This study is about the effect of effects of sexual content in music; more specifically whether the sexual references were lude or "degrading". The abstract starts out very bluntly with the statement that "Popular music may contribute to early sex" (Steven e430). This study went into further depth when addressing whether or not the sexual content of the song was degrading to any degree. On this note the conclusion is that youth engaging in "music with degrading sexual lyrics [are] related to advances in a range of sexual activities among adolescents, whereas this does not seem to be true of other sexual lyrics" (Steven e431). The report elaborates that the sexual references in music have become more and more direct and literal, and hence are not as easily over looked. Furthermore, the study exposed that there is a very loose definition of sex in today's culture. The researchers had to tell the adolescents that "By sex [they] mean when a boy puts his penis in a girl's vagina"; an extremely direct and clarifying question (Steven e433).
The exposure to the effects of music also are examined even when the actual sound of the music has not been observed by the subject. The movement that music can create and the culture that it is able to amass have a profound effect on individuals. Because of this wide spectrum through which music can be spread and it message that it can carry with it other factors play a major part in the distribution of this music. Some of these categories included "age, race, gender, social background, where youth are in their sexual development, and how involved they are in the music to which they listen" (Steven e439). Overall the research was interesting and made many good points; however the outside factors that were mentioned factor into a youth's sexual activity monumentally and those variables simply cannot be ignored.
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