“The largest sampling of music video content to date reveals a disturbing amount of violence”
To what extent is violence used in rap/grime music videos, such as those featuring K Koke, and should audiences be protected from it through censorship?
A recent study suggests "Teens who spend more time watching the sex and violence depicted in the "reel" life of "gangsta" rap music videos are more likely to practice these behaviours in real life."Despite this, over the years, regulation and censorship has become relaxed. Rap/Grime music has been associated with violence due to the connotations of violence in these music videos that the audience perceives. The representations of rap and grime music in music videos has caused continued debates and controversies within the media and has led to the media questioning whether audiences should be protected from all of this through censorship. However, rappers themselves are against censorship as they believe there music is the only way to express themselves, especially Tupac as he is believed to be one of the best rappers of all time, so is a role model amongst younger rappers. “Tupac directly attacks the demand for censorship in his song “Rebel of the Underground”: “They trying to keep me out; Try to censor what I say; because they don't like what I'm talking about; so what's wrong with the media today?”Censorship allows parts of music videos to be edited and cut out, making it safe for audiences to view music videos without the violent content that may not be appropriate for the public to view, however despite this Tupac has been against this and rappers today have followed his views and are against censorship themselves. Rap music originated from the music genre of Hip Hop and is also referred to as ‘Gangsta Rap’. The sub genre reflected the violent lifestyles of inner-city American black youths. Hip Hop music and Gangsta Rap was very popular outside the USA, particularly in the United Kingdom and so another sub genre originated under Hip Hop in the UK. It was called Grime music. This was the UK's answer to Hip Hop/Rap music. Grime music first emerged from Bow, East London and since then has had a lot of controversy surrounding it, due to the connotations of music videos from this genre such as violence. "Senior members of the Metropolitan Police have laid the blame for a surge in violence in recent years outside club nights – particularly East London events associated with grime, the British rap genre – on videos showcasing violence and thuggery."The media have blamed music such as grime for the rise in crime and have caused this urban music genre to be very controversial and led to regulation and censorship becoming an important aspect when relating to this type of music. "Grime music videos have been criticised by politicians and also artists within the Grime scene, for their violent content. In a move to censor this, Channel AKA has with the pressure from the police begun to shift through grime videos, being highly selective with the ones that are broadcast." Even though channels such as Channel AKA being censored and regulated, however, it is no longer effective as due to the rise in technology, people are able to access uncensored music videos. Moral panics have been created from the content the channel shows, due to the amount of violence that is publicised in their music videos, giving a reason for audiences to be protected from violence in music videos, as “surveys conclude that music videos are watched by a majority of teenagers.” This has helped with the protection of audiences through censorship as "TV realism, is far removed from actual reality. Witnessing a drive-by shooting in the flesh would probably make us physically sick or scar us for life, whereas witnessing it every night on TV, we hardly bat an eyelid."In spite of this, the government’s efforts of censoring and regulating is not as effective enough because a lot of people watch music videos online and if it is not shown on television, people will find a way to view these music videosespecially teenagers, as they are the generation that use the internet most frequently. Rap/Grime music and violence have become heavily associated with each other over the years. This is because there is an increasing amount of violent acts shown in music videos of these genres that audiences such as teenagers are seen at risk from these types of music videos. However theorist George Gerbner found that “crime on TV was ten times worse than crime in the real world.” This agrees with the statement that audiences should be protected through censorship, as the content the media displays is not always what is in the real world and so creates ideologies inside the minds of its audiences that violence is out there and encourages audiences to get involved with violent activities. For example rapper ‘Lil Wayne’ has recently come out of prison after serving eight months for a gun-related charge. This distinguishes a link between music and violence as the rappers who make this type of music such as ‘Lil Wayne’ who is a role model for some, is carrying weapons and to their audiences make it look like it is okay to do so and by doing this it connotes one thing; violence. This goes against "In terms of this latter, George Gerbner’s findings, as “Gerbner found that crime on TV was ten times worse than crime in the real world." This is because as a role model like Lil Wayne has been in prison, audiences, children and teens especially will think it is acceptable to commit crime as, this is a real scenario and is not seen on TV or a music video. The link between violence and rap music has emerged, taking into consideration ‘Lil Wayne’s prison sentenceand suggests that rap music should be censored. This is because music videos as well as the lyrics connote violence for example in N-Dubz’s – Love For My Slum, “Dappy fixes his stare alternately on the camera and the "rich boy" (so labelled