On the Communicative Properties of Music

Abstract

Music plays a variety of roles as an agent of social utility and source of entertainment. For young people in particular, music helps unify social collectives, introduces new topics, teaches society's norms and rules, and creates new symbols. Because active use of a medium increases its effect as an agent of socialization, music has an impact at physical, emotional, and cognitive levels. The modern rock movement is especially important when considering the activities of adolescents in the U.S. and Europe.

Constructing personality and social reality through music: Individual differences among fans of punk and heavy metal music

“…By virtue of their growing presence in the lives of young people, electronic media play an increasingly important role in socialization, which is the acquisition, maintenance, and modification of the social beliefs, attitudes, and values that form the core of an individual's understanding of social reality (Baxter, De Riemer, Landini, Leslie, & Singletary, 1985;Ellis, 1983;Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli, 1980Larson & Kubey, 1983;Lull, 1985). Past research indicates that adolescents are likely to find an important niche in the vast electronic environment of popular music.…”

“…Avery, 1979;Larson & Kubey, 1983). It is not surprising, then, that previous researchers have discovered that 336 JOBEM 35:3 Summer 1991 popular music plays a major role in adolescent socialization (Gantz, Gartenberg, Pearson, & Schiller, 1978;Lull, 1985;Sun & Lull, 1986). Apparently, adolescents realize this as well; one of the most important reasons cited by adolescents for seeking exposure to popular music is to learn about their social world (Sun & Lull, 1986).…”

“…Common elements are present in most popular music (i.e., the expression of nontraditional values [Lull, 1985]), but there are distinct differences between subcategories. Punk rock and heavy metal, for example, may seem indistiguishable to the nonfan, but are actually characterized by distinctive musical elements and themes.…”

“…The prevalent themes in heavy metal might be characterized as sexual, violent, antisocial, and callous toward women (Bashe, 1985;cf. Desmond, 1987;Lull, 1985). Further, heavy metal music has been strongly criticized for its sexual, violent, occult, drug-related, and antisocial lyrics (Bashe, 1985;Gore, 1987).…”

Identity and self-esteem in the context of music and music therapy: a review

“…Moreover, music is a form of expression -people use it both to express themselves and to gain knowledge about others. This comes as no surprise when we consider research findings on people who use music, both consciously and unconsciously, to demonstrate certain attitudes, values, and beliefs (Lull, 1987;Larson, 1995;. Unsurprisingly, then, drawing on what is discussed above, music psychology developed a notion of identity, musical identity in this case, which refers to the Self that creates and listens (Hargreaves, Miell, & MacDonald, 2002).…”