Songs by Jamie Foxx and Lady Gaga were amongst the top “unhealthy” teen relationship songs, revealed a study by a Boston teen panel on Tuesday.
The group of teens who worked with the Boston Public Health Commission concluded that songs from these popular artists were composed of “unhealthy relationship ingredients.”
The panel of teens evaluated the songs through its “nutritional label” after their analysis of the hits from the Billboard’s “Hot 100” listings. The group of 14 teens studied evaluation of music as part of the seven-week institute on teen dating violence prevention and healthy relationship campaign. They then came up with “Sound Relationships Nutrition Label.”
The most unhealthy relationship songs of this year included “Break up” by Mario featuring Sean Garrett and Gucci Man, and “Blame it” by Jamie Foxx featuring T-Pain. “Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga was also on the list.
On the other hand, the panel also picked their top 10 choice for healthy-themed songs including those from Black Eyed Peas’ “Meet Me Halfway” and Ne-Yo’s “Miss Independent.”
Fifteen-year-old Shaquilla Terry, one of the panel members, said that it is important that listeners also consider paying attention to the lyrics instead of just the songs’ beats.
The programme seeks to teach young people the evaluation of popular media, as well as to help parents discuss healthy relationships with teens.
The commission’s head, Barbara Ferrer said in a statement, “We aren’t telling people what they should or should not be listening to.”
Jack Perricone, who heads the Berklee College of Music’s song-writing department, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying, “Some [artists] play up the bad boy image and put out negative images as a way to be commercially successful . . . But then they have to deal with the moral implications.”