earlier in the track). His lyrics combine jealousy with anger: "You got too much to lose/ You're in a great position... You wouldn't last a minute where I'm from/ you’d go missing/ so appreciate what you got/ 'cos I'm still waiting." And then he grabs the rich kid by his coat, pulls him toward him, and punches him in the face. The silent boy falls instantly to the pavement. The whole scene lasts less than 10 seconds.” Scenes like these suggest that music videos are creating ideologies that are encouraging viewers to engage in violent acts and therefore create a meaning for music videos such as these to be strictly censored, as moral panics are appearing due to violence being associated with this type of genre. This links with the hypodermic needle theory as the content in the N-Dubz video is injected into the minds of the viewer’s making it okay for them to go on and follow this act from the video into reality, as the ideologies within the music video encourage them to do so. "Rap music is by no means the only form of expression for some people.”Due to this, rap music is heavily criticised and has led to rappers expressing themselves in ways that may not be appropriate for certain members of the public such as children and teenagers. This is because “everyone loves children; children need to be protected from the dangers of the world, including representations of violence and sex.”“So currently, there is no one single body who takes responsibility for regulation, control and censorship of new media inthe UK.” Due to this fact, this makes it even harder for children to be protected from music videos containing violence. However, parents themselves can censor and regulate what their children view on TV’s. “There is now a special microchip in most TV's that allows parents to control the content of what they allow their children to watch. Satellite and cable receivers also have a chip that blocks specific channels and programs.”This allows parents to control the content of what music videos they allow their children to watch. As, audiences are able to control what their children watch, this creates less meaning for audiences to be protected through censorship from rap music videos. Rap music has caused various moral panics n society. One of which is that rap music videos are having a bad effect on audiences. According to a study published by the American Psychological Association: “songs with violent lyrics increase aggression related thoughts and emotions and this effect is directly related to the violence in the lyrics.”However, this is no surprise as “Eighty percent of the rap music that is currently on the top ten lists around the world contains violence. They glorify the acts of beating up another person, or even worse shooting them.” Due to facts such as these, this connotes that there is no surprise as to why moral panics are being created, as, the public are concerned about the content that their children are viewing. Nevertheless, “most parents are concerned about what their young children see and hear, but as children get older, parents pay less attention to the music and videos that hold their children’s interest.” This connotes that audience should be protected through censorship from violent rap music videos, as children may view content that may cause harm to them or someone else in reality as they may think it is acceptable for them to carry out these actions of criminality. This is because, they have seen them to be okay in rap music videos. One media theory that can help explains whether the amount of violence in music videos should be censored, to protect the audience or not is the hypodermic needle theory.“The media is a dangerous means of communicating an idea because the receiver or audience to powerless to resist the impact of the message. People end up thinking what they are told because there is no other source of information.” As the stereotypical connotations of rap music videos consist of; sex, violence, gangs etc. This only leads to a negative effect on audiences as the audience have no choice but to believe what they see as the rappers in the music videos are what they see as their role models as, “children learn from the role models they see and hear.” This links in with the hypodermic needle theory the violence depicted in music videos is injected into audiences’ minds and therefore, audiences believe it is okay for criminality such as anti-social behaviour. So, this theory connotes that audiences should be protected from violence in music videos through censorship due to the typical stereotypical representations of rappers (role models) in music videos. In conclusion, I believe that there is a large amount of violence in rap music including the lyrics and the content in the videos, despite this audience are not being protected from this violent content through censorship. However, it has impacted on the rap music genre. “Censorship has become a big thing to rap music over the past few years. People are trying to change the image of rap and the message that it sends to everyone who listens. The message is seen as a negative because degrading words and phrases have become popular to use within the rap music industry.”Nevertheless, censorship has not impacted rap music as much, because people are still able to access uncensored rap music videos via the internet and so audiences are not being protected from this especially as "children and young people are seen as both the perpetrators and victims of anti-social behaviour - they become the excuse for politicians and policy makers to impose stricter laws and tighter regulations on new forms of media and popular culture.” This is despite rap music being highly associated with violent scenes in music videos and violent lyrics. Due to this, I believe, audiences need to be protected from the violence in rap music videos through censorship, as it could have effects on the viewers’ real life.
