Group Number Six Blog

We have decided to focus our blog on the influence that music has in our everyday lives. Unfortunately, only three people in our group participated: Del Powers, Michelle Perroni, and Leianne Shepherd. With many attempts we were never able to get a hold of Joe Palmer.

A little activity to test how music influences you. . .

Instructions:

Click on each of the links below and listen to the first 10 seconds of each song. After ten seconds write down the first three words that came to your mind.

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb2si7fClqA
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZHw9uyj81g
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4kTei0XrCs&feature=related
4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43po7G0rsrc&feature=related


How many of the words that came to your mind were emotions? How many brought back memories of things that happened to you in the past? Probably the majority of them. That is because music has a major influence upon your life!

Music and Teens

According to the New York Times article that is found in the post below, “Teenagers listen to an average of nearly 2.5 hours of music per day.” That is almost 18 hours a week, which is half the amount of time that children go to school in a day.

Now, when children are in school they listen to the teacher and are influenced by the knowledge that goes in their heads while at school. Why is listening to their favorite music star any different? Children are exposed to music for half the amount of time that they are in school which means that they are exposed to, learning from, and being influenced by the music that they are listening to just as if they were in the school classroom.

The popular music that the teenagers of today are listening to are the antithesis of our Christian values. According to the article, “The average adolescent is exposed to approximately 84 references to explicit substance use per day and 591 references per week, or 30,732 references per year.” It is so important that we make sure that we teach our children the importance of listening to music that is wholesome and uplifting so that they will want to stay away from the music that is corrupting American’s teens.

Although the article comments that many are skeptical about the influence that music has on American teens, I think that as members of the church we know. When there is music on that is not uplifting the Holy Ghost is taken away from us, and it is harder for us to make good decisions. If we want our kids to stay out of trouble, we have to teach them this principle.

The Power of Music

As we were researching this topic we found many quotes by famous musicians that depicted the influence of music upon our lives. We decided them to compile them all together into one video with pictures.

NY Times article: Under the influence. . . of music?

Teenagers listen to an average of nearly 2.5 hours of music per day. Guess what they’re hearing about?

One in three popular songs contains explicit references to drug or alcohol use, according to a new report in The Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. That means kids are receiving about 35 references to substance abuse for every hour of music they listen to, the authors determined.

While songs about drugs and excess are nothing new, the issue is getting more attention because so many children now have regular access to music out of the earshot of parents. Nearly 9 out of 10 adolescents and teens have an MP3 player or a compact disc player in their bedrooms.
Studies have long shown that media messages have a pronounced impact on childhood risk behaviors. Exposure to images of smoking in movies influences a child’s risk for picking up the habit. Alcohol use in movies and promotions is also linked to actual alcohol use.

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine studied the 279 most popular songs from 2005, based on reports from Billboard magazine, which tracks popular music. Whether a song contained a reference to drugs or alcohol varied by genre. Only 9 percent of pop songs had lyrics relating to drugs or alcohol. The number jumped to 14 percent for rock songs, 20 percent for R&B and hip-hop songs, 36 percent for country songs and 77 percent for rap songs.

Notably, smoking references aren’t that common in music today, with only 3 percent of the songs portraying tobacco use. About 14 percent of songs spoke of marijuana use, 24 percent depicted alcohol use, and another 12 percent included reference to other substances. About 4 percent of the songs contained “anti” drug and alcohol messages.

The study authors noted that music represents a pervasive source of exposure to positive images of substance use. The average adolescent is exposed to approximately 84 references to explicit substance use per day and 591 references per week, or 30,732 references per year. The average adolescent listening only to pop would be exposed to 5 references per day, whereas the average adolescent who listens just to rap would be exposed to 251 references per day.

Whether any of this matters remains an open question. While the impact of exposure to images of smoking and alcohol in film has been well documented, less is known about the effect of music on childhood risk behaviors.

Although music lacks the visual element of film, adolescent exposure to music is much more frequent, accounting for an average of 16 hours each week for music compared with about 6 hours each week for movie images, according to the study authors. But frequency of exposure is not the only factor. Unlike visual media, music is a powerful social force that also taps into an individual’s personal identity, memories and mood.

“Music is well-known to connect deeply with adolescents and to influence identity development, perhaps more than any other entertainment medium,” said the study authors.

Some images of how music impact's society

Where to get the music: the long tail

For those of you who are asking yourselves what in the world is a long tail, here’s a quick definition. The Long Tail refers to having a small amount of a large variety of items. The best example of this in music today is probably iTunes. iTunes has an extremely wide variety of songs, artists, genres, podcasts, videos, etc. and you can buy them instantly with the click of a button.

There are, as always, advantages and disadvantages to this type of obtaining music. A few of the major advantages are obvious: No CD to worry about, you don’t have to go to the store to purchase it, and you can pick only the songs you want instead of buying an entire CD with only one song on it that you even like listening to. In today’s fast paced world, we thrive on programs like iTunes. They allow us to get obscure music that you might not be able to find in a store and we can get it in an instant. Because the iTunes program has a large variety of music, people are buying music that is not so, for lack of a better term, “mainstream.” There are a lot of bands that can make a lot of money because of this long tail trend that is occurring.

While most people may think there couldn’t possibly be any disadvantages to the iTunes program, I have found just one. Because you don’t have a CD to worry about, you can lose all your songs if your computer crashes. This can be potentially problematic if you have all of your music purchased from iTunes. I, personally, had this experience happen to me about six months ago. Luckily, I only had about 50 of my 1500 songs purchased with iTunes and therefore was able to get most of them back from my CD’s.

The iTunes program has given the music industry a new way to release their music. It has become a catalyst of the long tail of media. It has contributed not only to the way that society buys music, but the way that they perceive and use it. I believe it will continue to grow and change the way that society utilizes music.