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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

[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.