Today music Is a necessity in many people’s lives. People listen to music all the time, from students who listen to it while studying, to adults driving to work, and those who listen to music to plainly enjoy life. Personally, I am listening to tunes on random while writing this. My point is everyday, almost everyone will encounter music weather intentionally or voluntarily It surrounds us. Music Is used in many different ways; one people use It as an outlet of expression, another Is a way to let their feelings out, and lastly people use music to identify with who they are.
Nowadays, music has a major impact on ten’s lives everywhere. Teens begin using music as ways of asserting their individuality and by breaking away from their parents and becoming more independent. Christenson (1994) feels that ten’s Interest in popular music Is showing their departure of their parent’s dependence and a new faithfulness in friendships among each other. With ten’s new need for music poses the question of how does popular music affect their well-beings. But does music diminish their conscience and cause them to Involve themselves on senseless acts of lenience and debauchery or is It something for them to relate to.
Looking at children and their development, if pre-teens and children as young as first grade have shown interests in popular music (Christenson et al. ). In this research, of first to sixth graders the interest grew as their age did, as they got closer to adolescents their Interest grew. Baker (2001 ) did research on pre-teen girls and their attraction to popular music. She found that even though it seems that young girls are fascinated with the boy bands and normal top 40 songs, some of them are still interested in existing to songs with explicit lyrics.
Even in children music poses as a building block In their mental development, as they reach adolescents It begins to form media exposure and Identities. Although most of popular music is considered violent and sexual it is still a major part of teenage development. Demo (1981) connects teenagers expose to popular music as an outlet to the media. While listening to music Is also a major part of the way they live. Teens listen to music while, doing homework, cleaning and driving. Teens also use music as therapy, “to relieve my tension or take my mind of things tethering me. (Demo et Although Hansen and Hansen (1991) research show teens are using music as a television substitute and there is an increase In all forms of popular music this leading to more assumptions for the media to create. The Press today sees music lyrics as ways of provoking people into doing things that they aren’t supposed to. Rein and Springer (1986) agree with the fact that popular music is built upon aggression. Yet, Demo’s (et al. ) study of high school juniors, the ones who felt their parents did not care about them or their lives were more likely to be depressed, anxious, and disturbed.
These teens are the ones school officials say are involved in vandalism and theft. Now, is it music the only factor in ten’s misbehaving or is it society’s escape from of the truth. Media and society have used music many times to explain why a teen has done something he or she shouldn’t have. Conscience (1996) believes there Is no proof of violent lyrics explaining people actions; the author uses an example of a Nevada lawsuit of two teens 1 OFF these suits were proved irrelevant and dismissed.
The public does not hear that it is dismissed Just that the teens killed themselves because of the lyrics and not that the ease was dismissed. Another case where the media coverage failed to mention an essential detail was in Ohio when a boy was playing with fire and burned his families home done and in the process killing his two year old sister. In news reports, they claimed the boy was mocking Mat’s”s “Bevies and Buttered,” yet the report did not mention that the family did not have cable.
Society receives these negative messages about aggressive music and ten’s decisions, and is able to make their assumptions about types of music with correct information. In a study done by Mitchell, Rubin, and West (2001) they researched the aggression, attitudes towards women and distrust patterns in music. The researchers looked at these negative effects and furthered their research by noting people’s music preferences and attitudes. They used a sample pool of 243 people and asked many questions regarding their anger, self-esteem to see how it relates to their music preferences.
While the researcher’s hypothesis was that there would be higher rates of violence depending on what types of music one listens to, thinking that heavy metal and rap would have the highest numbers. In summary, the Journal of Mitchell, Rubin, and West (peg 26 et al. Is exploring the effects of popular music, mainly heavy metal and rap, and their underlining messages of violence and aggression, distrust, and aggression towards women. Music uses emotion to get responses from its audience whether it is positive or negative.
According to the article people are angry listen to more destructive music. Also when one is listening to their music of preference they tend to listen to it with more emotions and read into the lyrics more Prior to Mitchell, Rubin and West (Peg 27-30 et al. ) researched popular music and emotions they explored previous research in the same topics and found lots of rumoring results. When looking at anger and emotions they found that, “high school students experienced excitement, happiness, confidence, and love when listening to their favorite types of music. (2001, page) Yet when they listened to heavy metal and rock students had a tendency to show no emotion and were angry. But the also used this music off way to create high amounts of energy or to get “pumped up. ” While seeking insight into self-esteem issues the authors saw that the people who listened to heavy metal had lower self-esteem. Music and attitudes studied how lyrics effected the music and the outcome of their preferences. When students were to describe their favorite songs some key factors came up; such as, “love, friendship, growing up, and life struggles. (2001, peg. 27) When using music as therapy adolescents tend to find their friendship with others more trustworthy; while within that same group finding distrust in authority figures and government. Popular music follows patterns of, “dominant ideologies system, parental controls, and other societal institutions. ” (2001, peg 27) Researchers also found aggression are theme among some types of popular music. Mitchell, Rubin, and White looked at a study done on country and rap music lyrics.
Rap lyrics seemed to focus on gang fights, drive-by shootings, and general gang violence; while country music’s trends were barroom fights, gay beatings, and general fights and beatings. Different studies the showed that in both of these genres that listener’s behavior of elevated aggression and mood alteration were prominent in heavy metal and rock music. Lastly researchers looked at how types of music changed people’s attitudes towards Omen. Listeners of heavy metal were found to have less respect for women of authority and stereotyping of women. Mitch, Rubin, and West continued their study Ninth their own study.
