The Effects of Violent Urban Music on Adolescent Boys' Aggressive Behavior

This study investigated the effects of violent urban music, which includes Hip-Hop and rap, on 14 to 17-year-old boys’ aggressive behaviors. 236 respondents completed an online survey consisting of four measures: The Motives for Listening to Music questionnaire, Media Violence Exposure questionnaire, Aggression Scale, and demographic questionnaire. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to assess the interaction effect of exposure levels and preferred volume on physical and verbal aggression. The results of the hierarchical logistic regression analyses indicated that adolescents who reported listening to violent urban music at higher volume levels for three hours or less per week were more likely to exhibit physical or verbal aggression than those who reported listening to violent urban music at lower volume levels for over three hours per week. In contrast to earlier findings, however, no evidence of an association between hours of consumption of violent urban music and aggression was detected. These findings indicate that aggression levels among adolescent boys cannot be explained by hypotheses centered on violent media consumption rates alone; instead, many situational and personal factors may contribute to displays of aggressive behavior. More research is needed to examine how motivations (i.e., social, coping, and conformity) for listening to violent urban music mediate the effects of exposure on aggression.