SEXUAL & VIOLENT CONTENT
OF MUSIC: 1970-2004
Elizabeth Langdon, COM 633
Project Overview

RATIONALE

American adolescents listen to 1.5 hours of music each day
(Pardun et al, 2005) to as much as 4 hours each day
(Arnett, 2002)

98 percent of adolescents have access to radios, CD players
and MP3 players at home (Primack, 2009)

In 2003, young adults were responsible for one third of all
music sales (Recording Industry Association of America)
Project Overview

POINTS OF INTEREST

Across six media examined, music contained dramatically more
sexual content (40%) than any other medium (Pardun et al)

3% of TV sexual content and 4% of movie sexual content focused on
sexual intercourse, but 15% of the sexual content in music focused on
sexual intercourse (Pardun et al)

Content analyses of popular music from the 1940s to today have
consistently shown that between 70% and 90% of the songs contain
sexual themes (e.g., Arnett, 2002; Christenson & Roberts, 1998) and
that sexual lyrics are becoming increasingly explicit, focusing more
on casual sex and sexual acts rather than romantic innuendo
Project Overview

POINTS OF INTEREST

Among Billboard’sTop 100, from the years 1958-1998, eighty-one
songs had lyrics about love. Inductive coding showed that many of
the expressions of love in the lyrics were crass appeals to sex and
passion (Dukes, 2003)

Dukes (2003) found a relation between genre and whether or not
the song was a love song: 96% of R&B songs were love songs; 82%
of rock songs were love songs; but only 59% of rap/hip-hop songs
were love songs

Dukes (2003) also found a correlation between gender, time period
and sex words used in songs. The greatest average number of sex
words was used by black men (1991–1998), and the most
concentrated doses of sex words was used by women during the
period of 1976-1984
Project Overview

Research Questions

RQ1: Have song lyrics become more sexually explicit over time?

RQ2: Have song lyrics become more violent over time?

RQ3: Do trends in sexual content of lyrics and trends in societal
indicators of sexual attitudes correlate in important ways?

RQ4: Do trends in violent content of lyrics and trends in violent crime
rates correlate in important ways?

RQ5: Are there any correlations between sexual and violent content and
genre?

RQ6: Are there any correlations between sexual and violent content and
artist sex or age?
Project Overview

Sample

The overall population for this study is songs charting on Billboard’s
weekly Hot 100 lists for the years 1970 through 2004

A sampling frame was selected that included all songs peaking at #10
or higher on Billboard’s weekly Hot 100 charts for the years 1970
through 2004. The sampling frame consisted of 2,874 individual songs

The sampling frame was then separated into five-year time periods
defined as 1970-1974, 1975-1979, 1980-1984, 1985-1989, 19901994, 1995-1999, 2000-2004

A simple random sample of five songs was pulled from each of the 7
time periods, for a total of 35 songs. Random sampling was used again
to determine a sample of seven songs which all coders would analyze,
for a reliability assessment and finally to assign the remaining songs to
coders (each coder analyzed a unique set of seven additional songs)
Coding Scheme

Instructions

General Variables
 Genre,
Sex of Singer, Age of Singer, Titles, Artist
Names, Themes
 Medium-specific variable: Emotional tone of music
 “Music
does impact meaning. Hence, any method designed
to analyze music as a rhetorical form must consider the
dynamic interaction between lyrics and score to capture a
full meaning of the message” (Sellnow, 2001).
Coding Scheme

Conceptualization of Sex

Sex is defined as the sexual activities, practices or behaviors humans use
to express their sexuality

Includes those activities that involve only one’s self (e.g. masturbation) or
two or more people (e.g. intercourse, oral sex or mutual masturbation)

Includes activities between both heterosexual and homosexual
individuals, as well as activities between married partners, partners in
committed relationships, casual sex partners (including “friends with
benefits,” one-night stands) and anonymous partners (e.g. prostitutes)

Sex includes activities between partners who are sexually attracted to
one another, but also includes activities enacted with a partner strictly
for fun or pleasure (without commitment), obligation, sympathy, pity,
monetary gain, advantages gained, conception, or hate

