Imagine there is something in your life that can help you, motivate you, and inspire you “all” at the same time. This something that can have positive effects can also have negative effects. Those negative effects can “even” ruin a person’s life. This something is music, in this case, the lyrics of music.  The lyrics of some artists influence a lot of people, but it mostly influences children and teens. There are a lot of music lyrics that are noxious to the growth of children and teens, as their minds are still adapting to the real world. Therefore, the lyrics of popular music are harmful to children’s development because teens are affected by lyrics which “sometimes” cause their behaviors to turn violent, to drugs and ultimately lead them to prison. 

The first reason that music lyrics are harmful to children's development is because “some artists are drug addicts and talk about these drugs as if they are candy” (Schmid 1). As a result, the lyrics brought by these alternative artists are not helping the cause of the development of children. As an illustration, the rapper Lil Uzi got effected by drugs so much that he abused his wife, Brittany Byrd. Hence, this causes an unhealthy relationship with his fans. Thus, “Lil Uzi fan percentage went down by 40 percent and had to go to prison for 2 years” (Bloom 2).  To add, half of the population of high school seniors don’t think it’s harmful to try cocaine once or twice and 40 percent think it is okay to use heroin (Schmid 1). For teens to think drugs such as heroin and cocaine aren’t harmful raises concern. With the United States on the verge of a mental health crisis among teens, this mentality on drugs comes from social media and a new wave of alternative rappers. In short, the glorification of drugs in Alt - Rap songs negatively impacts teens. 

Violence plays a big part when it comes to the lyrics of music and how it impacts children’s development. Comparatively, children who are allowed to listen to music containing sexually explicit have a tendency to be more emotionally charged (Kirchner 2). It follows that, children can also get depressed, emotioanlly confused and sometimes even sucidal or homicidal (Kirchner 2). Many people would argue this theory in our society. However, the artist XXXTentacion served time in prison for armed home invasion, robbery and aggravated battery with a firearm; he was also arrested after being credibly accused by his girlfriend of beating her while pregnant (Hann 1). While more research on effects of violent lyrics must be done, yet another type of entertainment media, “when referring to violence, now has been demonstrated to have some negative effects” (“Violent”). 

In conclusion, the lyrics of several music advocates abrasive, loud, and over-stimulating songs which are harmful to children’s development. The lyrics made by these eccentric artists can create detrimental effects in the innocent minds of children and teens which eventually leads to devastating consequences. Some parents do not realize that their children end up listening to age restricted music and once they listen to music that’s not their age, they start to get introduced to the negative impacts stated above. Exposing children to music during early development helps them learn the sounds and meanings of words. Conversely, few expletive words in certain types of music lyrics can be dreadful to children. To summarize, the lyrics of some popular music are sure to be deleterious to children’s development.