The phonograph, which was invented by Thomas Edison in 1877, was one of the oldest playing devices which could record music that was able to be played back. A few centuries ago, this was the main source of musical entertainment for people. Going further into the future though, the large majority of people use Spotify and Soundcloud for musical entertainment. Everybody has a different type of music which they select to listen to. Some prefer to listen to country, rock or the blues. When the 2000s came along, hip hop or rap became more and more popular, especially among the youth which is not particularly good for their mental and physical health. . Currently, there is a large amount of children and teens which are listening to songs with large amounts of profanity which is changing how they act and how they feel in the world.  Therefore, lyrics of popular music are harmful to children's development because the content of some has evoked emotion of sadness and anger more in teens as well as negatively impacts their body and life.

To commence, one reason for why lyrics are harmful for the youth is because of how rappers  impact the way that kids act and their behaviors. According to, “ How Rap Affects Teens”, “According to American Academy of child and adolescent psychiatry, many rap lyrics contribute to suicide, violence, inappropriate sexual content, and an influence of drug”(Emmanuela ). To go along with that, CNN stated that the majority of suicides are teens between  17 and 15 years old, with 59, 631 deaths of suicide. The next largest group would be children between 12 and 14 with 37 percent, and finally children between 5 and 11, with 13 percent. These rates have been rising throughout the years.  (Scutti 1). Teens are the next generation of our world, and if they are being influenced and taking their own lives because of music lyrics. These deaths could have easily been prevented if the teens just picked a different type of music which would provide them with different ways they would have acted about suicide and may have been prevented. To go along with this, xxxTentacion has records of home invasion, robbery, and beating his girlfriend while she was pregnant. According to a study from emory anniversary on the site “rap music affects teens”, “...teens between the ages of 14-18 who listen to music roughly 14 hours  a week are three times more likely to get in a fight with a teacher, 2.5 times more likely to find themselves arrested, and 1.5 times more likely to partake in illegal activities such as underaged drinking and experimenting with drugs, including STDs,”(Emmanuela). This shows that what horrible things the rappers are doing in the outside world, is going into the lyrics of their songs which further affect how the teen is acting which may change their life in the wrong direction. Finally, more and more teens are starting to use and abuse drugs. According to MedicineNet “Rap Music Glorifying drug use” it states that, “...songs between 1979 and 1984, only 11 percent contained drug references. By the late 1980s, that increased to 19 percent and by 1993, to 69 percent,”(Preidt). On the website, Teen substance use and risk, “the adolescent group is the large majority of use of marijuana, tobacco and other substances. By 12th grade , about two-thirds have tried alcohol. About half of 9th through 12th graders reported ever having used marijuana”(Teen).  Since the use of drugs in music lyrics have been steadily increasing, it is having a negative impact on how teens think about drugs, and the large majority of them have even tried them or constantly use them because of how the rappers talk about drugs like they are candy.

To go along with how music lyrics impact children's physical behaviors, it also impacts their mental health and emotions. In the article “Pop Music Lyrics Increasingly Angry and Sad, LTU Analysis shows” it states that, “Researchers point out that since the study covered the most popular songs of each year, the study didn’t show that music has changed - but rather, that the public’s taste in music changed. While music fans preferred joyful songs during the 1950s, modern music consumers are more interested in songs that express sadness and anger,”(Pop). To go along with this, anger has been expressed more and more in current times but in the 1950s most of the songs were joyful (Pop). As a result of the music being more angry, emotions of sadness and disgust have been exposed more in teens. This evidence can further show that the type of music changes causes negative emotions such as sadness to be expressed more often than emotions of joy and happiness. Following that, on the website  “The Impact of music on emotion: Comparing Rap and Meditative yoga music” it has a study where they have a control group, a group listening to rap, and a group listening to yoga. The procedure was that the yoga group listened to yoga music for a minute, rap group listened to rap for a minute, and control listened to nothing. According to the article, “...agressive music significantly increased a domain of aggression for the rap group compared to the control group. It is vital to note that the music increased aggression only in the domains of verbal aggression,” which can conclude that, “it is possible that the presence of violent lyrics in the rap group played a major factor in the difference of verbal aggression,”(Kwong). As a result of this test, we can conclude that rap music has a very strong effect on emotions because it causes people to show more aggression in verbal ways which isn't healthy.

In conclusion, the lyrics of popular music can be harmful to children's physical and emotional development. Even though people can argue that it is a way for rappers to express themselves, it is very harmful by persuading some age groups of people on how they see the act and think in the world. If the youth constantly listens to these abrupt songs, it may lose some lives and completely destroy the mental and physical well being of the next generation.