Music Influence

Music wakes us up in the morning, makes us want to dance, soothes us when we're feeling sad and grates on some folks nerves in the elevator. From infancy to adulthood it is an integral part of our lives.

Teenagers become absorbed in songs they believe help better define them into this rocky transition into adulthood.

Paediatricians who have specialised in adolescent medicine are keenly aware of how crucial music is to a teen's identity and how it helps them define important social and sub cultural boundaries, teens listen to on average 40 hours of music per week.

Whilst looking at music lyrics, in the past 4 decades, lyrics have become increasingly explicit particularly with reference to Drugs, sex, sexual violence etc. And the greatest concern in music lyrics is Heavy Metal and Rap genres often the songs "as they compound the environment in which dome adolescents increasingly are confronted with pregnancy, drug use, AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, injuries, homicide and suicide'.

To date no studies have documented a cause and effect relationship between sexually explicit or violent lyrics and adverse behavioural effects, however there is an acknowledged overall effect that music has an effect on people. If it didn't have an effect on people in general there would be no point listening to it.

American Statistics show (in music lyrics) Forty-seven percent (47%) of mothers with children in public schools believe that violent messages in rap music contribute "a great deal" to school violence, and 66% of 13- to 17-year-olds believe violence in music is partly responsible for violent crimes like the 1999 Columbine High School shootings.

When i was looking at song choices i thought long and hard about what song to use and i did look at the lyrics and what meanings could be concluded from them. Even from personal experience i know that songs do have a major influence on a person's state of mind. I believe that the song i have chosen can be related to many teenagers lives but at the same time it is quite an upbeat song even if the lyrics are a bit more emotional.