I have always considered myself a music fiend. Folks who have followed this blog long enough know my great love affair with a variety of music.
Music played a crucial role in my formative years and seldom a day goes by without listening to whatever suits my mood. It's like nourishment for the soul. This is understandable as it was our mothers who first hummed lullabies to us, plus as youths we all sang whatever was hot on the charts. As a teen, I gravitated towards the progressive sounds of reggae music (Bob Marley, Steel Pulse &Third World were my faves) & soul music (Earth, Wind & Fire, Bee Gees, Commodores, GQ, Prince). This music helped to shape my generation's consciousness. To this day, music still plays an important role in my life, but in a more subtle way.
Contrast what many of us older folks grew up on to what many of our young ones are vibin' to today. To be fair, a lot of today's music is quite exceptional on many levels, but a good chunk of it - most notably within the Hip Hop & Pop/Rock genres - can be quite harmful to the young &vulnerable, in my opinion. On my way to work in the morning, I hear the most sexually-suggestive and aggressive music that leaves me wondering - what the hell is the FCC for? In the presence of kids/teenagers in my car, I find myself playing the role of Music Analyst & Channel Switcher when a song comes on describing the joy of witnessing some booty clap. Should kids be exposed to this on our airwaves? Whatever impact music has on human behavior is complex and variant, to be sure. Profane lyrics have been around for a while, but back in the day, it was not played on the radio for all to hear 24/7/365. Grown folks listened to it in the privacy of their own home when the kids weren't around or at concerts.
It is a known fact that music by itself has an effect on people. No matter the genre, chord or beat, music influences behavior/thoughts. With this in mind, how do you think much of today's music with its heavy emphasis on sex, drugs, violence and overall indecency affects the young? From what I can see, it has altered many of them in a negative way. Many parents that I speak to all seem to share the same story with regards to how their teens are behaving. Granted, it is not all the fault of popular music/culture, but it does have a powerful impact which makes parenting doubly hard in this time. Little 9 year old Johnny gets to see a big booty video vixen twerkin' it or see Miley Cyrus swinging naked on some damn wrecking ball when Mom & Dad fail to lock the parental controls on the cable box & computers.
Historically, there has been a distrust of youth oriented music. In my day, the music that dominated the airwaves in the Caribbean radicalized the youth which the older generation despised &somewhat feared. Many in my parent's generation overcame many obstacles to achieve their slice of the cake so they didn't want their young having rebellious ideas of burning down Babylon as Bob Marley would often chant. We were wild with the music & ideas of Bob Marley, Marvin Gaye, Peter Tosh & John Lennon (to name a few) & this shook the foundation!
Today we adults in turn distrust youth-oriented music. Only this time we have a legitimate reason unlike past generations. Our revolts back in the day led to global awareness & societal change. Today, much of youth angst arcs toward decadence, ignorance & stagnation and much of the music reflects that. You can't get the artists today to rap or sing about anything worth fighting for - the record labels consider that anathema to the bottomline. Those that do try to impact our collective consciousness are mostly underground & shut out from the corporate-controlled media. Every now and then a few bubble up to catch the attention of the masses like Lupe Fiasco, Common & Q-Tip.
Abraham Lincoln once said, "He who writes the nation's songs shapes the nation's souls". This is a profound observation.
With the glorification of violence, drug use & the abuse of women, what uplifting values are our children expected to learn? I for one disdain censorship, but I do believe somewhere along the way we lost our moorings and are now adrift culturally & socially. Music is critically important to this culture and its identity. Music helps define social and sub-cultural boundaries. Today's culture faces far more difficulties and dangers than their counterparts did just a generation ago.
Till recently no studies showed cause and effect relationship between music and lyrical content influencing behavior. Now more than one-thousand scientific studies and reviews conclude that significant exposure to violent music and lyrical content increase the risk of aggressive behavior in certain children and adolescents. The explicit lyrics desensitize the listener to violence& misogyny.This on top of violent games & movies adds to the danger.
Today's teenagers spend a few hours a day listening to music or watching it on television. One Swedish study found that adolescents who developed an early interest in violent music were more likely to be influenced by their peers and less influenced by their parents. If teens are spending more time tuned into music, they are spending less time with their parents. A few years ago, a Carnegie Foundation Study found that the average teen spends only twenty minutes a day alone in conversation with his or her mom, and less than five minutes alone with dad. Parental involvement & oversight are consequently diminished. I think it is appropriate to assume that prolonged exposure to explicit lyrics during the formative teen years impacts on attitudes and assumptions, and thus decisions and behavior. Understanding the nature and extent of the influence of drug references, sexually-suggestive & violent content in today's music is a critical step towards better addressing the problems plaguing our youth today.
For some teenagers, music is just music, but for others it is a way to enhance their mood that they are already in, which can lead to negative results. Kids should be aware of the negative effects that music can bring (as well as the positive effects). Parents should know what their kids are listening to and question why they choose to listen to a particular songs.
They say that sex/drugs/violence sells - and it does extremely well. But to put profits over the the mental/social development of our young speaks volumes to how low we have sunk as a culture & as human beings...the future unfolds....
OneLove
:::MME:::
