Music Effect On Behavior

3. Introduction

Music’s effect on people’s behavior was one of the most controversial topics of discussion by the media in the 20th century. Its influence on mood is well documented, as shown by the Caine and Caine study (1991). Due to the increasing distribution of music and the increasing number of songs that deal with themes of suicide, violence, sexual assault and rebellion since the rise of Rock n roll during the 1950s there is a huge discussion in psychology on how music can influence behavior negatively. Due to the widespread belief that music can have a huge effect on one’s personality, whenever a violent event occurs and it turns out that the individuals who perpetrated the event (whether it is genocide or suicide) listened to either

Thus there is a large number of studies based on the influence of music on youth cultures (which usually means the cultures of adolescent teenagers). Adolescent culture is made up of youth cultural groups (Bennet, 2001; Hebdige, 1979) or crowds (Brown & Lohr, 1987; Brown, Mory, & Kinney, 1994). Some of these youth cultures can be based on specific genres of music, such as rap or heavy metal. Studies like Miranda & Claes(2004); Urberg, Degirmencioglu, Tolson, & Halliday-Scher, (2000), have provided evidence that there exists a link between music preferences and youth culture. It has been suggested that these youth groups have their own system of beliefs and social identities (Arnett, 1995; Bennet, 2001; Tarrant, North, & Hargreaves, 2001). There is a widespread concern that the effects of certain youth cultures, especially those of heavy metal and rap, have negative effects on the behavior of adolescents, which leads to rebellion and violent behavior. Heavy metal and rap music have come under intense scrutiny due to the topics covered by their lyrics in their videos and the aggressive nature of the music itself. Research conducted by American, Australian and Canadian research has shown that heavy metal fans tend to have more hostile attitudes (such as men abusing women), abuse drugs more often, and have more

The music videos could show a story, either that of the song’s lyrics or a different story that would be related to the moral of the song. This would lead to many artists expressing their songs in very controversial ways, such as showcasing murder, dealing drugs etc. So whenever the mainstream media wasn’t satisfied with the contents of a video, they would demand that MTV bans that video. This was the case with Megadeth’s “A tout le monde” which was interpreted as a suicide song , and was almost the case with Twisted Sister’s “We’re not gonna take it”, which contained rebellious themes and violence. Music videos, instead of simply implying violent behavior like lyrics or music, can directly show the violent behavior, thus possibly influencing the viewer to imitate the behavior they were being shown. Music videos are a recent phenomenon, but in the short time that they have been in the public spotlight they have been a great source of controversy and thus many studies took place to determine whether music videos can influence violent behavior the same that films probably could or lyrics or maybe find a combination of all three components of a