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[cis.livejournal.com]

Article from The Age about the link between what music teens listen to and what behaviour they display:

A study, published in today's Australasian Psychiatry journal, found that teens who listened to pop music were more likely to be struggling with their sexuality, those tuning in to rap or heavy metal could be having unprotected sex and drink-driving, and those who favoured jazz were usually misfits and loners. There seems to be some distinction between 'rap' and 'hip-hop' at work here, though, since "teens who listened to hip-hop were usually less troublesome."

The study's author seems very keen to emphasise that the music isn't causing anything, that it's as it were just another symptom of the teenager's emotional situation. It's odd there's no mention of accepted-peer-group behaviour, which I would think of as fundamentally important (kids who like raving take drugs, you say?). But there's still something I don't like about it. I suspect my reaction's not entirely rational: even though I do believe there's a link, my gorge still rises at the idea of adults (adults! as if they could ever understand) trying to read teenagers' emotions and likely behaviour from their musical tastes. It's not, thank tegoshi, on a 'blaming nu-metal for school shootings' level, but it feels like it's - inadvertently - encouraging the school of of 'aha you like emo you are depressed you are part of my chemical romance's sinister cult and likely to commit suicide any moment.'

ANYWAY. Poptimists: any links made by this study which surprise you? Any links between genre-of-pop-listened-to and general-behaviour that they've missed? Is someone going to pull out that hoary old Hornby quote about the relationship between being sad and listening to pop music? Burning questions, I'm sure you'll agree.

Comments

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

When I was an angsty seventeen-year-old (ie: five years ago or so) I was once having one of those traditional teenage 'hack yrself to ribbons with a razor' sessions whilst listening to Zane Lowe (I know, I'm sorry) when a song by Bullet For My Valentine came on and I promptly felt so embarassed I had to go and find some tissues and clean myself up.

Some of my friends had a discussion about this article on Facebook a few days ago which I keep meaning to read through but haven't had time yet. I would link to it but that would seem a bit rude somehow.

There is some truth, most likely, to the idea that if a psychiatrist knows a lot about music, they can probably tell stuff about kids' mental state by what they're listening to but this is also true of adults and in any case presupposes that all of these genres are available within a child's social sphere as options, which they're usually not tbh. Asking patients to name a few songs (if any) that they find helpful to them when they feel their mental health issues are becoming problematic for them might well by psychiatrically interesting, if the songs were then taken away and examined or asking them to talk about lyrics they really relate to or why they enjoy the music they like would also be valid, to me but making base assumptions on a patients' mental state based on music they like (unless they've said "'4st7lbs' by the Manics, 'Ana's Song' by Silverchair and 'Fattest Thin' by Humanwine" or something obvious like that) is absolute crap. Particularly since I note there is no genre-section in their study for Stars, which, as any fule kno is the band everyone listens to when most likely to off themselves.

Any genre of music has all kinds of dark under/overtones and no particular scene has more killin' yrself or DRUGZ than any other, as far as I can tell. The indie kids at my uni were the most likely ones to be tripping their faces off, anyway.

[cis.livejournal.com]

hahaha oh seventeen-year-old Moggy, well done. I once had an in-retrospect-excruciatingly-embarrassing conversation with a friend where I couldn't really get how she could be cutting herself and yet not like the Manics (she liked Tori Amos instead, which is the source of my theory that some bands are like cowpox and if you've got one you're inoculated against the rest).

Your thing of 'if a psychiatrist knows a lot about music' reminded me of something I'd thought about linking, which is a j0hn d4rn13ll3 article off lastplanetojakarta, here (http://www.lastplanetojakarta.com/articles/stripes.html): "In the field I work in – care of adolescents and pre-adolescents with behavioral difficulties — there are several positive answers to this question [ “Hey, man, who’s the best rock band in the world?”], but those several are set in stone. They are: “I like rap”; “Creed” or “Nirvana”; and “Linkin Park.” The young women with whom I do most of my work tend to prefer the radio to focusing on individual acts or groups, but most young men I meet do the same thing my own peers and I did in the sixth grade: they invest some part of their identity, small or large, in the bands they like, and are eager to share their opinions with adults, whom they anticipate will announce distaste for their music, thereby solidifying their affection for same."

Which is, I suppose, exactly it. And here the question is a way of getting to know a teenager, of starting up a conversation -- it's not just a straight-up 'your answer will give me some clue about your psyche ok'. I really like your idea of 'songs which are helpful to them', too: knowing what it is people are getting from the music they're into is more important than just knowing what kind of music it is.