Teen music choices: sounds risky

Sherry Snider
snidersl@uwec.edu

           Words from the diary of a teenager? More like lyrics from a popular song titled "My Humps" by hip-hop group Black Eyed Peas. And those are mild compared to lyrics from other current songs like "Play" by fellow hip-hopper David Banner, the contents of which are entirely too explicit to print even one line of here.

          Songs by the likes of Black Eyed Peas and Banner play on radio and music television stations constantly, representing a trend of music with questionable content being the popular form of entertainment. Because of their constant airplay, they are exposed to a wide range of listeners, including teenagers.

          The main issues with teenagers listening to this type of music revolve around content, a lot of which is sexual, violent, or unethical in nature.

          Experts who have studied the effects popular music has on teenagers, such as Donald Roberts and Peter Christenson, have identified consequences of music like this, not all of which are as dramatic as causing teens to become violent people, but all of which warrant consideration when looking at young people’s health.

          Important things to look at in understanding some teenagers’ choice to listen to this type of music are why they choose the music, whether it’s because they just like the way the music sounds, the music fits their mood at the time, or for other reasons; how music with questionable lyrics affects teenagers, both positively and negatively; and what parents can do to get through their child’s music choices, ranging from visiting websites to read lyrics to the songs their children listen to all the time to talking to them about what the music is really portraying through its lyrics.

          The first thing to look at when analyzing, or just attempting to understand, a teenager’s choice in music is his or her reason for choosing that particular song or genre of music.

           Marie Moua, an eighth-grade student at DeLong Middle School, explains her reasons for listening to rock and rap music. Her favorites include Green Day, AC/DC, Usher, and Chingy.

           "I like how they cheer me up when I’m sad or mad and it calms me down," Marie said.

          Lisa Carpenter, a mother and editor of Pikes Peak Parent magazine in Colorado, offers insight on personal experiences with her own children’s musical tastes.

          "I’ve not stopped them from listening to bands such as Metallica, Nine Inch Nails and similar metal bands when they were going through dark phases," Carpenter said, suggesting that some teenagers listen to music as it fits their mood at the time.

          Carpenter also mentioned her daughters listening to what she referred to as "nasty" music, consisting of "singers such as Lil’ Kim," referring to the way the singer markets herself to her audience.

          Professor of Communication Peter Christenson of Lewis & Clark College sees a reason behind this behavior.

          "[Popular music is] about sex, which is their primary concern," Christenson said.

          Christenson, along with Professor Donald Roberts of Stanford University, wrote a book on the effects of popular music on teenagers entitled It’s Not Only Rock & Roll: Popular Music in the Lives of Adolescents.

          It’s Not Only Rock & Roll provides comfort to parents worried about the graphic sex, violence, and even racism presented in much popular music, claiming that the music doesn’t have hugely negative effects for most teenagers.

          ‘Most teenagers’ leaves out a portion of the teenage population, the portion known as troubled teens.

          Troubled teens include those who have suicidal or violent tendencies, and those teens choose certain genres of popular music over others.

          Suicidal teens are drawn to a newer form of music commonly called ‘emo.’

          The term is short for ‘emotional,’ and the content of songs in the genre tends to be about death, suicide, depression, and general teenage angst.

          Popular ‘emo’ bands include My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy, and some song titles suggest the content of the music: "The Ghost Of You," "Vampires Will Never Hurt You," and "Honey, This Mirror Isn’t Big Enough For The Two Of Us" all by My Chemical Romance, "Switchblades & Infidelity," "The Pros and Cons of Breathing," and "Grenade Jumper" by Fall Out Boy.

          The song "Switchblades & Infidelity" includes the line Your smile reminds me of switchblades and infidelity/Last night I saw my world explode, and "Honey, This Mirror Isn’t Big Enough For The Two Of Us" starts out by stating The amount of pills I'm taking counteracts the booze I'm drinking/and this vanity I'm breaking, lets me live my life like this.

          However, there are a number of bands considered ‘emo’ that work to help suicidal teens, regardless of how most ‘emo’ music sounds.

          An ‘emo’ record label, Deep Elm Records, created a CD full of songs by the label’s musicians, entitled TOO YOUNG TO DIE, which includes a suicide prevention guide and other facts and information about suicide prevention.

          The songs were picked because of their messages of hope and faith, along with the message that teens suffering from depression are not alone in their struggle, according to record label executives.

          Teens with suicidal tendencies aren’t the only ones with a certain type of music that seems to be created just for them: violent teens listen to metal and hard rock as a way to enhance their moods, according to Roberts and Christenson.

          One example of that behavior from It’s Not Only Rock & Roll was of a fan of hardcore metal who said the music made him want to go "beat the crap out of someone."

          One reason he may have felt like that was the lyrics to the songs, which can be very violent at times.

          In a popular metal band, Disturbed, song called "Down with the Sickness," there is a section in the unedited version stating, How would you like to see how it feels mommy/Here it comes, get ready to die.

          And while those lyrics don’t mean that everyone who listens to the song will go out and kill his or her mother, to some seriously distraught teenagers, lyrics like these could lead to disaster if listened to constantly, according to Christenson and Roberts.

          Despite these troubled teens and the genres of music that seem to be created specifically just for them, a lot of teenagers without those problems listen to the same music, and the most common reason they give for listening to it is simply because they like the way it sounds.

          A genre that is a good example of this trend is rap music.

          Rap music is a type of music that teenagers of both sexes enjoy, and it crosses racial barriers, too, as both black and white youth enjoy the music, according to Roberts and Christenson.

          While the lyrics tend to be rather misogynist, or against women, at times, with lines like Stuntin' through the city tryin' to find a lady who/Beautiful, but she gotta have booty too from "Your Body" by Pretty Ricky, girls still listen to rap, Roberts and Christenson say, because the music is more about the beat for them, and they are more interested in dancing than boys are, for the most part.

          Boys, on the other hand, like the music because of a "hypermasculine" quality to the music, which means men are dominant and women are submissive.

          However, the researchers worry that white youth listening to lots of rap could lead to further racism, as the music exaggerates urban black experiences. They say it could be taken out of context and lead to perpetuation of negative black stereotypes.

Continued on Page Two

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