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This article is from Today's
Native Father, issue #124, November/December, 2002. Related articles from this issue: |
What is Pop Music Doing to My Children by David Hertzler |
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When three teenagers killed themselves in the late 1980’s after listening to Ozzy Osbourne’s heavy metal rock song Suicide Solution, people began asking, “Could this happen to my child?” Scholarly research was done. It was not hard to find an association between heavy metal music and suicide. It was much more difficult to show that music was the cause of the suicides. Should parents be concerned about popular music? Yes! say Professors Donald Roberts and Peter Christenson in their book It’s Not Only Rock and Roll (Hampton Press, Cresskill, NJ, 1997), concerned, but not reactive. These men spent three years organizing all the previous studies they could find into a coherent overview. They concluded that music alone is not likely to cause destructive behaviour. However, music can be a powerful indicator of what is going on in a young person’s life. It can be a clue that your child is at risk. Music is more influential on young people than television, movies and computers, say these authors. On average, American youth spend more time with music or music videos than they spend with their friends or watching television. This includes music as background for other activities. “Music matters to adolescents, and they cannot be understood without a serious consider-ation of how music fits into their lives.” What does music do for adolescents? They use music to create an atmosphere that feels good and to control moods. “Music alters and intensifies their moods, furnishes much of their slang, dominates their conversations and provides the ambiance at social gatherings. Music styles define the crowds they run in. Music personalities provide models for how they act and dress.” Do teens use music to antagonize authority and learn things their parents aren’t telling them? Sometimes, especially those who have a poor relationship with parents. But sometimes young people will make a show of having a conflict with parents in order to appear “cool” or gain acceptance from peers. Music does not affect everyone the same, say the authors, but it can be dangerous for some youth. For example, if a person is already troubled, alienated or suicidal, some types of music may push him over the edge into suicide or violent crime. Low achievers in school may embrace heavy metal as a “cultural solution” to their low academic or social standing. The music reinforces who they are and tells what group they belong to. Heavy metal, which is considered especially dangerous, is most popular among boys in their middle adolescent years. For most, it is a passing phase. Those who become addicted are increasingly at risk for destructive behaviour. The greater a person’s involvement with music, the greater its effects. A few studies found higher levels of listen-ing among minority youth and among youth from families in which the father was absent. Since music listening may be a substitute for relational activities, it should not be surprising to see a young person who is deprived of a father’s attention escape into music. Popular music has important consequences, the authors conclude. The impact may range from harmless to destructive, depending partly on the listener and on the volume, which in excess can cause hearing loss. The authors urge adults to dialogue with teens and take a stance of “respectful disagreement” with the negative values they see in music. For example, a parent may say, “I know that I cannot and should not censor your music. But you must know that I abhor any message that degrades women, and I request that you not play such music in my presence. Can we agree on that?” When adults stigmatize youth based on music, “the wedge between these kids...who...are often the ones who most need to be reached--and main-stream culture is driven even deeper.” The book reviewed in this article is based on a wide spectrum of North American youth. Today’s Native Father would be interested in learning more about how these findings apply to ethnic or religious minorities represented by our readers. |
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