Music videos glamorize violence and weapons, and MTV is the main culprit, according to a study published this week in an American Medical Association journal.
"A significantly higher percentage of music videos aired on MTV contained one or more episodes of violence or weapon carrying than the videos aired on other networks," says the study in the May issue of the AMA's Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.In total, the study says, violence occurs in nearly a quarter - 22.4 percent - of the videos on MTV, more than double the violence in videos on three other cable channels.
That figure apparently would have been higher if "concert" (performance) videos had not been included in the study along with "concept" (storytelling) videos.
The other channels in the study are VH1, which is a corporate sister of MTV, as well as Black Entertainment Television (BET) and Country Music Television (CMT).
An MTV spokeswoman promptly disputed the charge that her network depicts or encourages violence. She said MTV has not permitted videos with guns for at least two years.
One possible problem with the study is its age. Though it wasn't published until this week, it's based on analyses of 518 music videos televised in 1994.
Researchers looked only at the visual images in the videos, without regard to the messages in the music itself. Other findings:
- The rap genre had the highest incidence of violence (20.4 percent), followed by rock (19.8 percent).
- Incidences of weapon carrying were higher in rock (19.8 percent) and rap (19.5 percent) than in adult contemporary, R&B and country music.
- Among videos involving weapons, 15.1 percent portrayed a child carrying a weapon.
- Of the videos analyzed, the two with the most acts of violence were the Guns 'N Roses video for "Don't Cry" and a Beastie Boys spoof video, "You Gotta Fight for Your Right." Weapons were most prevalent in an Anthrax video, "Hy Pro Glo." All were on MTV.
- White Americans were depicted engaging in violence and weapon carrying in proportion to their prevalence in the general population. But blacks were significantly overrepresented as engaging in violence.
- Men were most frequently depicted behaving violently or carrying a weapon. But in 40.8 percent of the videos with violence, a woman was also portrayed engaging in violence.
- The videos with the strongest sexual content tended to be the least violent.
The study defined violence as "the overt expression of physical force or overt verbal abuse, with or without a weapon, against self or other, compelling action against one's will, resulting in pain, injury, or death."
That the study was conducted in 1994 could affect its credibility today. Some of the musical groups cited no longer exist, and there is no assurance that the study results could be duplicated in 1997.
Robert DuRant, a medical sociologist who headed the study at the Bowman Gray School of Medicine at Wake Forest University in North Carolina, said that the lag was due to the time needed to analyze the videos and to prepare the study for publication.
DuRant said he doubted that the content of music videos has changed for the better since 1994.