Analysis

"Aggressive thoughts can influence perceptions of ongoing social interactions, coloring them with an aggressive tint. Such aggression-biased interpretations can, in turn, instigate a more aggressive response –verbal or physical – than would have been emitted in a nonbiased state, thus provoking an aggressive escalatory spiral of antisocial exchanges,"  -Craig A. Anderson, Ph.D. of Iowa State University.

Music was manipulated in the experiment at Iowa State University in which they used seven artist and let them sing eight different songs in three styles if genre; however, they kept the same violent meaning which showed in the results. Shockingly enough, test was used to see if violence was affected by any song, and what was shown was that all the answers to the question had a violent response. Also an interesting thing found was that listening to violent songs will lead to aggression but not aggressive behavior. This means that something else is affecting the need to harm another person. Could it be the environment they are in? Could the people around, before, during, or after the song that is playing affect them? In the end, the final result was that it is not the type of genre that causes violent acts but the lyrics that goes with it. Country singers lyrics with a hip hop beat, a rock and roll beat with jazz lyrics, or even an R&B artist words with or without music can provoke anger.

"Even Humorous Violent Songs Increase Hostile Feelings." Violent Music Lyrics Increase Aggressive Thoughts and Feelings (2003): 1. Web. 24 Mar 2011. <http://www.reversespins.com/violentmusic.html>.