Also includes activities performed under force or duress
Coding Scheme

Conceptualization of Sex

Foreplay activities include kissing on the mouth, with the tongue, on the
body; erotic massage; touching a partner’s primary or secondary sex
organs; sex talk (e.g. talking dirty); rubbing bodies together with or
without clothing; watching or reading erotica or pornography

Intercourse is defined as penile-vaginal sex (i.e. when a man's penis
enters a woman's vagina) or penile-anal sex (i.e. when a man’s penis
enters a woman’s, or another man’s anus)

Oral sex is defined as contact between mouth and genitals

Masturbation includes masturbation by one’s self, defined as touching
one’s genitals to feel sexual pleasure, as well as mutual masturbation,
defined as masturbating in front of a partner
Coding Scheme

Variables & Examples
 References
to Foreplay: Kiss You All Over by Exile
I wanna kiss you all over
And over again
I wanna kiss you all over
Till the night closes in
Till the night closes in
Coding Scheme
Coding Scheme

Variables & Examples
 References
to Intercourse: Tonight’s the Night by Rod
Stewart
C’mon angel my heart’s on fire
Don’t deny your man’s desire
You’d be a fool to stop this tide
Spread your wings and let me come inside
Coding Scheme
Coding Scheme

Variables & Examples
 References
to Oral Sex: You Oughta Know by Alanis
Morissette
I want you to know I'm happy for you
I wish nothing but the best for you both
An older version of me
Is she perverted like me
Would she go down on you in a theater?
Coding Scheme
Coding Scheme

Variables & Examples
 References
to Masturbation: I Touch Myself by
The Divinyls
I don't want anybody else
When I think about you I touch myself
I don't want anybody else
When I think about you I touch myself
I touch myself
Coding Scheme
Coding Scheme

Variables & Examples
 References
to Sexual Body Parts: Baby Got Back by
Sir Mixalot
I like big butts and I can not lie
You other brothers can't deny
That when a girl walks in with an itty bitty waist
And a round thing in your face, You get sprung
Coding Scheme
Coding Scheme

Variables & Examples

References to Infidelity: Torn Between Two Lovers by
Mary MacGregor
Let me hold you close and say these words as gently as I can
There's been another man that I've needed and I've loved
But that doesn't mean I love you less
And he knows he can't possess me and he knows he never will
There's just this empty place inside of me that only he can fill
Coding Scheme
Coding Scheme

Variables & Examples
 References
to Promiscuity: All I Wanna Do Is Make
Love to You by Heart
All I wanna do is make love to you
One night of love was all we knew
All I wanna do is make love to you
Come on say you will, you want me too
Coding Scheme
Coding Scheme

Variables & Examples
 References
to Prostitution: The Message by Grand
Master Flash & The Furious Five
The Zircon Princess seemed to lost her senses
Down at the peepshow, watching all the creeps
So she can tell the stories to the girls back home
She went to the city and got social security
She had to get a pimp, she couldn't make it on her own
Coding Scheme
Coding Scheme

Variables & Examples

References to Sexual Violence: Me and a Gun by
Tori Amos
It was me and a gun and a man on my back
And I sang "holy holy" as he buttoned down his pants
You can laugh, It's kind of funny
the things you think at times like these
Like I haven't seen Barbados, so I must get out of this
Coding Scheme
Coding Scheme

Variables & Examples
 References to Lover: My Boo by Usher & Alicia Keys
It started when we were younger, you were mine ( my boo )
Now another brother's takin’ over but it's still in your eyes ( my boo )
Even though we used to argue its alright ( my boo )
I know we haven't seen each other in awhile but you will always be
my boo
Coding Scheme
Coding Scheme

Variables & Examples

References to Refusal of Sex/Waiting for Sex/Abstinence:
Let’s Wait Awhile by Janet Jackson
When we get to know each other
And we're both feeling much stronger
Then let's try to talk it over
Let's wait awhile longer
Let's wait awhile
Before it's too late
Let's wait awhile
Before we go too far
Coding Scheme
Coding Scheme

