Rap and Hip Hop Music is one of the major trends in music today. However, many parents disapprove of rap/hip hop music, while children, teens, and young adults have an undying love for it. Because?
Most parents want the best for their children, so they spend their days trying to make a better life for themselves and their loved ones. Parents were once young too, but later discovered that it is more beneficial to live a positive lifestyle than a negative one. They have come to understand that the path to constructive experiences begins with feeding the mind constructive ideas, learning good lessons, and following sensible instructions.
Therefore, most parents do not want their loved ones to have negative experiences, such as constant viewing of cruel images, repeated feelings of unnecessary pain, or repeated hearing of destructive words that are heard in some hip hop and rap songs. . For this reason, many rap and hip hop songs are disliked by parents due to harmful lyrical content. What’s more, they don’t appreciate the idea of harmful words entering the minds of their children, adolescents, or young adults.
On the other hand, kids, teens, and young adults love rap and hip hop music because of the powerful nature of the beat, while the flow of the lyrics spews out catchy phrases and clever metaphors. For the young at heart, hip hop and rap are more than just music, they’re a way of life. It is a wonderful combination of rhythm, rhetoric and hope. Children, adolescents and young adults from all over the world shake their heads emotionally to the rhythmic sounds of hip hop. They are inspired by the rhetorical flow of rap and hope to one day capture the financial success of the artists seen in the videos.
Although some of the lyrics in rap and hip hop music are derogatory in nature, not all of them are derogatory. Several hip hop and rap artists directly demean people, places, and things, while some rhyme about overcoming abysmal living conditions, peer hatred, poverty, and crime. Others speak of their financial success as an affirmation that they have come out of a life of dread. And, artists can use language they are familiar with — a curse word or two to express such experiences.
So I ask parents, children, adolescents and young adults, is there a balance?
Well, everyone knows that the mind is like a sponge, soaking up information like water from the very moment of human conception. In fact, the mind vividly records what is observed through sight, sound, touch, taste, smell, and imagination. As a result, what is recorded in our mind has an effect on our behavior. Yes, music also shapes our mindset!
Music is considered an art and a science for a very good reason! Experts in the fields of neuroscience, psychology, biology, physiology, physics, and education have worked alongside musicians to unravel the mysteries of music. Such research aims to understand the basic structure of music; its biological, emotional and psychological effect on humans and the brain; it is curative and altering potential; and its role in the evolutionary process. Music helps scientists understand complex functions of the brain and opens up treatments for patients recovering from strokes or suffering from Parkinson’s. Research even suggests that music can alter the structure of the brain.
Also, words have power, real energy. This is shown in the fact that music can move us, sadden us or inspire us. We get goosebumps when we hear a favorite tune, and the opening bars of an old-school song take us back to old memories. Throughout history, songs have been created with the intention of inspiring feelings of happiness, joy, praise, relaxation, anger, anguish, destruction, etc. Wow! Can music do all this?
The good news is that there is a balance. For parents, it is recommended not to disparage all rap and hip hop music. There are good, wholesome compositions that your little ones can enjoy, and you can feel confident that they are feeding their minds with sensible ideas.
And for children, teenagers and young adults, it is suggested that you be more aware of the type of rap and hip hop music you are listening to as it has an impact on the way you think.