Adolescents and language change: the influence of American music

2.2 The interpretation of music texts

Now let us get down to connection between words and images of the songs. Let us talk about clips. However, what do you think of sense of these clips? Of course, in each clip, there is a hidden sense and something is on the surface. Sometimes the literal sense of a song and clip strikes.

For example, in the clip of Hermanos Inglesos «Wonderland» we can see a bird that uses drugs. This bird tries to escape from the problems. Drugs help it to set the soul free as drugs help to escape from reality. Watching this clip a teenager can associate himself with the bird. Why not? At teenage age, young people have problems and all want to escape from them. The bird shows us the picture of the unreal world. In the unreal world, there are no problems. In the unreal world, there are only entertainments. However, it is well known, when effect of drugs ends; we get back to the real world. In the real world, the problems remain with us. At the end of this clip the bird dies. It is good idea of this clip to show that drugs are not a harmless hobby. Such hobby has very negative consequences.

We would like to give a little statistic about teenagers and drugs. These statistics shows how many teenagers would like or have already tried drugs.

Pic. 1

The statistics was carried out among the first-year students. It really strikes. About 39 percent of teenagers tried drugs, 46 percent of teenagers would like to try them, and 6 percent - doubt the answer and only 9 percent - would not like to try drugs.

Such figures give food for thought. Why are drugs so interesting to teenagers? Why can we find online everything about them? Why do people incline to them? Where is no a certain answer. Nevertheless, we think that clips about drugs influence our mentality. It is dangerous to watch such videos.

In addition, I would like to tell about a Russian clip «The bottle of liqueur» of a Successful group. At the beginning of the clip people sing that, beer is a traditional drink for men. Men cannot live even a day without beer. They wake up and fall asleep with it. However, at the end of the clip guys nevertheless conclude that drinking is unhealthy and that it is better to do sports. The name of the group is «Successful group». It is extremely popular today. The videos they download on YouTube have already gained more than three million views. These clips are watched by teenagers, who try to follow their principles.

If we continue talking about bad habits, we can get down to the song of LP - «Lost on You». There are such words in the song:

Smoke' em if you got' em cause it's going down

Let us raise a glass оr two

To all the things I've lost on you

The song is about broken heart. In order to cope with the problems, it's a right thing to drink alcohol and smoke, according to the song. However, we should not ruin our health with cigarettes and alcohol and try to find out other ways to solve our problems.

Also in many clips, there are girls who are almost not dressed. Now it seems fashionable and cool to look at fit girls practically without clothes. It seems to us that it is vulgar. Teenagers who watch such videos begin to think that it is normal and start behaving and dressing like that.

For example in the clip «Clean Bandit» of Rockabye ft. Sean Paul & Anne-Marie we see a young single mother. She tries to support her child and that is why she works as a dancer. The sense of the words is very touching, but why has the mother decided to earn money in such a way? Up to us, to dance in bars to support the child is an extreme case. There would be possible to find another idea for the clip and not to show a half-naked girl. The clip is a stereotype of now you can behave yourself if such situation happens with you.

Presently there are many clips where video is not close to the words. It is really strange and unclear when we listen to words, which tell us about love, but in the music video, we see images absolutely opposite to the words. For example, Matthew Koma - «Kisses Back». Matthew sings to us:

I want my kisses back from you

I'm takin' all my kisses back from you

And every breath you held on to

I'm takin' all my kisses back from you

Give me the hello's and goodbyes

And pack up every morning and goodnight.

Nevertheless, in the clip we can see untied images. There is nothing common with kisses and unfortunate love.

On the other hand, we can find the sense in some clips. We can think up, understand our feelings and feelings of heroes. Possibly it can develop our imagination.

Not all modern clips have negative sense. We would like to pay attention to the positive clip of Katy Perry «Firework» is very positive. The song and the clip make us believe in ourselves, in the best and help to be sure in future. It is essential for teenagers because any teenager has different shortcomings, everyone has some problems, but the song and the clip help us to reconsider our life.

In the conclusion, we would like to tell that both «negative and positive clips» are possible to watch if you are able to analyze them. In our opinion, there are a lot less positive clips in our time. In this research, we described both «negative and positive clips» but they are those only according to our opinion.

Finally, we can see that the influence of music can be positive and negative. What kind of music we choose depends on us. It's also important when we listen to it and under what conditions. So the influence depends on that. That is why it is necessary to choose music that will bring you only positive emotions and it will be able to increase your efficiency, your creativity and even physical strength.

Conclusion

This literature review offered three arguments in favour of increasing developmental research on music in adolescent psychology. First, music can influence key aspects of adolescent development - for instance, aesthetics; identity; socialisation; emotion regulation and coping; personality and motivation; gender roles; and positive youth development. This list of music's developmental impacts is not exhaustive, but it nonetheless serves as a sound basis. Second, music can act as a protective and a risk factor during adolescence. These factors are complex and require considering the interplay among the person, the context, and the music. Third, music can serve as an adjunct component in prevention and intervention for adolescents. This is encouraging as adolescents may benefit more from preventive and clinical initiatives that reflect and respect their youth culture.

There are prospects for this burgeoning area of research. First, it is theoretically grounded in everyday youth culture within which music holds a key role. Second, it builds on and extends theories of development by delving into an everyday phenomenon that is ubiquitous in adolescence, namely music. Third, it uses sophisticated data analysis (e.g. structural equation modelling), statistical controls, longitudinal designs, large samples, experimental and sociometric designs to support the various hypotheses regarding the role of music during adolescence. Fourth, the studies are being conducted in different parts of the world (e.g. Australia, Canada, Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States), thereby reminding that music is important for many adolescents (and researchers) across many societies. Finally, it can generate developmentally attuned practices for supporting and improving prevention and psychotherapy among adolescents who listen to music.

However, there are also major caveats. First, there is no nomenclature in which the developmental correlates of music can be situated within an integrative roadmap. Second, there is a flagrant lack of cultural studies, especially among ethnic-minority adolescents for whom music can be a cross-cultural and inter-generational resource. Third, music is usually studied in a vacuum, as though no other social media (e.g. social networks on the Internet) or physical activities (e.g. dancing to music) are involved. Fourth, there seems to be limited communication between researchers and therapists, despite their common interest in music. Lastly, there is a scarcity of programmatic mixed-method research that attempts to replicate findings by combining different factors (biological, psychological, social, and cultural) and methods (e.g. quantitative, qualitative, experimental, longitudinal).

To conclude, music can represent a developmental resource and psychological research on music opens up a scientific window to the psychological, social, and cultural needs of contemporary adolescents. Therefore, building bridges between the psychology of music and developmental psychology is an attuned initiative to better listen to the everyday sounds of adolescence.

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