Trap music is currently the most controversial music genre in Greece. A prominent Greek politician (Kyriakos Velopoulos) harshly criticized the genre and the National Council for Radio and Television will be having a hearing for three of the genre's biggest musicians for their lyrics. For this reason, it is interesting to see how trap music can influence young children with the themes it revolves around, and what the antidote to this problem is.
For this article, we will distinguish trap from rap based on their subject matter and not musically. Rap is broader in its themes, is more socially sensitive and touches on social and political issues. Trap, on the other hand, has a tendency towards showing off all kinds of things: socioeconomic status, attractiveness to the opposite sex, but also showing off a violent/dangerous lifestyle.
In trap, then, we have a culture of exhibitionism in which money is the priority. Thus the main criterion for a person's success is not their character and integrity but how much of a luxury life they live. Despite this distorted view of success, the focus on money as the most important good, also brings a culture of materialism, reaching a point where children are dressing up in clothing brand pieces at school so that they are not marginalized as "poor". Therefore, these children grow up chasing money (or get-rich-quick mentality, which is even more dangerous).
When it comes to displaying sexual themes, trappers flaunt their attractiveness in deeply misogynistic and sexist ways. This becomes even more dangerous considering the rise in gender-based violence and femicide that is taking place the years following the lockdowns. Additionally, the focus of these artists on the number of sexual partners also cultivates a problematic model of relationships, in which companionship and mutual respect do not fit; only exploitation. This is of course what a society is destined to face, with the further dissolution of the institution of family and healthy sexual relationships.
Finally, the trappers also refer to the dangerous life of violence and crime. On the one hand, they compete for how many kilos (of drugs) each of them "moves" and on the other hand, they advertise that they themselves are users. Therefore, the drug game, from trade to consumption, is presented as something attractive. The promotion of violence also follows suit, where, combined with the pursuit of money, leads us to the conclusion that the ideal (expensive) lifestyle necessarily includes some kind of illicit behavior.
Therefore, there is a number of negative messages that this genre recycles. However, censorship is never the answer. The artist has the right to express their life as they experience it and to write and talk about whatever they want. The burden falls on the family, which must protect children from the messages that this music genre conveys or even prevent them from listening to it completely. We cannot attack trappers because children listen to their songs. If a family gives their children unlimited access to the internet, lets them go to clubs and to these trappers' performances, then the problem is a family problem and cannot be attributed to anyone else.
The good news? If the stimuli that the child receives from this music are filtered and do not start from a very young age, the problem is not so serious. In the past, people feared that video games increase violence, a notion that many studies have debunked. So, let's not make trap music the scapegoat, but let's remember the role that parents and teachers play in protecting children. Ultimately, it is good that the child in his adolescence shows some tendencies of rebelliousness and weaning. Let's not go to the extremes and expect children to listen to Mozart and Wagner. Let's accept that children are moving towards the contemporary and thus, accept trap, not as something positive but as something inevitable.
What we should not accept, however, are authoritarian voices whose first reflex is to censor. Neither should we accept this lack of parental attention. There will always be bad influences, which is why parents must always remain vigilant.