Variables & Examples

Outcomes: Pregnancy: You’re Having My Baby by Paul
Anka & Odia Coates
You’re havin' my baby
What a lovely way of sayin‘ how much you love me
Havin' my baby
What a lovely way of sayin‘ what you're thinkin' of me
I can see it, face is glowin‘
I can see in your eyes
I'm happy, you know it
Coding Scheme
Coding Scheme

Variables & Examples
 Outcomes: STDs: Waterfalls by TLC
Little precious has a natural obsession
For temptation but he just can't see
She gives him loving that his body can't handle
But all he can say is baby it's good to me
One day he goes and takes a glimpse in the mirror
But he doesn't recognize his own face
His health is fading and he doesn't know why
Three letters took him to his final resting place
Coding Scheme
Coding Scheme

Conceptualization of Violence
 Violence
is defined as the use of physical aggression
against one or more people for the purpose of injuring
or otherwise harming them. Violence also includes
verbal or nonverbal aggression that indicates the
potential for physical harm and that is used against one
or more people to force them to action against their will
Coding Scheme

Variables & Examples
 Reference to Homicide: Cop Killer by Body Count
I got my black shirt on
I got my black gloves on
I got my ski mask on
This shit's been too long
I got my twelve gauge sawed off
I got my headlights turned off
I'm 'bout to bust some shots off
I'm 'bout to dust some cops off
Coding Scheme
Coding Scheme

Variables & Examples
 Reference to Physical Assault: Beat on the Brat by
The Ramones
Beat on the brat
Beat on the brat
Beat on the brat with a baseball bat
Oh yeah, oh yeah, uh-oh
Coding Scheme
Coding Scheme

Variables & Examples
 Reference to Robbery, etc.: The Message by Grand
Master Flash & The Furious Five
You say, "I'm cool, I'm no fool!"
But then you wind up dropping out of high school
Now you're unemployed, all non-void
Walking 'round like you're Pretty Boy Floyd
Turned stickup kid, look what you've done did
Got sent up for a eight year bid
Coding Scheme
Coding Scheme

Variables & Examples
 Reference to Violent Death of Another: Waterfalls by
TLC
A lonely mother gazing out of the window
Staring at a son that she just can't touch
If at any time he's in a jam she'll be by his side
But he doesn't realize he hurts her so much
But all the praying just ain't helping at all
'cause he can't seem to keep his self out of trouble
So he goes out and he makes his money the best way he knows how
Another body laying cold in the gutter
Coding Scheme
Coding Scheme

Variables & Examples
 Reference to Use of Gun: Cop Killer by Body Count
I got my black shirt on
I got my black gloves on
I got my ski mask on
This shit's been too long
I got my twelve gauge sawed off
I got my headlights turned off
I'm 'bout to bust some shots off
I'm 'bout to dust some cops off
Coding Scheme
Coding Scheme

Variables & Examples
 Reference to Use of Blunt or Sharp Weapon:
Beat on the Brat by The Ramones
Beat on the brat
Beat on the brat
Beat on the brat with a baseball bat
Oh yeah, oh yeah, uh-oh
Coding Scheme
Coding Scheme

Variables & Examples
 Outcomes: Death: Cop Killer by Body Count
I'm a cop killer, better you than me
Cop killer, fuck police brutality
Cop killer, I know your family's grieving (fuck ‘em)
Cop killer, but tonight we get even, ha ha
Coding Scheme
Coding Scheme

Variables & Examples
 Outcomes: Arrest/Imprisonment: 99 Problems by Jay-Z
The only thing that's gonna happen is I'ma get to clappin
He and his boys gon be yappin to the captain
And there I go trapped in the kit kat again
Back through the system with the riff raff again
Fiends on the floor scratchin again
paparazzi's with they cameras snappin them
D.A. tried to give the nigga shaft again
Half-a-mil for bail cause I'm African
All because this fool was harrasin' them
Coding Scheme
Class Assessment

Think of your favorite songs, or other songs
that came to mind during this
presentation...
WHAT DID I LEAVE OUT?
Class Assessment

Other suggestions or questions?