to help others with heavy bags etc.

If I show you respect it isn't because I'm scared of you or that I think it's your due, I'm doing it because that is how civilised people behave. Hmm, I seem to have gone of on a rant there. Sorry!

Answer 6

Absolutely not, no way and never. In that order. I've been listening to rap since I was 10 years old and I've never committed a violent act in my life. The original crop of gangsta rappers (NWA, KRS One etc) were reflecting their own lives and upbringing. More recently it's just a rip-off game. I totally lost interest in rap a few years ago, (not because of the lyrics, just because it's all rubbish now) but before that I wrote my Sociology degree dissertation on it. Violence has existed since the dawn of time. Violence is in the Bible. If we must blame culture for violence them blame war films, or while we're being ridiculous blame Punch and Judy, or Tom and Jerry, or Laurel and Hardy for kicking each other up the **** or whatever. That all glamourised violence way before rap existed.

If we try to stop the lyrics we take away their artistic freedom and their (in the U.S.A) constitutionally protected right to freedom of speech and expression. Surely we in the UK have similar rights? I suggest that the lyrics are neither a response nor a cause. Originally they were a reflection, now they are just tired but occasionally still a reflection.

Answer 7

I think you have to ask yourself, why is it that it only seems like rappers are pulling out guns and shooting each other over comments that are viewed as a disrespect ? I don't think it's the lyrics that are the problem, I think the problem is the people who are singing the lyrics.
They get rich, they get famous and they become a role model to the young, unfortunately they behave like anything but role models. Don't ban the lyrics, don't ban rap, crack down on the people who are carrying guns and doing the shooting - rap stars or not rap stars...bang 'em up and throw away the key....not so glamorous then is it ?
Also, for all those people that say it is all to down to upbringing and background, rubbish. They say that the one of the differences between humans and animals is choice. No matter how you are brought up, when a gun is made available to you, you have a choice......to pick it up and use it, or to not pick it up. Everyone has the choice, some people make unbelievably brave and difficult choices, other people take the easy cowards route. Choice is indivdual.....no matter where you come from and how you were brought up, you will know guns are wrong and illegal.
And also for people who say violent lyrics are people expressing hard upbringings and backgrounds, why doesn't War poetry in general have this violent streak ? War poetry (what I have read of it) expresses sadness, regret, anger at the waste of young life in a way that doesn't glorify violence, for most cases doesn't even mention the violence. War poetry reflects on the damage caused by violence, whereas the people writing rap, and living the 'rappers' lifestyle, appear to want to glorify the death and the killing.
It's back to the person, and what he CHOOSES !!!!!!

Answer 8

Rap? Take a step Back - and here comes the Flak!

From Outer Space - Aliens look to Earth.
They shake their heads in amazement.
They hear the monotonous Rap beat;
they see the Earthlings shake in synch;
mesmered with subversive lyrics and goin' down the sink.

They wonder what Earth history's great and glorious - too many to mention - would think; those who paid the costly instalments over centuries for the Rapper's today freedom to pollute impressionable minds - and bank their cash. They spend the cash on toys and tricks to seduce more suckers to pay for their dolls and hols.

The Aliens look in wonderment at the Earthlings (in the lost and confused West from whence this @rap originates ). They wonder how Western society claims de facto leadership of the world simply by being the (default) military power. Stay with me brothers and sisters, the punch line cometh!

Oh yes! And it's all in the name of FREEDOM!! Do the Rappers (and especially the MEDIA - who channel them like unguided missiles with criminal warheads) have any idea of:

The difference between Freedom and Licence??

For the ILLITERACY (who will not be reading this but please read it to them!); Licence is what the government you're under at the time ALLOWS you to do - Freedom is what you have earned the RIGHT to do - having paid the price - usually in blood against tyrants and subversive forces.

Are you getting it yet? The Aliens have already! Any Alien can see that the West is in an advanced state of decline and decay - having lost the ability to understand what freedom is and who owns it.

Politics has not changed (ego driven power manipulation) and every year a higher price has to be paid for those votes. In the Third World they promise and give handouts. In the West they promise more freedom. But freedom cannot be given away like handouts so they have to give away its counterfeit copy - Licence!! You want more votes - simple! Change the law (to allow more permissions and permissiveness)! Duh!! And pronounce another advancement of 'freedom'! Gimme a break!

So happy rappers and mindless followers, wake up today if you want a tomorrow! The choice. Get Rich or get Real! Don’t tell me – I know what you’ll do – Dummy!! But you can never say no-one ever told you the truth!

CHINA knows it well and they see it. They will rule the world quicker than you think by letting the West continue to self-destruct (to the lyrics of Rap and the dumbing down of their monotonous beat they want to call music – Mozart, restrain yourself!). CHINA is the Alien in the piece (and in the peace). I saw it on a recent visit.

A stable society rests on the pillars of discipline, moral values and human dignity – not on laws (made to fulfil an election promise or win the next one).

CONCLUSION: The Rappers are unashamed music mercenaries - human nature in sound and motion. Why point the gun at them? Sure! they need to write and be put right with positive lyrics. YES = They are both a cause of and a reflection of the violence and obscenity in the West.

But the ones who really need to take the RAP (and jail!) are the spineless politicians - who have sold out. They have labelled 'licence for anything' as 'freedom of expression' - and that anything is now defended in public law (even when it is contrary to moral law). What's worse, they continue to feed us other forms of @rap while paying away the precious little that is left of the precious many freedoms our forefathers (not they) earned for us!!

Have a nice day in the West - while it lasts!

Answer 9

I think aggressive lyrics are a response to the society a lot of the rap/hip hop musicians live in, not the cause. My problem is that record companies only seem to sign one type of hip hip. There are many great poets out there who write about many different subjects but never get heard. All we get on mainstream radio is a very small view of black Americans musicians, just guns, crime and sex. People who have said to me that they hate rap music have usually only heard of one or two rappers and the controversy surrounding them. Until we get a rounded view, how can we truly judge? It's not all about getting the bling...

Answer 10

Okay I hear what every one is saying!

So is Goth music to blame for some nutcases shooting up Columbine or David Bowie responsible for the Hungerford Massacre???

Hip-Hop music today is a music form that has one of the largest fan bases yet only a small proportion of the fan's are out 'poppin a cap' in anybody!!

Is Rock or Heavy Metal music responsible for the nations Drug Addicts and all Drug related crime??? It is just not a conclusion you would come to although the music has a history of being synonomous with substance misuse.

Individuals make choices the music does not make it for them!!!

I have listened to Hip-Hop music for 20 years..........I have never 'shanked' anybody or 'bust a cap' on anyone. I actually grew up to be a law abiding member of society working within the Youth Probation Service and despite the bu11sh1t you hear in the media the music is actually not a feature in these people's offending!!!

Think about it!!!

Answer 11

I am certain that almost all musicians, lyricists and singers do what they do out of personal experience. Until and unless you have undergone something you cannot put it on a large scale.
OR
It is something that you EXPECT the surroundings/world to be like.

Therefore, it can be a response or a cause or both. Aggressive lyrics are mostly a CAUSE but can be a response to violence in society.

WHY..because that is experience and/or imagination. and musicians' base, the core thought or writing composing is either experience or imagination.