Picture a world without music. Isn’t it dark? Doesn’t everything feel out of place? Music can lets us practice our singing skills whether in the shower or riding down the highway or excite and inspire us. Music defines generations, like disco, rock and roll, and Motown. It brings images into your mind of a time in the past and fills the gap over the years.
You will be hard pressed to find a teenager that does not own an iPod or MP3 player and does not regularly have the music playing in their ears. This is largely due to the dominant role music plays in teen life. Music says something about what things you are in to and about the kind of person you are. Whether it be hip hop, R&B, heavy metal, or classic jazz, it all points to your personality. It influences us also, but these influences can be both positive and negative.
Because music has such a profound impact on teen society, the certain things these songs are getting across are not something young adults should be listening to on a regular basis. At least half the songs that have come out recently have involved either a young woman dancing provocatively with a group of men ogling at her or a girl going to a club to be “naughty”. If music is going to be a focal point of young adult life, should it be this?
Materialism and violence in this music is troublesome also. Songs talking about how much money they have, how much money they wish they had, (“I got my mind on my money, and my money on my mind.”- Snoop Dogg) put ideas in teens’ heads that they have to have all the money they can. Themes of violence and brutality, of glorified physical victory over another, is also prevalent in many songs and perhaps the most common in this generation than in any other. This kind of mentality and ultimate peer pressure could lead to drastic measures.
Feeding young adults this view of women as objects made to dance and “get low”, violence, and ideal wealth is dangerous. In a world where this is already a problem, this kind of music seems to give it the green light. These songs hide the true consequences of the situations they display by making it look fun, glamorous, and the “it” thing to do.
Of course, this generation is not the first to have this problem. It seems no matter what decade you are in, music has always had this kind of premise, just displayed (sometimes) in subtler ways.
Music has not only been a sexual or material form of expression, but a societal and political. It’s a way to freely say what you think of the world today with a good beat and tune to make people around the world want to listen. Music today points to things like the tension between countries, terrorism, economies, politics, etc. Songs can be a plea for peace, a dream of a world opposite to the one we live in, or a wish for a change.
Though music has its good sides and its bad, it is a way to share with the world, a way to say what you feel in a unique way. Music is a form of art that we can all enjoy. And, as for me, I can’t picture a world without it.
You will be hard pressed to find a teenager that does not own an iPod or MP3 player and does not regularly have the music playing in their ears. This is largely due to the dominant role music plays in teen life. Music says something about what things you are in to and about the kind of person you are. Whether it be hip hop, R&B, heavy metal, or classic jazz, it all points to your personality. It influences us also, but these influences can be both positive and negative.
Because music has such a profound impact on teen society, the certain things these songs are getting across are not something young adults should be listening to on a regular basis. At least half the songs that have come out recently have involved either a young woman dancing provocatively with a group of men ogling at her or a girl going to a club to be “naughty”. If music is going to be a focal point of young adult life, should it be this?
Materialism and violence in this music is troublesome also. Songs talking about how much money they have, how much money they wish they had, (“I got my mind on my money, and my money on my mind.”- Snoop Dogg) put ideas in teens’ heads that they have to have all the money they can. Themes of violence and brutality, of glorified physical victory over another, is also prevalent in many songs and perhaps the most common in this generation than in any other. This kind of mentality and ultimate peer pressure could lead to drastic measures.
Feeding young adults this view of women as objects made to dance and “get low”, violence, and ideal wealth is dangerous. In a world where this is already a problem, this kind of music seems to give it the green light. These songs hide the true consequences of the situations they display by making it look fun, glamorous, and the “it” thing to do.
Of course, this generation is not the first to have this problem. It seems no matter what decade you are in, music has always had this kind of premise, just displayed (sometimes) in subtler ways.
Music has not only been a sexual or material form of expression, but a societal and political. It’s a way to freely say what you think of the world today with a good beat and tune to make people around the world want to listen. Music today points to things like the tension between countries, terrorism, economies, politics, etc. Songs can be a plea for peace, a dream of a world opposite to the one we live in, or a wish for a change.
Though music has its good sides and its bad, it is a way to share with the world, a way to say what you feel in a unique way. Music is a form of art that we can all enjoy. And, as for me, I can’t picture a world without it.
Hollywog.
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