The Nutrition Facts of a Song

Boston Public Health Commission announced their new tool to evaluate a songs “nutritional health” for teens called Sound Relationship Nutrition Label. Yes, song lyrics are being compared to nutritional health. The Commission states that next time you’re about to download a song, first check out how healthy it is for you. Just like you would evaluate food you were about to eat. This “tool” evaluates the relationship themes throughout the songs lyrics. They recommend consuming ‘healthy relationship’ ingredients for a balanced media diet. Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” was rated the top ten worst songs for relationship nutrition, but that’s no rocket science. The title gives that away.

So, I tried this out for myself to see how it works.

Here's the nutritional make-up for ELEVATION's “Razoreyes”:

Drama: 3
Obsession: 6
Disrespect: 0
Relationship = sex: 0
Manipulation: 0
Unhealthy score: 9
Fun: 9
Support: 7
Respect: 8
Equality: 8
Trust: 8
Healthy Score: 40

Well, according to my analysis, “Razoreyes” is a healthy relationship song. So all of you teens out there listen up! This song is full of healthy relationship lyrics!

I am not sure how valuable this approach of labeling songs “healthy” or “unhealthy” is or how using this tool will affect teens' perceptions of a healthy relationship. Personally, I feel that teens are far more influenced by the relationships they observe/experience in their families and not so much by musical lyrics. Nonetheless, this tool suggests that a teen’s impressions of romantic relationships are being negatively influenced by the drama, obsession, and disrespect in lyrics.

-Annie H.

The Nutrition Facts of a Song