The DOI matches its Crossref record; 29 of the 29 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Who's Afraid of Rap: Differential Reactions to Music Lyrics1
Abstract
This research examines the recent public outcry against violent rap songs. It was hypothesized that rap music receives more negative criticism than do other types of music, regardless of the actual content of the lyrics. Participants read a violent lyrical passage and were led to believe that it was either a rap song or a country song. They then responded to how offensive and dangerous they thought the song was. The results support the hypothesis. When a violent lyrical passage was represented as a rap song, reactions to the lyrics were significantly more negative. Age, whether or not the participants had children, and the participants’ music tastes and buying habits were all significantly related to whether or not this biased judgment occurred. The findings are briefly discussed in terms of various models of racism and stereotyping.
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“the police, prosecutors and judges translate drill music videos into incriminating evidence in ways that put an entire music genre on trial”
From Copping the blame: the role of YouTube videos in the criminalisation of UK drill music (2022) · cites this paper as Fried, 1999
In the citing paper
“The arguments that such cases are usually based on involve a matter-of-factly presentation of drill-related material - without adequately interrogating the artistic, literary or fictional nature of the 'evidence' that is brought before judges and jurors.”
From Copping the blame: the role of YouTube videos in the criminalisation of UK drill music (2022) · cites this paper as Fried, 1999
In the citing paper
“As such, what is fictional or literary is (mis)judged as factual or literal by legal penal professionals and jurors who are rarely conversant with the music's genre norms (Fried, 1999; Dunbar and Kubrin, 2018; Stoia et al ., 2018; Nielson and Dennis, 2019).”
From Copping the blame: the role of YouTube videos in the criminalisation of UK drill music (2022) · cites this paper as Fried, 1999
In the citing paper
“leading legal professionals (Garden Court), defence counsels, the expert witnesses they instruct, or social scientists, rap experts and legal scholars who insist that rap should be used with extreme caution in the courtroom, if at all”
From Copping the blame: the role of YouTube videos in the criminalisation of UK drill music (2022) · cites this paper as Fried, 1999
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Hargrave, A. M., & Livingstone, S. (2006) · London School of Economics and Political Science Research Online (London School of Economics and Political Science) · Cited by 117
Venkatesh, V., Davis, F. D., & Zhu, Y. (2023) · International Journal of Information Management · doi:10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2023.102644 · Cited by 99
Music genre as cognitive schema: extramusical associations with country and hip-hop music
Shevy, M. (2008) · Psychology of Music · doi:10.1177/0305735608089384 · Cited by 75
“Fried (1996, 1999) found that people were more critical of song lyrics when they were told the lyrics were from a rap song or black artist as opposed to a country song or white artist.”
BackgroundA Feminist Analysis of Popular Music
Bretthauer, B., Zimmerman, T. S., & Banning, J. H. (2007) · Journal of Feminist Family Therapy · doi:10.1300/j086v18n04_02 · Cited by 70
“Previous research on lyrics suggests that information regarding the genre of music significantly influences reactions to the lyrics (Fried, 1999).”
BackgroundBlame It on Hip-Hop: Anti-Rap Attitudes as a Proxy for Prejudice
Reyna, C., Brandt, M. J., & Viki, G. T. (2009) · Group Processes & Intergroup Relations · doi:10.1177/1368430209102848 · Cited by 50
“This strong association between stereotypes of rap and stereotypes of Blacks has led several social scientists to speculate that anti-rap attitudes are really anti-Black attitudes in disguise (e.g. Fried, 1999; Noe, 1995).”
BackgroundRap Music in Social Work Practice with African-American and Latino Youth
Tyson, E. H. (2004) · Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment · doi:10.1300/j137v08n04_01 · Cited by 49
Kubrin, C. E., & Nielson, E. (2014) · Race and Justice · doi:10.1177/2153368714525411 · Cited by 50
“As Fried (1999) hypothesized, responses were significantly more negative when the lyrics were represented as rap, essentially revealing that ‘‘[t]he same lyrical passage that is acceptable as a country song is dangerous and offensive when identified as a rap song’’ (pp. 715–716).”
BackgroundTupac Shakur: Understanding the Identity Formation of Hyper-Masculinity of a Popular Hip-Hop Artist
Iwamoto, D. K. (2003) · The Black Scholar · doi:10.1080/00064246.2003.11413215 · Cited by 44
“Tupac Shakur: Understanding the Identity Formation of Hyper-Masculinity of a Popular Hip-Hop Artist H IP HOP AND "GANGSTA RAP" have been widely criticized by the public as well in numerous political (liberal and conservative) and religious arenas (Fried, 1999).”
Background(2006) · Teaching of Psychology · doi:10.1207/s15328023top3301_9 · Cited by 40
McFarland, P. (2008) · University of Texas Press eBooks · doi:10.7560/718029 · Cited by 39
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Marshall, S. R., & Naumann, L. P. (2018) · Journal of Research in Personality · doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2018.07.008 · Cited by 36
Tragic Narratives in Popular Culture: Depictions of Homicide in Rap Music1
Hunnicutt, G., & Andrews, K. H. (2009) · Sociological Forum · doi:10.1111/j.1573-7861.2009.01122.x · Cited by 31
Neguţ, A., & Sârbescu, P. (2013) · Musicae Scientiae · doi:10.1177/1029864913499180 · Cited by 24
“Similar results are supported by the labeling effect (Fried, 1996; 1999; North & Hargreaves, 2005).”
