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Music, a lifestyle choice?
Music maybe well be an overlooked aspect of the life that one chooses to lead; I do use the word ‘may’ here with some degree of caution. Does the sort of music a person chooses to listen to have an impact on their lifestyle or does a person’s lifestyle denote the sort of music a person will listen to?
It is no coincidence that the majority of people who listen to rap and hip hop music tend to aspire to or relate to gang behaviour and suchlike. Especially in North America this can be shown; the street gangs roll around in their pimped-up cars listening to rap music, not hardcore Swedish trance or Slipknot. Now rap music generally talk about “popping caps in people’s ass”, something gangs (especially in North America) tend to do. So the question I am asking is does listening to these lyrics make a person more inclined to indulge in gang behaviour, or does their gang behaviour lead them to listen to music that reflects their lifestyle? Then there is the matter of “bling”. Do people who wear “bling” do so because they think it looks good or because of the fact their musical idols do so? I’d be inclined to say it was the latter. Then there are other things; people who are in gangs and listen to rap music are also more likely to carry a gun on their person with the intent of using it (again, mostly in North America) – does this stem from listening to lyrics about guns and violence or would they still carry weapons without their choice of music?
Moving away from rap, is it a coincidence that people who listen to metal or ‘gothic’ music generally have a more negative outlook on life? The lyrics of most metal/grunge/goth bands are typically about how bad life is, how people are the diseases on the face on the crumbling Earth and we’ll all die alone and be forgotten. Whilst depression can be a medical thing that has nothing to do with anything else, it can also be due to ones activities and if a person listens to a band telling them how bad life is, surely that will have an impact on their outlook. Or could it be that already depressed or angst-filled people turn to metal/grunge/goth music because it reflects their own lives in some way, and as such provides an outlet of some sort by listening to it?
You can also ask the same questions of people who listen to pop music; without pop music would they still be the same air-headed giggle-bags who think they’re God’s gift to the opposite sex, or do empty boy-band lyrics turn them that way? Does classical music make you 50 and own a Mercedes or is it a status thing? Do people who miss their youth listen to music from their ‘own generation’ to try and rekindle their youth, or do they just like the music? Then you can ask, are people with broader music tastes more socially accepted than those with niche tastes in music?
You can ask the question for any genre of music, I believe.
What would be really interesting would be to take music away from society and see what happened. Would gang behaviour dry up, would depressed teenagers stop crying their nights away in their room listening to Nirvana and would trance fans stop popping pills and twitching? Or would segregated culture survive without music to accentuate its being? Who knows, but its certainly a good point to ponder.
Music maybe well be an overlooked aspect of the life that one chooses to lead; I do use the word ‘may’ here with some degree of caution. Does the sort of music a person chooses to listen to have an impact on their lifestyle or does a person’s lifestyle denote the sort of music a person will listen to?
It is no coincidence that the majority of people who listen to rap and hip hop music tend to aspire to or relate to gang behaviour and suchlike. Especially in North America this can be shown; the street gangs roll around in their pimped-up cars listening to rap music, not hardcore Swedish trance or Slipknot. Now rap music generally talk about “popping caps in people’s ass”, something gangs (especially in North America) tend to do. So the question I am asking is does listening to these lyrics make a person more inclined to indulge in gang behaviour, or does their gang behaviour lead them to listen to music that reflects their lifestyle? Then there is the matter of “bling”. Do people who wear “bling” do so because they think it looks good or because of the fact their musical idols do so? I’d be inclined to say it was the latter. Then there are other things; people who are in gangs and listen to rap music are also more likely to carry a gun on their person with the intent of using it (again, mostly in North America) – does this stem from listening to lyrics about guns and violence or would they still carry weapons without their choice of music?
Moving away from rap, is it a coincidence that people who listen to metal or ‘gothic’ music generally have a more negative outlook on life? The lyrics of most metal/grunge/goth bands are typically about how bad life is, how people are the diseases on the face on the crumbling Earth and we’ll all die alone and be forgotten. Whilst depression can be a medical thing that has nothing to do with anything else, it can also be due to ones activities and if a person listens to a band telling them how bad life is, surely that will have an impact on their outlook. Or could it be that already depressed or angst-filled people turn to metal/grunge/goth music because it reflects their own lives in some way, and as such provides an outlet of some sort by listening to it?
You can also ask the same questions of people who listen to pop music; without pop music would they still be the same air-headed giggle-bags who think they’re God’s gift to the opposite sex, or do empty boy-band lyrics turn them that way? Does classical music make you 50 and own a Mercedes or is it a status thing? Do people who miss their youth listen to music from their ‘own generation’ to try and rekindle their youth, or do they just like the music? Then you can ask, are people with broader music tastes more socially accepted than those with niche tastes in music?
You can ask the question for any genre of music, I believe.
What would be really interesting would be to take music away from society and see what happened. Would gang behaviour dry up, would depressed teenagers stop crying their nights away in their room listening to Nirvana and would trance fans stop popping pills and twitching? Or would segregated culture survive without music to accentuate its being? Who knows, but its certainly a good point to ponder.
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Depends if you choose to label yourself as a fan of a particular 'type' of music I suppose. That just proves your subscribing to the group-culture aspect of it. I think it's very close-minded, but everyone goes through it in their teens I guess. An adult that still feels that way is very sad if you ask me.
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