LimeWire Music Blog

Scientists around the world are in an uproar, still reeling from yesterday’s news that a research team in Pittsburgh has announced the stunning conclusion to a study revolving around teenage sex and “degrading” lyrical content of their favorite pop music from 2005: apparently, it’s true, music is sexy. Led by University of Pittsburgh professor, Brian Primack, the study sampled over 700 local ninth graders starting in 2006 and quizzed them based on their favorite songs from the year before. Of the 279 most popular tunes, the crack team of scientists then developed an original form of calculus in order to determine the exact degradation apparent by each and every song. While a bit fuzzy on the exactitude’s (researchers don’t refer to any songs by title and only include minimal lyrical specifics) the study scheduled for publication is April’s American Journal of Preventive Medicine defined “degrading” based on sexual attraction based on solely “physical characteristics” and those linked to a “power differential.” The students were then split into groups based on how regularly they listened to music categorized as “degrading,” with often being called over 16 hours a week. Apparently 45 percent of the regular associates of sonic sexual degradation had had also had actual, physical intercourse, as opposed to 21 percent of musical prudes. And to those 45 percent: Way to go! We knew there was a reason you guys were putting in all those hard hours obsessing about various anatomical slang. Apparently, it paid off.

The story is being reported by media outlets all over the world, including the BBC and US News and World Report. And while the researchers in question were quick to mention that the exact correlation isn’t apparent from the study, some of the reported details do raise questions. The noted ratio of degrading rap songs versus country songs seems like a conspicuous detail, for instance. And what exactly the sample’s noted adjustment for “race and age” entails I would really like to know. All said, Dr. Pimack’s study does not prove that sexy music makes kids sexy…as if ninth graders need a reason to have sex, but it does lend some evidence to the contemporary paradigm. For now at least, music remains sexy.