Bad rep for rap - Short Stuff - rap music's influence

Girls' Life, June-July, 2003

Nelly's pumped-out new video got ya rap juices flowing? Ever wonder if hour upon hour of music video watching has any effect other than making your hip-hop dance skills off the hook? For a year, a group of researchers studied 522 14- to 18year-old girls who regularly watched rap videos. The study found that girls who watched the most rap vids per week were more likely to take drugs, get arrested and catch STDs.

So what is it about rap videos that makes girls go wild? "It could be that they're seeing what other girls are doing in these videos and modeling what they see," says Gina Wingood, study co-author and associate professor of behavioral sciences and health education at Emory University. "They think that this is how you're supposed to be. This is the norm." Another key factor is a lack of parental supervision among the girls who watched rap more often. So, next time your'e getting down to your fave count down and Nelly croons, "I think I need to let fever. But don't get it loose ," sure, get dance all wrapped up in a more fake than it is glam.