Music is one of the driving forces in making culture what it is in the United States and across the world. All across the world people listen to and enjoy music. People listen to it daily. If you listen to something 1-2 hours a day, no matter what it is, it will have and impact on you. Music can affect the way you think, act, and talk. There is so many types of music you can make this a good thing or a bad thing. If you fill you head with bad music it might have a bad influence on your life. It could affect your decision making in many ways. If you constantly listen to music that degrades women, the way you look at women might change in a way that is not healthy. Music is great but people need to be selective on what they listen to.
Rap started to take over the country in the early 90's. In California it started in pretty heavily. After that it started in California it started to go all over the nation. Rap is one of music genre's that most heavily impacts culture. Rap is so strong in it's opinions and so influential that people really change the way they act and dress because they see rappers do it. People literally started sagging their pants because they saw rappers do it. That is one of the most prime examples of how music can impact culture in a major way. Different environments will have different types of music more prevalent where they are at. For example I have been around college football for the past four years and rap is a huge part of the culture in college football. It is listened pregame in almost every game around the country each year. Rap is music that you will pretty much hear across the country especially with the youth. One reason why the youth flock to it is because rap is so rebellious and young people at times flock to that.
I know from personal experience on how impactful Christian music can be to a culture. When you have the power of God working in music that music is gonna be impactful. If you go to certain churches you will see people screaming, crying, and singing to amazing worship music. Worship music can impact a person's life in so many ways. It will help them be less violent and more loving, less eardable and more patient, and more forgiving than hateful. If a group of people are listening to worship music the impact it will have on them culturally is gigantic. Sometimes it is hard to just measure how much culture is changed but it's something you can just see with your eyes and feel with your heart.
I think that certain music has affect both males and females in a very negative way. I think the sexualization in music has been detrimental to females and males. A lot of rap music has glorified twerking and other things of this nature where twenty years ago it was taboo or unacceptable and today it has been changed. Those types of things are celebrated by many groups of people. It's very sad to see people lose morals and not really understand what they're doing. At the end of the day music changes culture in so many ways, good and bad. I think it's crazy how normalized this type of music has become. You could go to a family friendly environment like a high school basketball game and hear the most absurd music. It's disappointing to see how normalized all of it has become.
One of the most recent impacts of music on culture is the new song by Oliver Anthony called Rich Men North of Richmond. This song has completely taken over the internet and the country. The song can relate to most walks of life no matter who you are or where you are from. The song has people talking about how the worlds is today and where the country is as a whole. He was juts on the Joe Rogan podcast which is literally the biggest podcast in the world. That shows you the type of reach one song and one person can have.
Overall music has such a major impact on culture. Depending on what music you hear will impact how it affects you and the culture around you. Music can be a tool to help motivate you and push you to do great things. Music can inspire you and help make people happier.. Music is a double edged sword though, it can have many negative affects as well. People need to be careful with what they listen to, watch, and who they hang out with. Guard your hearts people!!
This is definitely one of my favorite blog posts!! So cool to see such an informative and appreciative post of music. I can not speak for others, but for me personally music has saved my life many times.
I remember I didn't believe that music can control one's mood. But, a month ago I listened to KI Theory's Silence album, with depressive and impactful lyrics and dark melodies I began to actually feel bad with myself. Later I listened to Chypho's Entomongaku and I felt much happier with energy, after all it's an album full of optimistic melodies, the majority of them. Your posts made good points on these perspectives, I often found troubles on selecting the appropriate music for the right time. I would have liked to see more examples in your post as I find Christian music kind of dull. It sounds good indeed, but the majority of songs can be somewhat repetitive. For example, …
Great read! I can talk for hours at a time about music. I grew up listening to christian music and there was a time where they challenged us to ONLY listen to christian music and watch how much it impacted our mood and they were right, surprisingly! Fun fact, I sang in the church praise team for years and it was great. :)
I love listening to music and whole heartedly agree that it can effect our emotions and views on people and the world. It's also crazy the memories and emotions that certain songs can create in someone, because they listened to it for a specific reason 10 years ago. I like your discussion of music in church and how singing about God can be so impactful for people because of the weight the songs carry!
I can still recall lyrics to songs I grew up listening to, and I think music has a unique ability to stick in our minds more so, or at least differently than, other types of media. I love what Emalie shared about music and older adults—that's fascinating (and could be a cool topic to explore in another blog post for someone interested)!