BackgroundResultDabney, D. A., Teasdale, B., Ishoy, G. A., Gann, T., & Berry, B. (2017) · Justice Quarterly · doi:10.1080/07418825.2017.1382557 · Cited by 24
“Studies show that members of the public associate rap artists (Dunbar, Kubrin, & Scurich, 2016), lyrics (Fischoff, 1999; Fried, 1999), and fans (Fried, 2003) with social threat and violence more so than they do other music genres.”
BackgroundDunbar, A., & Kubrin, C. E. (2018) · Journal of Experimental Criminology · doi:10.1007/s11292-018-9342-6 · Cited by 24
“Because much of this research is theoretical, only a handful of empirical studies have demonstrated that rap music is uniquely viewed as threatening (Fischoff 1999; Fried 1996, 1999), obscene (Dixon and Linz 1997), and literal (Dunbar 2018; Dunbar et al. 2016).”
BackgroundResultCopping the blame: the role of YouTube videos in the criminalisation of UK drill music
Schwarze, T., & Fatsis, L. (2022) · Popular Music · doi:10.1017/s0261143022000563 · Cited by 18
“…they instruct, or social scientists, rap experts and legal scholars who insist that rap should be used with extreme caution in the courtroom, if at all (Fried 1999; Dennis 2007; Kubrin and Nielson 2014; Nielson and Dennis 2019; Fatsis 2019b; Lutes et al. 2019; Ilan 2020; Owusu-Bempah 2020;…”
BackgroundInfluentialStoia, N., Adams, K., & Drakulich, K. (2017) · Race and Justice · doi:10.1177/2153368716688739 · Cited by 19
“In a famous experiment, Fried (1996; also Fried, 1999, and see the successful 2016 replication by Dunbar, Kubrin, & Scurich) presents lyrics containing violent and criminal content from an old folk song (the Kingston Trio’s “Bad Man’s Blunder”) to subjects, representing them as folk, country, or…”
Connecting Black youth to critical media literacy through hip hop making in the music classroom
Evans, J. M. (2020) · Journal of Popular Music Education · doi:10.1386/jpme_00020_1 · Cited by 18
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Negative Emotion Responses to Heavy-Metal and Hip-Hop Music with Positive Lyrics
Susino, M., & Schubert, E. (2019) · Empirical Musicology Review · doi:10.18061/emr.v14i1-2.6376 · Cited by 20
“Replicating a study conducted by Fried (1999), Dunbar and colleagues tested whether listeners presented with lyrics labelled as rap were perceived as more threatening, dangerous and in need of regulation in comparison to identical lyrics labelled as country.”
BackgroundMulti-Emotion Classification for Song Lyrics
Edmonds, D., & Sedoc, J. (2021) · Cited by 15
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Dunbar, A. (2019) · Sociology Compass · doi:10.1111/soc4.12732 · Cited by 18
“In particular, individuals judge lyrics to be more threatening, offensive, and literal when they are identified as rap compared to when identical lyrics are identified as a different genre (Dunbar et al., 2016; Fried, 1996; Fried, 1999).”
Hong, M., Liang, D., & Lu, T. (2023) · Behavioral Sciences · doi:10.3390/bs13090739 · Cited by 14
“Conversely, presenting the lyrics differently in the absence of music might generate unique cognitive processes that draw attention to the content of the lyrics [39].”
BackgroundProsecuting Rap: What Does the Case Law Tell Us?
Owusu-Bempah, A. (2022) · Popular Music · doi:10.1017/s0261143022000575 · Cited by 17
The Effect of Background Music on the Perception of Personality and Demographics
Lastinger, D. L. (2011) · Journal of Music Therapy · doi:10.1093/jmt/48.2.208 · Cited by 10
“(Fried 1996; Fried 1999; McCrary, 1993) Fried & Fried were able to show that subjects were more critical of music lyrics if they were told that the song was of the rap genre or from a black performer.”
BackgroundArt or Confession?: Evaluating Rap Lyrics as Evidence in Criminal Cases
Dunbar, A. (2018) · Race and Justice · doi:10.1177/2153368717749879 · Cited by 14
“…research has demonstrated that violent song lyrics are rated as more threatening when presented as rap compared to country (Dunbar et al., 2016; Fried, 1996, 1999) and that reading a person’s violent rap lyrics can result in harsher evaluations of that person’s character than learning that the…”
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Metadata
- Authors
- Fried, C. B.
- Affiliations
- Indiana University South Bend (US)
- Corresponding author
- Fried, Carrie B.
- Venue
- Journal of Applied Social Psychology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 1999-04
- Volume
- 29
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 705-721
- ISSN
- 0021-9029 (ISSN-L)
- 1559-1816
- OpenAlex
- W1987751494
- Cited by
- 49
- References
- 28
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 2 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 3
- FWCI
- 9.84
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Applied Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Music › Music History and Culture
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Crime, Deviance, and Social Control
- Keywords
- rap music, song lyrics, racial bias, stereotyping, music taste, age differences, having children
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