The American Academy of Pediatrics reports that teens 14-16 years old are listening to about 40 hours of music per week – or as much as a full time job. And what are these songs that they are listening to? According to a report by The Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, a third of popular song lyrics deal with drugs and alcohol. This study did not report how many songs are discussing sex, which we know is one of the leading topics in pop song lyrics.
If we assume that an average song is about 3 minutes long, and teens are listening to 40 hours of music weekly, then they are listening to about 800 songs weekly. According to the statistics, that means a teen is getting over 266 references to drugs and alcohol every week, or about 7 references for every hour they listen to music. If your teen is listening to rap or heavy metal music, then the amount of references increases drastically.
But what influence do song lyrics really have on teens?
The debate about the influence of music on teens is nothing new. Musicians have been blamed for the corruption of youth even before Elvis and the Beatles hit the scene. Now that music lyrics are increasingly more explicit, music lyrics are getting even more bad press for corrupting youth. Everything from promiscuity, drug use and violence can be linked to music lyrics. The music group Marilyn Manson even got blamed for the Columbine shooting.
In the recent decades, problems like teen pregnancy and drug use have been in the rise. When a research team from University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine studied the popular songs from 2005 and compared them to recent popular songs, they found that the references to drugs, sex, and violence had increased. So, it isn’t hard not link music to the problems engulfing youth today.
Yet, we shouldn’t be too quick to dismiss song lyrics as the cause of youth corruption. In one study, it was discovered that only about 1/3 of teens know the lyrics to their favorite songs. The study also showed that the teens had varying comprehensions of the song lyrics.
Today’s teens are listening to even more music than the teens of the past. They also have much more access to music through MP3 players and the internet. It is nearly impossible for parents to control what their kids are listening to. Before parents rush to take away their kid’s MP3 players, they should be aware that listening to music is a healthy part of growing up. Teens connect with music and it helps them establish their identity and influences mood and memory.