| Music doesn't make you start hating or liking gay people. |
Music has a big affect on the lives of many young people. It can make us feel happy, it can make us feel sad and it can inspire us. But to what extent can lyrics influence our actions?
Youth crime has risen dramatically in recent years and some people like the former Minister for Culture, Kim Howells, have linked this to urban British music, such as garage. Dr Howell believes the lyrics in the music are too violent and says they’re to blame for many of the problems surrounding London’s teenagers, such as gun crime.
Last year, he went as far to call garage group So Solid Crew, “idiot macho rappers” who are “glorifying gun culture and violence.”
But it’s not only garage music which people think has a negative affect on young people. Reggae has also recently come under fire. Last month, reggae stars Beenie Man and Elephant Man were banned from attending The Music of Black Origin Awards (MOBOs) because they refused to apologise for homophobic lyrics in some of their tracks.
Gay activist group Out Rage! campaigned against the Jamaican reggae artists performing at the MOBOs, saying they “encourage and glorify the murder of gay people,” to their teenage fans.
But what do the teenage fans of urban music think? Do they believe lyrics in urban music have the power to influence their actions? And how fair is it to ban artists for their lyrics?
“It’s not good to promote violence and murder. I think that’s wrong,” says Sonti 13, from Camden. “But I don’t think they should have been banned from coming to the MOBOs. I don’t think their listeners take the lyrics as seriously as some people perceive they do. Music doesn’t make you start hating or liking gay people. If listeners are homophobic then they formed this viewsthemselves. I don’t think lyrics in music can change your point of view.”
Sonti says that when young people listen to music, the lyrics do not necessarily register in their brains: “I don’t think it makes you think ‘I’m going to go out and kill gay people.’ It’s other people around you who are likely to change your view.”
Keisha, 14, from Islington also disagrees with the recent actions taken against the reggae artists: “They were just speaking out their opinions. I don’t think it would affect people’s views on gays because most people have already established their views.”
She adds that stopping Beenie Man and Elephant Man from performing was unfair because artists like Eminem, who have also written similar lyrics, have not been stopped from going on stage.
Whilst the young people we spoke to thought lyrics in music didn’t influence their actions, there are artists in the industry who do acknowledge violent lyrics can have an impact on some young people.
Slim Dutty, a local hip hop rapper from Harlesden says: “I appreciate the music and the effort that garage artists are coming out with, it’s giving youths inspiration. But I think it’s too violent. They preach too much war and a lot of little kids are inspired by the music and that’s what they’re being inspired to play out and act out. So it’s got positive and negative sides.”
Slim is highly respected for the anti-gun stance he took at the peak of the black on black gun epidemic in his community during 2002. He’s particularly outspoken about the issue in his upcoming debut album The Story So Far.
But Slim believes the issue has been blown out of proportion and that those who are criticising urban music, don’t really understand the issues: “They need to go and spend a month or two living in an inner city area to see how we live. Then they’d understand the frustration of these youths and what they do is not down to the music. The music is a way of expressing ourselves and we’re expressing what we’re living.
“I feel like the government is trying to scandalise the music because a lot of black people are eating off that music. There was a time when garage was big and it was making a lot of black men rich. Due to that fact, the government stepped in to criminalise the whole movement. I am totally against that.”
Garage music has been around since the early 1990s but it’s only really taken off in the mainstream scene in the last few years, which was when it became linked with local gun crime.
One of the most publicised incidents happened at a New Years Eve party in 2003 where two Birmingham teenage were murdered in a shoot out. Kim Howells was quick to blame this on the UK garage scene. He was quoted in a newspaper at the time saying: “For years I have been very worried about these hateful lyrics,” and went on to single out the So Solid Crew.
Jodie Stewart, who works for Diffusion PR, a public relations company representing many UK garage artists, says: “I think garage was treated unfairly in the press. The media almost put all the problems and all the shootings and bad things that were happening in London down to UK garage, which is totally ridiculous.
“You can’t associate a type of music just the same way you can’t say it’s about films. Banning UK garage in West End clubs, which is practically what happened, was not the way to go about it. I think that was totally extreme and unfortunately once it started, it just got worse and started spreading across the country.”
Charlotte, a 17 year old from North London agrees: “I don’t think it fair to blame British gun crime on garage music. Say I listen to a violent song, it wouldn’t influence me to go and commit a violent crime. I think the artists are blamed because they’re easier to use as a scapegoat.”
Klarisse, 16 from North London says: “I started listening to garage about two or three years ago because I knew people who had radio sets and I’d listen to them on the radio. I don’t think the lyrics have had any affect on me whatsoever. I’ve always had an attitude, so you can’t say it’s got any better or worse since I’ve been listening to garage.
She adds that young people have enough sense to know that it’s not right to act violently and that the artists don’t mean it literally: “I’m not a violent person so it’s not like I’m going to go around boxing or shooting anybody just because I’m listening to garage.”
According to Alana, 17, from North London, the lyrics in garage music do sometimes talk about negative things but they don’t try and influence young people: “I think they’re just expressing what they can do and I think it’s good because it’s real and it’s the truth, so people should know about it.”
It’s clear that a lot of young people do think it’s unfair that the lyrics in urban music are blamed on the rise in youth crime. None of the young people we spoke to agreed with the views of Kim Howells and felt that there were so many more factors that needed to be considered when discussing what influences young people.
Yes some young people do carry weapons. And yes, a significant number of youth suicides are linked to homophobia. But who’s to say that this is all down to the “harsh” lyrics of British urban music. We just don’t know! Perhaps, as Slim Dutty points out, the government should take time to understand what it’s like for young people growing up in inner city areas. Maybe then they’d have second thoughts about blaming the artists who inspire us with their music.
About the team
This story was produced by Rhona Ezuma 15 and Jamie White 13. It was published by Reach for the Sky website.
