Particular Types Of Music And Specific Behaviours example essay topic

wer of music Music can have a very powerful influence on our emotions, moods and behaviour. This has been recognised through the ages. Historically, it has been used for such varied purposes as bolstering courage before battles, singing babies to sleep, enhancing the courtship process and accompanying rites of passage through life. It has been used to incite rebellion and it can challenge the status quo. In some cultures music has been viewed as sufficiently powerful for governments to attempt to control or ban it. In Nazi Germany, music was carefully selected for use at mass rallies to generate appropriate patriotic emotions.

In the USSR, the music of Shostakovich was censured by the Soviet government. During the Cultural Revolution in China, Western music was denounced as decadent and forbidden. In Iran, when Ayatollah Khomeini was in power, tight restrictions were placed on particular types of music. In white dominated South Africa, centres of African music were demolished, while musicians living in exile continued with their music to influence the attitudes of the world against the prevailing political system. In the Western world, criticism of rock music by the 'establishment' and its purported effects have been well documented. Acknowledgement of the power of music is also illustrated by the particular attention that has been given to whether certain types of music can inculcate anti-social or self-destructive behaviour.

As music plays an important part in teenagers' lives, there is a continuing concern amongst older generations about its possible negative effects on behaviour. Establishing the relationship between listening to particular types of music and self-determined behaviour is extremely difficult. While there is some evidence of an association between young people's listening habits and other aspects of their lifestyle, this relationship is not in all cases very close. In addition, evidence of association is insufficient to demonstrate causality. Much of the work exploring the effects on behaviour of rap music has been experimental and undertaken in artificial circumstances. While some of the research has demonstrated changes in attitudes towards violence and women following exposure to particular types of rap, this may not predict the behaviour of participants in real life situations.

Fear of rap and its messages may relate more to fears of the black community than the actual nature of the lyrics or music. Another strand of research has explored the relationships between heavy metal music and suicidal thoughts, anger, and the increased acceptance of negative attitudes and violence towards women. The findings are inconclusive. The direct effects of listening to particular types of music on violent behaviour depend on a range of complex factors. Listening to any kind of music is unlikely, of itself, to promote aggression, but in those already predisposed to violence, already holding the views expressed in the music, it may offer support for particular actions. A study of the perceptions of listeners revealed that very few believed that music affected their actual behaviour.

Despite this, belonging to a particular youth music culture, in some countries, can increase the likelihood of psychiatric hospitalisation. The relationship between listening to particular types of music and specific behaviours is still not well understood. Some have suggested that music imitates life and that rap and heavy metal music merely reflect the alienation, powerlessness and aggressiveness prevalent among some groups of adolescents. Social learning theory suggests that an individual's antisocial, aggressive responses are normally shaped by early experiences with parents and other significant adults.

When these role models are unavailable, children seek others to replace them, and music, and the people who play or sing it, may fill these gaps providing the listener with a sense of identity, peer acceptance and feelings of power. Drive reduction theory suggests that music can serve as a conduit for difficult feelings providing them with a harmless outlet rather like the steam coming out of a kettle. It is argued that if this outlet was not available there would be a greater likelihood of anti-social behaviour. An alternative suggestion is that music creates a state of arousal which can transfer to subsequent situations predisposing the individual to aggressive behaviour. None of these explanations alone may be sufficient to explain the relationship between music and behaviour in every case. There are complex interactions between the individual, his or her social history and circumstances and the effects of music.

While there is little hard evidence regarding the extent to which music directly influences self-directed behaviour we do know that music can influence our moods and some aspects of our behaviour in ways which may be outside our conscious awareness. How is this possible? The next section examines the neurological aspects of musical processing which underlie the effects of music.