I would be surprised if anyone is actually surprised by this:
Study finds U.S. music awash in booze and drugs
U.S. popular music is awash with lyrics about drugs, alcohol and tobacco. Medical researchers have reviewed the words of the 279 top songs of 2005 to estimate just how common they are.
Their report on Monday showed a third of the songs had explicit references to substance abuse. And two-thirds of these references placed drugs, alcohol and tobacco in a positive light by associating them with sex, partying and humor, according to the team led by Dr. Brian Primack of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
They calculated that with Americans aged 15 to 18 listening to 2.4 hours of music daily, they hear 84 musical references to substance use a day and more than 30,000 a year.
Source: Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSN0144737220080204?feedType=RSS&feedName=entertainmentNews
The article noted that 15-to-18-year-olds hear 30,000 references to substance abuse per year. If two-thirds of the references are from a pro-substance use perspective, then kids hear 20,000 such messages per year. Can it actually be that these references have no impact on kids? I'm not sure it's possible to completely prevent these messages from having any influence. To be sure, this is a good reminder to parents that they need to engage their kids in discussions about media influence and to be proactive in laying a solid foundation of morals and values.
To learn more about media influence and building healthy morals and values, click on the following article titles:
Keeping Your Kids Safe by Being Media-Wise
Building Healthy Morals and Values
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