December 31, 1997
Studies Show It's Not Just Rock and Roll
PORTLAND, Ore.-- ï A North Dakotan father blames the death of his 15-year-old son on a Marilyn Manson CD. ï President Clinton admonishes the entertainment media to assume responsibility along with parents, for raising the nation's youth. ï Even Plato was concerned about the effects of popular music on the moral education of Roman youth.
Yet anyone who knows an adolescent knows that adolescent received some form of music media this holiday season and is using it today.
"For every adult who is convinced pop music is responsible for the moral decay of our youth, there is an adolescent who believes music is the only positive force in contemporary society," says Peter Christenson, professor of communication at Lewis & Clark College and coauthor of a new book on youth and music.
Because popular music arouses such intense reactions, public debate often arises from nothing more than sensational media coverage and often proceeds as if there were no research at all, Christenson comments.
A new book, It's Not Only Rock and Roll: Popular Music in the Lives of Adolescents (Hampton Press) by Peter Christenson, professor of communication at Lewis & Clark College, and Donald Roberts, the Thomas More Storke Professor of Communication at Stanford University, documents the wealth of research on the topic and strives to bring rationality to the volatile debate.
The book's title incorporates a line from a 1974 Rolling Stones song: "I know it's only rock and roll, but I like it."
"The Stones knew this was a lie even as they sang it," Christenson writes. "Then as now, it wasn't only rock and roll, and kids didn't just like it, they loved it. The music was their greatest source of pleasure, and it stood for who they were."
In one study, researchers asked adolescents to choose what mass media they would take with them if they were stranded on a desert island. Most of the kids picked music over TV, newspapers, magazines, books and so on.
Another study showed American adolescents spend between four and five hours a day listening to music and watching music videos--at least as much time as they spend watching television and more than they spend with their friends outside of school.
"'Boomboxes,' Walkmans, and personal CD players are now standard adolescent gear. Few teenagers drive even a minute in a car without the car stereo playing, and even fewer lack music playback equipment in their bedrooms," says Christenson.
Is popular music as dangerous as often portrayed? How does it affect behavior?
"Music alters and intensifies their (adolescents') moods, furnishes much of their slang and dominates their conversations," according to the authors. "Music styles define the crowds and cliques they run in. Music personalities provide models for how they act and dress. It shapes patterns of group interaction, alters study habits and damages eardrums."
But the effects parents fear most--violence, rebelliousness, drug use, sexual behavior--are not broad or massive, according to the Christenson.
"For most people, adolescence is a period of normal, gradual development in considerable harmony with parental values and cultural expectations," he says.
On the other hand, music does appear to be dangerous for some youth, particularly those who are already troubled.
"To ignore the negative effects of music media exposure because they impinge only on certain subgroups makes no more sense than to ignore the causes of homicide because only a tiny minority ever commits murder," the authors say.
"Perhaps most disturbing is the negative impact of listening to music while studying and doing homework," Christenson emphasizes.
The authors report several studies indicating that regardless of what adolescents say and think, the evidence shows homework and other serious cognitive activities are impaired when listening to pop music.
What should parents do?
Christenson and Roberts believe it is the parents' role to be the final arbiter of the values, beliefs, and behaviors each family defines. They suggest adults adopt a stance of respectful disagreement with the negative values they see in some music.
The authors even provide parents with suggested wording: "'Look, I cannot and should not censor your music...But I want you to know that I not only disagree with but fundamentally abhor any message that degrades women or different ethnic groups, and I request that you not play them in my presence. Can we agree on that?'
"Most of the time, most kids will agree," Christenson predicts. "Such a statement does not forbid them to hear the music, nor does it really restrict their freedom, and most will understand and probably respect their parent's honest expression of disapproval. (When they think about it--and such parental statements will motivate them to think--most kids probably disapprove, too.) Perhaps most important, the message is sent: "Here is a value I hold for my family and for my home, and I would like you to respect it."
At the same time, authors advise teachers and administrators to avoid stigmatizing peer groups based on music. That only drives the wedge deeper between the adolescents who most need to be reached and mainstream culture.
The book concludes with a quote by Charles Krauthammer of the Washington Post: "Most people...fervently believe in the connection between good art and the good society...And yet the corollary--if good art can elevate, bad art can degrade--is a proposition they refuse to grasp."
"If culture is important to people, if they take it seriously, then it has some influence on them as well," the authors say. "Some of its consequences are positive, some negative, and some neutral, but there is no question that popular music has important consequences. It's not 'only' rock and roll."
Some surprising findings:
ï Label warnings of explicit lyrics on recordings prompt adolescents in general to like the music less. They see it as "tainted fruit" rather than "forbidden fruit" they must try, Christenson found in the only study done on music labeling. Not everyone in the study reacted negatively to the labeled music, however. "An advisory sticker might well be a come-on for some kids who are alienated from their parents, their school or the mainstream peer culture."
ï Music videos are a "powerful new force" in adolescent culture, but they don't seem to hold adolescents' interest nearly as long as the music itself. It is the youngest adolescents who watch MTV and other music videos the most, but older adolescents devote more total time to music.
ï When kids tell their parents that the "sound" of music matters more to them than the lyrics, there is considerable evidence to support them. Averages, however, conceal ranges, and the more involved adolescents are with music, the more they listen to the lyrics. For many youth, however, "music is often a secondary, background activity rather than a primary foreground one. It serves as a backdrop to other activities--reading, studying, talking, housework, driving."
ï Parenting books, psychoanalysts and mass media all portray the adolescent stage of life as full of crisis, rebellion against adult authority and conflict, the authors say, but research doesn't support the stereotype. "For most kids adolescence is a period of normal, gradual development in considerable harmony with parental values and cultural expectations." For about 10 percent of families, serious generational conflicts dominate and another 25 percent find the period less happy for their families than earlier years."
Christenson received his bachelor's degree in 1968 from Dartmouth College, his master's degree in 1972 from the University of Oregon and his doctorate in communications in 1980 from Stanford University. In addition to his academic career, he has performed professionally as a musician. Roberts received his bachelor's degree from Columbia University, his master's degree from the University of California at Berkeley and his doctorate from Stanford University.
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Contact:
Jean Kempe-Ware
Director of Public Relations
Lewis & Clark College
(503) 768-7963 (O)
Peter Christenson
Professor of Communication
Lewis & Clark College
(503) 768-7614
kempe
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