The threatening nature of “rap” music

Bibliographic Data

ID6111139
AuthorsAdam Dunbar (0000-0002-1560-104X, University of California, Irvine), Charis E Kubrin (0000-0002-0600-0875, University of California, Irvine), Nicholas Scurich (0000-0001-6370-9189, University of California, Irvine)
Year2016
Volume22
Issue3
Pages280-292
Publication date2016-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePsychology Public Policy and Law (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1076-8971 • E-ISSN: 1939-1528
PublisherAmerican Psychological Association (APA) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1037/law0000093
OpenAlexW2513507440
LanguageEN
Citations received17

Rap music has had a contentious relationship with the legal system, including censorship, regulation, and artists being arrested for lewd and profane performances. More recently, rap lyrics have been introduced by prosecutors to establish guilt in criminal trials. Some fear this form of artistic expression will be inappropriately interpreted as literal and threatening, perhaps because of stereotypes. Only a handful of studies have examined whether rap lyrics are evaluated using stereotypes, yet these studies were conducted in the 1990s-a period of heightened scrutiny for rap-and used nonoptimal methods. This study presents 3 experiments that examine the impact of genre-specific stereotypes on the evaluation of violent song lyrics by manipulating the musical genre (rap vs. country) while holding constant the actual lyrics. Study 1, a direct replication of previous research, found that participants deemed identical lyrics more literal, offensive, and in greater need of regulation when they were characterized as rap compared with country. Study 2 was a conceptual replication (i.e., same design but different stimuli), and again detected this effect. Study 3 used the same approach but experimentally manipulated the race of the author of the lyrics. A main effect was detected for the genre, with rap evaluated more negatively than country or a control condition with no label. However, no effects were found for the race of the lyrics' author nor were interactions were detected. Collectively, these findings highlight the possibility that rap lyrics could inappropriately impact jurors when admitted as evidence to prove guilt

Art · Harm · Literature · Lyrics · Musical · Offensive · Political science · Scrutiny · Singing · Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection · Law · Music and Audio Processing · Music History and Culture · Psychology · Social Psychology

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