Let’s talk about sex baby

Academic research on youth’s media consumption and their sexual lives has predominantly focused on sexual risk behavior. Countless scholars argue that sexual lyrics influence youth to engage in early sexual intercourse, have unsafe sex and develop distorted notions of gender relations. The approaches of these media effect studies include experimental designs and questionnaire-based research. Four problems can be identified with these studies. First of all, youth are positioned as non-reflexive, cultural dopes. Secondly, youth-centered approaches are lacking, which leaves out their own understandings and negotiations of these media texts. Thirdly, the focus is predominantly on risk behavior, thereby ignoring a major part of their sexual experiences. Lastly, the discourses of sexualization are interwoven with stereotypes about young girls and ‘ethnic’ youth. This study attempts to go beyond this one-sided perspective on youth, sexuality and media consumption by focusing on youth themselves and on ‘good’ sex. It aims to answer the question: What do youth consider to be good music for good sex and how do they make sense of their musical choices? This question was addressed by means of an innovative ‘music voice’ approach, which required participants to create their own playlist of music for good sex about which they were subsequently interviewed. Youth’s narratives demonstrate that they do not primarily draw upon the ‘sexualized’ music that is discussed in media effect studies. Moreover, songs are included on the basis of beat rather than lyrics and interpretative meaning. The way in which the beat is experienced by respondents subsequently influences the ways in which they implement music in their sex lives. Furthermore, when discussing sexually explicit lyrics, respondents voiced critical reflections and made a distinction between the content of these songs and their personal notions of good sex.