Effects of Hip-Hop Music on Listeners

In Nigerian research, Ladi & Omobowale (2011) emphasize on the negative implications of Nigeria genre of hip-hop music which comprises multilingualism on normative values of the Nigerian youths. According to Ladi and Omobowale (2011, p. 469), hip-hop music is fast becoming a major source of income for the promoters, artistes and the even the marketers within the industry. The federal and state governments are also beneficial in terms of tax collections from the musicians and the marketers. The seeming high consumption of the music, as argued by Adeyemi (2009) caused the electronic media in the country to give space and time to air more of the multilingual hip-hop than its international counterpart.

According to Price (2007) and Bennett (1999), as cited in Ladi and Omobowale (2011), hip-hop music has the potential to attract into its fold diverse youths of different races, classes, ethnics, beliefs. Nigerian youths have really displayed this trait in the sense that Igbo youths listen to music of Olamide, Wizkid, Tiwa Savage who are from the south-west.

So also, the Yorubas listening to music of Flavour, Phyno, Cynthia Morgan and so on, both in the urban and rural areas.

Dunu and Ugbo (2015) conducted a study through a content analysis to determine the increasingly hyper-sexualized portrayals of women in popular music portend to the young Nigerian women by critically analyzing musical lyrics of one of the popular Nigerian male hip-hop artistes (Flavour). The authors affirm that the Nigerian musical popular lyrics in particular can help detail any potential effects on young women to both their benefit and detriment.

Get quality help now

writer-Charlotte

Verified

Proficient in: Hip Hop Culture

4.7 (348)

“ Amazing as always, gave her a week to finish a big assignment and came through way ahead of time. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

The perceptions of respondents were diametrically polarized along the divides of healthy sexualized self-expression resulting in empowerment and co-optation to perform resulting in exploitation and debasement. The outcome of their research shows the disparity and uncertainty in women’s perceptions of gender representation in musical popular culture. Their study also shows that most Nigerian women readily recognize offensive portrayals in hip-hop music but remain indifferent to the same (Dunu & Ugbo 2015, p.50).

Albert (2013) examines a study conducted in 2008 on the “dissertation on the influence of rap music on the Nigerian youth.” The study showed that out of 250 youths that were interviewed, about 62% see the lyrics of the music to be more significant than the beats, while 75% of the youths interviewed reveal that hip-hop music is incomplete if women do not dance in a provocative sexual way. For instance, music video of ‘Enter the place’ by 2 face Idibia shows women in shameful manner which contradicts the lyrics of the video. Albert (2013) asserts that the contradiction between the lyrics and video of this song condemns the use of derogatory words against womanhood. The study shows how misrepresentation women’s sexuality is dangerous to the society. Many artistes are doing their videos with women dancing and revealing their sexuality for money and popularity but not conscious of the negative implications towards womanhood.

Furthermore, Spark (2014) believes that popular music generally is a means of expressing oneself. The study explained the different between been sexualized and healthy sexuality, that is, when girls or women see their bodies as something that could give them money or use to attract praises from the opposite sex it is sexualization and this may eventually lead to low-self-esteem and depression. However, healthy sexuality brings forth intimacy which leads to positive feelings. Spark (2014) concludes that objectification of women sexuality in popular culture is a healthy self-expression of female sexuality, that is, it has positive effects on the person that objectifies.

Objectification researchers have demonstrated that the media likely provide not only an important socializing function for the development of a trait level of self-objectification (Aubrey, 2006), but also a key for eliciting condition in temporarily activating a state level of self-objectification (Aubrey, Henson, Hopper, & Smith, 2009; Harper & Tiggermann, 2009; Harrison & Fredrickson, 2003).

Szymanski, et al (2011) breaks the objectification theory into two main paths based on how woman is affected. The first path is direct and overt and involves sexual objectification experiences. The second path is indirect and subtle which involves women’s internalization of sexual objectification experiences—self-objectification (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). According to Szymanski, et al (2011, p. 8), Fredrickson and Roberts (1997) proclaim that women to a certain degree internalize their outside view and begin to self-objectify by treating themselves as an object to be looked at and evaluated on the basis of appearance. A female self-objectification comes up when a woman places greater emphasis on her body attributes by watching and experience her body parts accordingly (see Szymanski, et al. 2011; Noll & Fredrickson, 1998).

Despite the various effects of the objectification of women’s sexuality in hip-hop music on the listeners, this present research is keen also about how the objectification affects the conception of womanhood among the Nigerian female listeners.