Science Asks (Again): Does The Rap Music Make You Hate Women? - Idolator Comments

Science Asks (Again): Does The Rap Music Make You Hate Women?

tristax — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 17:53:19 EST

So people listen to a catchy misogynistic track and then show a more misogynist attiude after the song? This is just priming. There is no study of the habitual effects of the music. I am prone to laughter after I listen to some comedy -- ugh.

tristax

Science Asks (Again): Does The Rap Music Make You Hate Women?

rad_matter — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 18:56:59 EST

I'm not surprised. State fans hated when Rashad McCants did the Jay-Z diamond sign while he was at Carolina.

rad_matter

Science Asks (Again): Does The Rap Music Make You Hate Women?

SuperUnison — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:30:13 EST

@doctaj: All my rape fantasies are set to I IV V progressions.

@Chris Molanphy: The caffeine wasn't working yet.

SuperUnison

Science Asks (Again): Does The Rap Music Make You Hate Women?

Chris Molanphy — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:38:43 EST

@Chris Molanphy: If I sound pissy in my comment above, it's just that this whole thing smells of another media shitstorm I lived through (and debated in college), the Ice-T/Body Count "Cop Killer" imbroglio of '92.

Back then, it was seemingly way, way too complicated for the media to explain how indisputable hip-hop figure Ice-T was drawing controversy for a song from his non-hip-hop side project, and hence the whole thing became a "rap vs. the rest of culture" battle. With a nasty racist overtone -- I guarantee you no one would have complained about "Cop Killer" if it had been a Dead Kennedys joint.

In the same way, I hate it when an act that flowed over a beat for two albums, then picked up instruments for two albums and tried to sound more like Bad Brains, are basically "rappers" for life.

Chris Molanphy

Science Asks (Again): Does The Rap Music Make You Hate Women?

Chris Molanphy — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:34:43 EST

Jeez, Idolator commentariat, this has been live for hours and no one has said it yet -- what is up with you people? Sleeping on the job? Okay, I'll say it:

How, exactly, is "Sabotage" a rap song?

Pause before you respond...

Yes, the Beasties came to prominence as a hip-hop act. (They started as a hardcore punk act, but never mind that...)

Yes, Ad-Rock is, at best, sing-talking in the song. Yes, it could be argued that he has some form of "flow."

But there's just no way the Beasties in their instrument-playing, heavy-thrashing, post-Check Your Head incarnation can be considered a traditional or even tangential hip-hop act. (If we were talking about something from the later Hello Nasty period I might buy it.)

Yes, I realize the song is used as a "control group" in this experiment, but any scientist will tell you: a worthy control is supposed to change one key element, in this case the elimination of misogynistic lyrics. To my mind, there are multiple key elements changed in the shift from "Kill You" to "Sabotage." A successful control would be something like, I dunno, "Mama Said Knock You Out"; or, even better, another, ho-hating-free Eminem song like "Lose Yourself."

I call bullshit on the execution, if not the premise, of this entire experiment.

Chris Molanphy

Science Asks (Again): Does The Rap Music Make You Hate Women?

FionaScrapple — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:05:18 EST

No, but it does make you hate melody, harmony, etc.

Which is a bad thing.

FionaScrapple

Science Asks (Again): Does The Rap Music Make You Hate Women?

doctaj — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 11:42:11 EST

ah, non-musicologists and how they only focus on lyrics....perhaps they would do well to note that "misogynist" reactions are consistent across lyrical content b/c gendered structures persist also (and most insidiously) at the level of musical form.

doctaj

Science Asks (Again): Does The Rap Music Make You Hate Women?

PengIn — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 11:39:30 EST

My research into this issue has revealed that the video for Sabotage is awesome. Wait, what were they studying again?

PengIn

Science Asks (Again): Does The Rap Music Make You Hate Women?

Lax Danja House — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 10:18:17 EST

I hope they thought to cross-reference the study with music that wasn't made by weasely high-pitched white rappers. These people could merely be responding to an overt racial inferiority complex.

Lax Danja House