Music and the Construction of Personal and Social Identities

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Structural cultural context
Ethnicity and race
Family: Peers versus parents
School and status
Gender and sexuality
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

Music is seen an essential communication channel. It offers a means through which individuals and groups can share their aims, values and emotions even though the spoken languages might be mutually incomprehensible. Music further provides dynamic links for human interactions, particularly individuals whose distinctive wants make other communication means rather difficult or demanding.

Nowadays, music plays a more significant role in shaping individuals’ lives as compared to any other historical period. This can be attributed to the rapid technological advancements and increasing economic influence of the music industry.

Despite the relative difference between the current and the past music experience, it is clear that music has increasingly been used in the construction of the youths’ identities.

This paper presents an overview of the studies that have supported the increasing knowledge and appreciation of the role of music in constructing the youth identities. The process does not simply involve aspects of personal identity, but equally includes the essential social aspects relating to ethnicity and race, family such as peers versus parents, school, status and gender.

Structural cultural context

Youth encounter a series of indulgence desires and essential social world thoughts in their development. The orientation spheres shape the way young people use media, particularly music (Eyerman and Jamison 466). Four dimensions that have been identified to be of a great essence in shaping youth identities include ethnicity and race, family (peers versus parents), school and status as well as gender and sexuality.

Ethnicity and race

While music such as Blues and Jazz have been associated with the black musicians for quite some time, the connection between ethnicity and audience of the popular music which was common in the U.S. did not emerge in Europe till 1970s. Besides, Ska and soul music emerged in the 1960s and 1970s yet they did not construct the youths’ identity so much.

However, the triumph of reggae music in the 1970s showed that there were ethnically non-European subcultures that used music to reinforce their identities. Reggae music was deeply immersed with Rastafarian inspirations since it was a remonstration music intended to draw attention of the youthful blacks who came from the remote cities.

Even though Rasta was commonly found in some European cities, the Rastafarian movement unveiled its most noticeable existence in Britain. It was the most undisputed socially significant development in Britain because it served its purpose as an important source of identity for the marginalized youthful blacks (Danesi 67). Thus, youthful blacks use reggae music to identify and distinguish themselves from any kind of the whites’ racialism.

However, few exceptions have been noted regarding the use of music by the marginalized youth. For instance, youths have used music to set the ethnic and race boundaries. A clear illustration is in Western Europe where it is very complicated to question the cultural and ideological youths’ association in different ethnicities. The use of music by the marginalized ethnic groups is absolutely too patchy.

It is only obvious that mediated popular cultures and media discourses play considerable roles in modeling the manner in which the ethnically based groups observe each other. While music might assist in dissolving ethnic boundaries, it may occasionally strengthen and even help in shaping them (Eyerman and Jamison 452). Youths from different ethnic environments, thus, resort to music to create their own ethnic and cultural identities.

Family: Peers versus parents

Social recognition in peer groups is an interesting concern during youth (Von Feilitzen and Roe 227). Social organizations including school and family put much emphasis on the importance of being successful. In such institutions, welcomed group participation, acceptance or membership might refer to school groups, peers, family, ethnic subcultures or to the wider social class world.

Achievement might also take place within one of such social grounds. Unfortunately, most of the visible forms of validating social achievements including success at schools, perhaps, have petite potential to generate the peers’ popularity as compared to music.

In fact, the impact of music on peer group relationships significantly affects various aspects of youthful life. Imitation of speech, consumption tastes, leisure forms and dressing codes of the music idols by the youth has generated peer influence and resulted in frictions with parents.

Furthermore, as peer orientation, school failures and poor familial adjustment increase, peer group attachments increases. Early and considerable movements away from parental orientations towards peer group orientations seem to have a strong connection with musical preferences, interests and identification with particular music centered subgroups.

Youths who are parent oriented are less likely to develop musical interests and might less often listen to it. However, peer oriented youths tend to display greater musical interests and would extensively listen to it. This kind of music listened by these groups differ significantly (Eyerman and Jamison 459).

