Conference Proceedings 2010 [pdf] - Art & Design Symposium ...

The Effect of Music Videos on African-American Males: Implications for Art Education
Zerric Clinton, Florida State University
Zerric Clinton Presenting his Poster
Abstract
Human development is complicated, as there are many things that influence and shape what a person
becomes. Initiatives promoted by the National Institute of Mental Health and the American Academy of
Pediatrics have noted that the media sometimes perpetuates things to adolescents that might not be very good
for them. However, it is apparent that adolescent African American males are often overlooked when it comes
to learning how the media affects them. Especially, in regard to how they process the visual culture, which
pervades popular music videos.
The overall objective of this study was to determine the effect of music videos on African-American males.
Thus, the specific objective here is to begin the discussion on learning how the visual culture of music videos
affects adolescent African American males.
A group of 30 rural adolescent African-American males were administered a pre-survey and critique response
to begin the research study. Then they participated in a focus group discussion and completed a final survey to
end the study. Overall the impact as the participants noted was that in many cases the music videos serve as a
blueprint for the ways they should navigate the world. For instance, several participants stated how they
identified with the things that were occurring in their favorite music videos because it reminded them of their
neighborhood. Thus, the participants appeared to often interpret the visual culture of their favorite music videos
in a literal way. Statistically, this literal interpretation was evident as the majority of the participants noted how
they wanted the same types of things their artists seemed to posses like expensive clothes, large stacks of
money and access to a lot of females. These are all visual aspects that the participants can easily view and
interpret in a literal way without much thought.
Narrative
The discussion has begun on how the media affects adolescents through initiatives supported by the National
Institute of Mental Health and the American Academy of Pediatrics. However, the research supported by these
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