These are my unfettered thoughts, provided with no supporting data: (I am usually willing to go the distance to support my opinions, but this is more in the realm of "What if?)"
While I shudder to think of rap as
music, it falls into the realm.
Like all music, it is a result of a variety of forces. Of course, it often reflects the sensibilities of the times, and is often nothing much more than a marketing effort (Brittany Spears, anyone?)
But let us not forget that it provides an outlet for all of the emotions, including (but not limited to) love, rage, and rebellion. Does anyone remember how our parents felt about Elvis? They shuddered. And then, folk music and its progression into "protest" music? And, I'm here to tell you that Bob Dylan was not making fans of the over 30 crowd for the first several years.
Who of you are old enough to remember the drug songs of the 60s and 70s? Our parents were understandably concerned. Listening to he music, you'd have thought we were all going to die of drug overdose at the very least. And we listened to it with glee and joy, and with a certain guilty pleasure; that we were living a life that our parents forbid.
While many of us did the drugs, most of us didn't do them to the degree that the music suggested, and the musicins implored, if you will, by thier life-styles. Damned few of us went the way of Joplin and Hendrix, or for many of the others who were into coke and heroin, etc. (or at least we did not go all the way.)
I think the same is now true of rap. Sure, there's a lot of disrespect and hate in it, but reading between the lines, at least from most of what I've heard, it is almost a parody of a life style, of what we "older folk" fear. As much as anything, they are making fun of us and our sensibilities. Of course that's not all that's happening, but it is part of it. Kids simply want to do something, anything, that their parents dislike, particularly if they don't believe it will harm them.
Who's to say what harm is done, at least how much? And who is to say it would no have simply taken another form?
Kids died from drug overdoses in the 60s and 70s to be sure, and some of them were living beyond their capacities "because" at least in part, of the music itself. But we more or less survived. Many of those that were harmed might well have simply been into booze and fast cars instead of drugs. Who knows what else?
Some kids will certainly exhibit violence that was influenced by the songs they hear. But there's a LOT more going on behind that violence than rap.
Rap, at most, only serves to enforce what's already festering. I would not be surprised if rap actually does more good than harm, by providing an outlet for the angst that kids feel, so they don't keep it bottled up. By listening to it, they can keep it at bay, let it out slowly, and learn to deal with it.
For some, it's just a feeling they get from the songs, just as Dylan often didn't really make any sense, but we "got" the feeling of the song, and loved it. He mixed truth with nonsense for an emotional ride that had no par. And there was no shortage of imagery that offended the sensibilities of the elders.
Back to today, sure, we've had school shootings, and some of the shooters undoubtedly listened to rap. But I'd be willing to bet that they were bombs waiting to blow regardless of the music they listened to. Our societal probems go much deeper than our musical content.
Kids will probably listen to music thier parents hate forever. They will until we learn how to rise above the darker aspects of our human nature, and how to impart that to our young at a very early age. I don't see it unfolding that way, yet.
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