Mitchell, Rubin, and West (Peg 30-38 et al. ) surveyed 243 undergraduate students, Ninth 70. 4% of the group 21 and younger. By asking this group question about the music they listen to and the feeling they get while listening or after, to help prove their three hypotheses: HI : Frequency of listening to popular music will relate negatively to attitudes of trust. H2O: Rap and heavy-metal listeners will exhibit more aggression more aggressive tendencies than listeners of other popular music genres. HA: Heavy- metal listeners will exhibit negative attitudes toward women than listeners of other popular music genres. 2001, peg 30) rough the survey they posed several questions in a form of a scale so that the results could be read easier. The survey began with get feel of what genres of music people listen with listing the categories and then giving example of artist to give the students an idea of the types of music fit into the different categories. Nothing the survey they asked multiple questions about the same topic so the results Mould be more accurate. An example of these questions and the scale that was given is as follows, “something makes me almost angry almost every day. (2001, peg 32) this question was scaled with 1- being completely nondestructive of me and 5- being completely descriptive of me. The entire survey was composed this way. Within the research done Mitchell, Rubin, and White (et al. ) hypotheses were not conclusive with their results. When looking at the results figuring out if there is a connection between popular music and peoples trust amongst one another; results Newer inconclusive to all people who listened to these forms of music had high indecencies of distrust. But in the category of Rap music there was significant evidence to show distrust in one another.
In the results of the heavy metal genre, listeners showed to have more “aggressive tendencies and a less regard for Omen,” (2001. peg 36) helping prove the researchers hypothesis. However, this study does prove some of the original ideas the researchers posed, but the number of people questioned who listened to these genres made up very few of those surveyed. Out the people surveyed less than 20% of the pool listened to either heavy metal or rap. Only 45 out of the 243 in question listened to these, because of the small numbers, one answer off 5 could throw of the curve of the data.
Therefore, this survey of students poled only slight prove these researchers points due to lack of numbers in the genres they were focusing on. This study helps when looking at how older teens and young adults look at music and how it makes them feel. Nevertheless, it failed to look into exactly how people and teens look at music. Personally, I went and surveyed 42 middle, high school and university teens around Albuquerque and asked them how music affects their Tyler of music the listened to, violent lyrics and if they affected them, their style and dress, and also how they felt about having music apart their lives.
In the survey only four of those surveyed responded yes to acting violently because of music, and two of them were not violent act but were associated with drinking and the remaining two Newer a simple yes with no explanation. When the teens were asked about if they had acted violently because of the music they listen to, some responded, “No, because I know it’s Just a song and music. ” While some responded, “No I don’t take music that errors to change me into a horrible person. With the majority of these teens knowing the difference of right and wrong and not allowing music to negatively influence their lives.
When looking at what teens are listening to, 32 out of those surveyed admitted to owning or listening to CD with explicit lyrics. While 31 out of the 42 believe that the music they listen to have violent lyrics. Students quoted their music with lyrics like, ‘Satin is my master,” and “If you open you mouth again I swear I am going to break it n,” to mention a few. With teens listening to music with lyrics so dramatic, they are till able to differentiate between right and wrong by not participating in violent acts because of the music they are listening to.
Students surveyed were then asked if music influenced the way they dress; with 20 out of the 42 responded that it did. Many of them gave examples of wearing band shirts as their style. One even got as specific as saying, “l don’t like pink or bright colors on them,” (referring to band shirts). One even admitted that once he or she began listening to rock music they began wearing black more often, and even said, “l Nasty preppy anymore. Through this I am able to see that teens will take music so strongly that they are willing to let it change how the dress, with little affect on their actions.
Lastly, those surveyed were asked if they relate musical lyrics to there own lives; 33 out of 42 responded that yes they did or in some cases they do. This here is also proving Christenson (1994) ideas of children using music as an escape form their parents in transition to adulthood. By being able to use these lyrics in there own lives, teens are beginning to think for themselves and create a mental picture of their lives. Some students even said, “Music makes me happy when I am sad,” implying that music is their personal therapy, thus showing more independence.
In closing the student were asked there over all of music and how it effects them. Most of the students responded with positive feedback. Many stated music is calming for them and helps relive stress. One student wrote, “Music is way of expressing opinion and feelings. It is a way to release anger and stress even if the song itself is full of anger and stress. ” Other student said the music helps them work better, which goes with the ideas Demo (et al. Posed of teens using music to pass the time.
Other student’s say that they can with out music, “l can’t live with out rock. ” Many of them plainly stated, “l love music. ” Others attribute music to consuming their lives, “Music consumes every aspect of my life whether thinking about it, playing or listening to it. ” However, there were still a few students who chose not to respond to this question or felt that it had no over all effect in their life. In conclusion, teens use music a stepping-stone of life. Many saying that they does something bad it is because of music.
Bessel, Searcher, and Weidman (2003) cooked at when the Columbine tragedy happen how the media mention factors of blame on the killers listening to Marlin Manson, nonetheless these scholars also believe that the blame was placed falsely to insure social order would remain stable. Renee today are able to see what is right and wrong and differentiate between the two. However, if the media is willing to believe that they well have nothing to blame a troubled teen or person does something wrong and might happen to listen satanic forms of music. One my think that this is the truth we in actuality it is not.