Non Violent Music Thesis Statement

This reference shows how music lays a foundation of teenage values beyond school or parental teaching. A musical artist can influence a young mind by the chosen lyrics with greater effectiveness than formal education. Music can control or enhance moods. A good mood can get better or a bad mood can be worked through with the choice of music. A bad mood can also be enhanced by lyrics about suicide or violent behavior. Teens can also use music to gain information about the adult world, to withdraw from social contact, facilitate friendships and social settings, or to help them create a personal identity. (O'Toole, 1997)

Great music can sometimes can turn just an ordinary day into something magical, spiritual even. The effects music has on the human mind, can spread further; right through our genetic code and throughout our bodies. With all the good that can come with music, negative effects are not too far behind. Music has been the center focal point for parents and politicians alike to use it as a scapegoat to help push their political and parent agenda. To help mold children and adolescents into something they were never meant to be.

I agree that violent or antisocial lyrics heavily influence the behavior of young people who listen to the lyrics. I agree because younger people are more easily influenced and peer pressured. Moreover, the meaning behind the lyrics and the lyrics may speak or pressure young people to try something. As a young person that listens to music a lot, lyrics speak volume to me and influence me at times. Young people may also want to act out or copy the meanings behind the lyrics like violent acts. For example, a teenager listening to a violent rap song with lyrics stating that you need to beat somebody up if they offend you. The teenager may act out or reproduce that lyric if someone offends him because of an artist’s influence on him. Artists that create these songs and lyrics influence their young audience with their choice of words.

Many Teens and adults don’t understand how harmful music can be. It has a very big effect on us in a good way like calming us down, or the bad way like making us more aggressive by listening to metal. People these days listen more to music than to anything else. It is a big problem, for a lot of people because, the songs that today's teens like having a lot of cursing, violence and thing like that. Most young people have a big influence on music lyrics. Music like heavy metal and similar styles have a bad effect on the person that is listening to it. Also calm music and good lyrics, can calm a person down, make him relaxed, and get him a great feeling for the rest of the day. Most people will say that music is a big part of their live, and when we live with the music we are listening to it so that we can look like the image that the song is giving. Whether it's a good image or not.

The corruptness of music today seems to be linked to the crude language and aggression found particularly in hip-hop and rap music. Some rap artists use vulgar language in their lyrics that are easily adoptable by teens (Holden). Not only have certain lyrics influenced the way teens speak but also their actions. An article on Headliners.org stated that “lyrics in the music are too violent and are to blame for many problems.” The problems range anywhere from suicide and aggression towards women to underage drinking and drug use. Lyrics are not only to blame, but also what people see in artists’ music videos can affect what they do (Doaks). The urge to emulate these rap musicians has escalated quickly causing a spike in rebellious tendencies among teens.

In life, music affects everything many people look at all the different stories of teenagers committing violent acts and have begun to wonder can violent songs make teens violent? With all the violent acts that music glorifies as of recently many psychologists and parents alike have begun to wonder why certain types of music cause their children and teenagers to become so violent. Because of the questions that violent songs raise and why teenagers have started to gravitate towards violent songs more than ever before. Some factors that could be reasons as to why violent songs have such a powerful effect on teenagers could be that: teenagers learn violence from their surroundings, teenagers can have a history of violence, and violent songs give teens a place to vent their frustrations at,

Music Cannot Be Blamed for Crime and Violence Since the beginning of time, music has been the heart and soul for

To what extent can music provide a means of resistance for challenging the power relations of racism, class and gender?

Music has more of an influence on the people in the twenty-first century than it ever has before. Teens, especially, are surrounded by some sort of it in everything they are around or do. Many disagree on how music impacts one’s mental state and behavior; however, all agree that the impact depends on how the listener feels before and how they allow it to influence them.

Boom, boom! Boom, boom! The kind of bass that drains batteries and the kind of lyrics that unload clips, these are the sounds that rap music produces. I chose this topic because I am extremely interested in rap music and I want to explore the violent aspect of the industry. I have never had a chance to look at the violent side of it and I plan to find answers to questions I have in my search. Tupac Shakur is one of my favorite artists and when he was shot and killed I really started to take notice of the violence. People were getting killed because of an image that was being set. What I really want to know, however, is why rappers feel compelled to graphically describe the violence.

Like many musical genre before rap, some people believe that rap music influenced teenagers in a negative way that could lead to violence. Some criminals have blamed movies, books, and music as inspiration for their crimes. However, one cannot solely rely on these sources as the main reason for any act whether good or bad. “Millions of heavy metal and gangsta rap fans spend hours with their chosen music genres and never threaten others or themselves. Moreover, most researchers concerned with the causes of suicide and violence point to a broad array of risk factors unrelated to popular culture (e.g., depression, access to guns, substance abuse, etc.) that seem to be precursors of such

The impact music has on the life of people is very powerful. It can easily revamp the way people act and take control of people’s emotions. Rap music is a very common and popular type of music within the world today. Rap music has existed since the mid 1970s, nowadays it is practically everywhere. It is easily a central focus of many young people’s lives. Rap music was essentially intended to create a voicing of one’s frustrations and disappointment with society, it has recently taken a turn and is creating a negative impact on the youth. It is the root that influences and encourages degrading women, violence, and is filled with sexual content.

Music is one of the most popular ways of expression and has been for generations. It makes us want to dance, inspires, soothes, relaxes, and sometimes tells us a story. Music is something the whole world shares and has brought together different kinds of people. However, there has been a question on whether some music has affected society negatively and crossed the line with some of its lyrics, content, and the persona of the artists. Certain music has been boycotted and even banned in the U.S. Pro-censorship supporters say that music is something that can deeply affect our society especially children who should not have to be subjected to things like violence, sex, drugs, or hate. However, being that music is a form of expression,

From an early age, listening to music can be influential in the development of a child. In fact, researchers believe that children who grow up hearing music and singing songs are exposed to a wide variety of smells, textures, sounds and colors that forge pathways between cells in their brains (“Music and Preschoolers”). However, a child’s musical experience is not limited to just the music they hear at preschool but also to the music they see on television and hear their parents listen too. Often, a child will hear the beat of song and begin singing the lyrics. The child is unconscious of the negative impact the lyrics or artist is portraying as acceptable behavior. Pop artists including: Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars, portray gender roles of sexuality, suggestiveness and aggressiveness as acceptable behavior. The music industry must be cognitive of how lyrics and music videos negatively impact our youth and begin to promote more positive alternatives such as Indie Pop Band “The 1975” whose lyrics and videos encourage individuality and acceptance of one another.

Media takes all forms of shapes, from video games to music it influences people daily because we are always surrounded by it. Music especially impacts individuals because in a lot of ways it can say what we want to say in times when we as individuals cannot say it. In those times we lean on music to help us understand the hardship we are going through, or as a mechanism to face our feelings or to block them out. Interpersonal violence which is defined as an individual using power over another in the form of violence whether that be emotional, physical, or sexual. With the many forms of interpersonal violence it’s apparent that it has been expressed in the form of music for quite a while, and sometimes not always in a preventative way. By