Rap Music and Rap Audiences: Controversial Themes, Psychological Effects and Political Resistance

Research on rap music has turned from a lack of attention to an alarmist examination of the genre. In the 1980s, rap music was seldom studied by scholars in the academic community (Dixon & Linz, 1997). Today rap has increasingly been considered a troubling form of musical expression related to a number of negative psychological outcomes (Barongan & Hall, 1995; Johnson, Adams, Ashburn & Reed, 1995; Johnson, Jackson & Gatto, 1995; Johnson, Trawalter & Dovidio, 2000; McLeod, Eveland & Nathanson, 1997). Although it is clear that rap and other forms of music do periodically contain misogynist and violent themes (Jones, 1997), research has not thoroughly addressed how rap music audiences respond to these themes. Furthermore, rap research has not fully identified which factors may moderate or mediate the negative effects associated with exposure to the music.