Peer oriented youths prefer listening to more socially disvalued and hard rock music whereas parent oriented youths give much preference to classical, jazz and blues.

Finally, research evidence clearly indicates that family problems might provoke youths to make even greater music and peer-group investments than normal at this particular life-stage.

This could make youths get indulged into music movements founded by youth cultures that are blatantly anti-adults. As regard to this, it is apparent that the chosen youth subcultures and their preferred music offer marginalized identity sources to those tendered by home contexts.

School and status

Von Feilitzen and Roe claim that youths sharing same statuses and education level have their own musical subcultures and cultural orientation developments (p. 227). Youth cultures that identify themselves and are strongly attached to certain types of music including heavy metal rock tend to negatively perform in school.

Such youths are low achievers and are very discontented male youth who come from low working class and powerless families. However, certain musical preferences including blues, jazz and classical music are linked to higher academic success.

In contrast to them, rock music is essential to youths who have rejected their class background cultures as it provides them with social markers which differentiate from their parental expectations and culture. This is because the intergenerational power and mobility status which occur within the larger inequality status context are normally upheld with distinctive shifts in individuals’ lifestyles, self-esteem and identity.

To youths, music also defines various types of social mobility including education, occupation, downwards and upward status mobility. The class mobility is linked with some kinds of musical preferences which differ with respect to cultural legitimacy. The music audience divisions result from individual and group trajectories within various social status hierarchical dimensions.

For example, strong inclination to disco music is linked to upward professional mobility; strong classical music liking is associated with higher education and upward mobility, but those who give much preference to heavy metals are identified by downward educational mobility (Eyerman and Jamison 461).

Therefore, youths identifying themselves with heavy metal music are perceived to be dynamic sensational seekers expressing their schooling displeasures since they find the regulation and structure of such institutions very hard to take.

Gender and sexuality

Youthful males are greatly preoccupied with musical preferences and tastes as compared to females. Often, youths in puberty are more anxious about the popular music that crops up during this period (Danesi 98) and would always wish to take an equal amount of time to listen to the preferred music.

However, since females mature two years faster than males, they usually start listening to music at around nine and ten years while males identify and begin giving preference to music at twelve and thirteen years. Both sexes always listen to popular music having their central themes focused on dating and love.

The youthful girls, nonetheless, have special strings attached to pop music whereas youthful males are exclusively linked to assertive masculinity and rock music (Danesi 98). The relationship amid sexuality and music has been significant.

Male youths have been identified with dominant musical subcultures and more visible social mechanisms than females who majorly focus on less visible social mechanisms and less dominant musical subcultures. It is true that with respect to music and identity, both sexes are more inclined to romantic and sexually expressive music.

Conclusion

Music has played an important role in the construction of youths’ identities. Youth gender schemas including their self-definitions as either feminine or masculine emerge from the core musical constructs they draw on when defining themselves.

Moreover, countless new musical information being received by the youths concerning individuals and their behaviors are primarily coded and thereafter inferred to with respect to gender norms and class. This makes youths identify themselves with certain musical subcultures.

Besides, youths usually utilize music as a technique to develop and negotiate their interpersonal relations as depicted in the class and status dimensions. An individual’s musical preference clearly defines the social group a person belongs to or is not willing to be associated with.

Thus, when youths develop specific musical preferences and taste patterns, it must be clear that the patterns are linked to a particular social circumstance or subcultural identification.

Works Cited

Danesi, Marcel. Geeks, Goths and Gangstas: Youth Culture and the Evolution of Modern Society, Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press Inc., 2010. Print.

Eyerman, Ron and Jamison Andrew. “Social Movements and Cultural Transformation: Popular Music in the 1960a”. Media, Culture and Society 17.3(1995): 449-468. Print.

Von Feilitzen, Cecilia and Roe Keith. “Eavesdropping on Adolescence: An Exploratory Study of Music Listening Among Children”. The European Journal of Communication 17.2 (1992): 225-244. Print.

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