Sunday, November 29, 2009
Popular Music
When reading the introduction to the book Understanding Society Through Popular Music, I came across a statement that said, "Musical choices are cultural choices. After all music is part of the way we choose to live our life" (Kotarba and Vannini 6-7). In today's classrooms, children are being exposed to popular music icons in their math and reading programs through books and videos. How do you think this will impact educational programs as society continues to market popular icons through their textbooks and reading materials? If "music is part of the way we choose to live our life," how might marketing music through children at school influence their choices as they grow?
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I personally think music has a huge impact on children's upbringing. A lot of the music that children and teens are exposed to in our era are very demoralizing, the lyrics have an extreme amount of sexual content and music video's display little clothing and sexual dancing. My research paper is on whether or not the lyrics of music cause adolescents to become sexually active at a younger age. In the process of my research I've come to find that yes lyrics of music are impacting adolescents to become sexually active at younger ages. Music is a huge part of children and teens daily routines. Adolescents listen to music from an hour to two hours a day. Music has a big impact on the way people live their lives and music is a very active part in adolescents.
ReplyDeleteI agree with McKenzie. Also Children are listening to music and learning "norms." I say this loosely because what music is portraying some of the time...maybe most, is not what is considered normal in our society. With scandalous lyrics and risque clothing/dances, music lyrics and videos are showing children that their actions are okay and normal, but if you were to walk down the street shouting profanity or wearing next to nothing, that is not a norm in our society.
ReplyDeleteActually there have been studies on this before, and lots of the research was directed at Disney's dominant role in the youth and teeny-bopper demographics. I do concur that the over-sexualization of music, especially targeted towards youth isn't good.
ReplyDeleteA lot of the music that children are listening to today is very inappropriate and the more children get exposed to it, the more they change. Now we see little elementary school kids with cell phones, with the latest trends, with make up, and some of them even curse. There has been a huge change in children, now I see that some kids are very disrespectful with their parents and some think they are very "independent". I feel like by introducing them to the popular music is only hurting their way of acting, thinking, and maturing. Now they look up to all of these artists instead of looking up to their parents or someone like a police officer, fire fighter, doctor, nurse, etc. Society itself is changing because we are now exposed to a lot more music and media that sometimes does not bring appropriate messages.
ReplyDeletewhat are some concrete reasons that the music is making kids change? for example, is it desensitizing them to it? or what is it that is bad about the music within the lyrics? specific examples? is the music a reflection of society or is society a reflection of our music? which comes first?
ReplyDeleteI think thatmusic is a rather large part of shaping our society. We learn so many things in the form as songs. For instance, the ABC's are learned through a song. This almost teaches children that music is a way to learn things. When rap songs with "bad" messages comes on the radio kids start to mimic the song like they did as a small child. Ithink this contributes to the large amount of sexuality we have in our society.
ReplyDeleteI agree that music is a large part of socialization growing up. Children sing songs in school, the abc's like Caitlin mentioned, and probably grow up listening to music at home or on the radio. I think that as children get older they look for a way to identify with music and even define themselves through music, or subcultures that come with it. I think music has become desensitizing in our culture. No longer is it out of the norm to hear music that is sexually explicit or centered around violence. I think the lyrics in music make deviant actions acceptable in the eyes of some. Britney Spears definitely has been an example of portraying sexual messages in her songs and Eminem, an example illustrating violence as way to solve problems. Overall I think that musicians have an influence on adolescent's identities, if they don't have a solid foundation in which to counteract these ideas of pro-sex & pro-violence as "normal" and "justified"
ReplyDeleteMusic is very influential. Children are first exposed it in as way of learning. I’ve been Nanning this little girl for two years, from two to four, and I’ve seen her learn her ABC’s, count to 10, to clean up, and learn to be nice to others through songs and music. I believe that you can influence a person through music in many ways, including advertisement and life styles. If music was marketed through children at school it would influence their choices depending on the message of the music.
ReplyDeleteI agree and believe that music is very influential to children and plays a large role in their upbringing. When children listen to particular songs with certain lyrics, they consider those things to be the norms in society such as lyrics pertaining violence and sexual content. Since music is a large part of young children and teens, the kinds of music they are exposed to and how the particular music artists dress and act will overall influence how the children are influenced. Especially since today a lot of it is very inappropriate and the young adolescence may not even know they meaning of what the artists are saying but still singing along and saying the lyrics as well.
ReplyDeleteI think that the type of music a child listens to makes a great impact in their life. I feel that there are many contributions that make a child decide to what type of music they listen to; such as what their friend's listen to, what someone the child looks up to may listen to(i.e. older sibling), the media, and what they are exposed to in school and at home. Although I think that many young children dont really understand what the actual meaning to the songs they listen to mean but they just tend to just listen and sing along I believe that songs related to sex, drugs, and being "perfect" will impact them in the long run.
ReplyDeleteincorporating music into a childs education could be very beneficial. music provides a unique integration of body and mind that is a crucial factor in childrens learning readiness for school subject such as reading, writing, and math. one solid way to increase the speed at which people learn in through music. some music can have very positive effects on learning and attitude. implementing music into the classroom can be a very helpfull tool. a program called LEAP, which is in New York, implements music into school curriculum to improve scholastic scores of children at all levels.
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