MTed and Rick, Of course you're right about what you're saying, but I still say that the gangsta rap, in its current enourmously popular status, adds to the problem. Teenagers have always chosen to "like" whatever was popular at the time in order to fit in. If fitting in means engaging in violent and deadly crime, I can't see how this is not a qualitative difference from the music that alarmed our parents and theirs and theirs, etc. A lot of my students devote ALL of their free time to violent media, so it stands to reason not that it makes them do things, but it sure does make it seem a lot more normal. The first time you see somebody's brains spattered on the sidewalk it probably will make you sick; probably the second and the tenth time; but after a few thousand times it probably seem less normal to see a sidewalk without brains splattered on it.

It's a complex issue for sure, Chet