can have both aggressive and nonaggressive meanings.
In three of the experiments, the same seven violent songs were sung by the same seven artists to control for factors unrelated to lyric content, and in two of the experiments the researchers tested the arousal effects of the songs to determine if the violent lyric effect was due to differences in arousal (Anderson, Carnagey and Eubanks, 2003, 962-964). Individual personality differences relating to hostility were assessed and controlled. Songs with humorous lyrics were also included in the study to see how humor interacted with violent song lyrics and aggressive thoughts.
The results of this study showed that students listening to songs with violent lyrics gave more aggressive interpretations to ambiguous words, read aggressive vs nonaggressive words faster, and increased the number of word fragments which students filled in to make aggressive words (Anderson, Carnagey and Eubanks, 2003, 968). Listening to these violent lyrics made students have increased feelings of hostility without provocation or threat, and the effect was not related to the musical style, the artist or arousal properties of the song. Even humorous songs increased aggressive thoughts. This study is important because increased feelings of violence can translate to social situations and more aggressive verbal and physical responses than normal, and provoke antisocial behavior. More research is needed, say the authors, to see if the effects are short- or long-term, but it is evident that song content is important.
It is estimated that adolescents spend between four and five hours a day listening to music and viewing music videos (Youth, 2005). Forty-seven percent of mothers of children in public schools believe that rap music contributes significantly to school violence, and 66 percent of 13- to 17-year-olds believe that violence in music is partly responsible for violent crimes like the Columbi...