Games OK, Rap Baaad

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The latest entry in the scapegoat-department happens to be this Australian study. Video games aren't as 'bad' as television thanks to being more "cathartic." People actually can vent frustration when playing a game. Well, that really was an unknown aspect until now. Commenting on recent claims involving Rockstar's GTA series,  Douglas Lowenstein of the Entertainment Software Association states:

"Ninety per cent of teenagers between eight and 16 in the United States play video games," he said. "It would be much more surprising if a teenager committed a crime in the US and you found out they didn't play video games ..."
So far, so good. Blaming games "for purely aberrant, antisocial, clearly immoral behaviour is a cop-out." Blaming rap music, however, apparently isn't according to a British researcher. Despite or because of us actually not really getting the meaning.
The director of the Communications Research Group, Dr Guy Cumberbatch, said research revealed fans did not understand most of the lyrics, partly because they were specific to their culture.
And while we're at the 'blame game', a column in Germany's biggest yellow press outlet (and waste of paper) BILD recently claimed that racing games such as the mediocre, but successful 'Autobahn Raser' series (a poor man's Need for Speed) are at least partially responsible for young drivers violating laws and/or causing accidents. It would be less amusing though if the current issue of Computer-BILD Spiele, a BILD spin-off magazine, didn't feature a full copy of 'USA Raser'. And they obviously had several cover stories on the Raser series in the past as pointed out by various sites. Oh the irony.

Comments

OK, I'll bite: Rap is detrimental to the youth's mental health alright. The floor-crashing majority of it (i.e. mainstream), if not the whole thing, is plain sick and tasteless. In gaming analogies, it's Postal 2 plus Bikini Karate Babes, bottled at the source and sold to minors.

To be fair, cds are labelled mature.  Let's not blame the rap companies for what parents let their kids listen to and what they give them money to buy.  Also, not all rap is bad, yes, some is seriously messed up but some is pretty musical too.

If it didn't sell, it wouldn't continue to be made.