From “I Want To Hold Your Hand” to “Promiscuous”: Sexual Stereotypes in Popular Music Lyrics, 1960–2008

Abstract

Media content analyses indicate that gender-based differences in sexuality are common and consistent with gender stereotypes. Specifically, women are expected to focus on love and romantic relationships and have sexually objectified bodies, while men are expected to focus on sexual behavior. Although decades of research have documented the presence of these stereotypes in a broad variety of visual media, much less is known about the content of popular music lyrics. Relying on a database of 1250 songs across five decades (the top 50 songs from evennumbered years from 1960 through 2008), we documented the presence or absence of a dating relationship, the word ''love'' (and its uses), sexual activity, and sexual objectification of females and males (separately). Analyses revealed that the vast majority of songs addressed at least one of these themes, primarily dating relationships. Although female performers were proportionally more likely to address romantic relationships than male performers, raw counts reversed this pattern because male performers substantially outnumbered female performers. Males were proportionally more likely to sing about sexual behavior and to objectify both females and males. References to romantic relationships became less common over time, while references to sexual behavior and objectified bodies became more common. Content varied across genres, with rap being the least likely to reference dating and most likely to reference sexual behavior. Implications for sexual development are discussed.

Women in Rap Songs: A Difference between Male and Female Voices

“…In connection, a study by Smiler, Shewmaker, and Hearon (2017) shows that male performers were most likely to sing about sexual behavior that objectifies both females and males. It also suggests that rap music is the genre that has the highest tendency to reference sexual behaviors and least likely reference romance.…”

Popular Music Media Literacy: Recommendations for the Education Curriculum

“…In the United States, music (compared with other forms of media) contains the most sexual content (Pardun, L'Engle, & Brown, 2005). In addition, sexual content in music has increased over the past 50 years (Hall et al, 2012; Smiler, Shewmaker, & Hearon, 2017). Recent estimates suggest that 57% of popular music contains some form of sexual reference (Terry, Ramage, Gardner, & Van Alfen Gregson, 2016).…”

“…While there was no reported change in the level of depicted sexuality and sexual objectification in popular music videos between 1995 and 2016, ambiguous sexual expressions have increased (i.e., sexual gestures, sexual poses, sexual facial expressions; Karsay, Matthes, Buchsteiner, & Grosser, 2018). Male artists are more likely to include sexual content in their music and to objectify both males and females compared with female artists (Smiler et al, 2017). Female artists are more likely to be portrayed as sexually objectified compared with male artists (Karsay, Matthes, Buchsteiner, et al, 2018) and are more likely to objectify themselves (Flynn et al, 2016).…”

“…Music genre and racial differences in sexual content are also prevalent. Hip hop, rap, R&B, soul, and pop music contain higher levels of sexual content compared with other music genres (Flynn et al, 2016; Holody, Anderson, Craig, & Flynn, 2016; Smiler et al, 2017; Terry et al, 2016; Turner, 2011; Wright & Qureshi, 2015), and minority music artists are more likely to display sexual content in their music in comparison with White artists (Karsay, Matthes, Buchsteiner, et al, 2018).…”

Sexualization of Girls: Addressing Criticism of the APA Report, Presenting New Evidence

“…

In 2007, the American Psychological Association's Task Force (APA TF) on the Sexualization of Girls published its report. It continues to be the most downloaded report on the APA website and at the time brought an empirical focus to what was just becoming a national conversation (Silverstein, 2010). The Task Force first defined sexualization: a person's value comes only from his or her sexual appeal or behavior, to the exclusion of other characteristics; a person is held to a standard that equates physical attractiveness (narrowly defined) with being sexy; a person is sexually objectified-that is, made into a thing for others' sexual use, rather than seen as a person with the capacity for independent action and decision making; and/or l sexuality is inappropriately imposed upon a person.

…”