Mood-altering Substance

Music has become a big part of life since its creation. It has been used in many ways but none more common than to express our emotion and mood. If your feeling sad you usually play something with a slower tempo with depressing lyrics. If your feeling happy you most likely play something mid-tempo with lyrics that are very optomistic. Whatever your feeling at that moment usually determines what kind of music you would insist on listening to. If this is true than is it possible that the opposite is also true? For example, if your listening to R&B do you start to feel sad and depressed? To this question I respond by first saying that I think its highly possible that music can control what mood we feel. However, I don't believe that it has the power to completely influence our mood. Second, I want anyone reading this to think of a time when they were mad, sad, happy or whatever. If you were mad were you listening to country? Most likely you weren't because you were in a mood to listen to something with a stronger tone to it like heavy metal, hardcore rap, or rock. Whatever mood you were feeling your music choice most likely reflected the mood you were feeling. Does this then mean that we can blame music artist for the feelings that we get from listening to their music? The answer is quite simply no, because even though the music may influence our mood it doesn't necessarily decide what mood we're going to be in. However, in some places music has been banned because some people believe that it's a mood-altering substance. You might be asking yourself as to why someone would be stupid enough to do something as lame as this. The answer itself is more obvious than you would think. It is simply because people don't want anything to do with something that they see as a threat to their way of life or something that might be offensive to someone. The same thing happens everytime some new type of music comes up. It happend way back when rap and rock came into the business and it's happening now with a new type of rap music known as grime. Grime is a fast paced type of music that requires you to rap at extremely fast speeds. It's still relatively underground but has gained enough of a fan base for someone to hear it and find something offensive about it. So far complaints have come in about how it caused teenagers to experience aggresive mood swings and so called "episodes". Is it true that this music has enough power to truly influence someone so much that they experience mood swings and "episodes"? I would say that its very unlikely, but I suppose it might have some influences. However, any influences, if any at all, would be so small that I seriously doubt that it would really have any affect on anyones mood. So is it true that music can control our mood? I say no, but there is always a possibility. I would say that music is a strong contributing factor in putting us in a situation to feel a certain mood, but no more than that.

Elvis Presley: The King of Rock 'N' Roll

We might not realize it today, but Elvis Aaron Presley changed music throughout the world. He was one of the most famous artists of the 1950's through 1970's. Our music would not be the same today if it was not for Elvis Presley. Elvis was born on January ninth, 1935 to Vernon and Gladys Presley. He was born in Tupelo Mississippi and was an only child. Vernon and Gladys decided to move their family to Memphis Tennessee in 1948, where Elvis graduated high school in 1953. Elvis became interested in music by listening to the gospel songs at his church and by attending Beale Street where he listened to R&B music. A year after he graduated high school, Elvis signed with Sun Records label, where he began his singing career. A year later, his contract was sold, and by 1956 everybody knew who Elvis Presley was. Everybody immediately fell in love with Elvis. The way he moved and the way he looked got the girls attention. However, he not only impressed the girls. Elvis could sing all kinds of different music including gospel and rock. Elvis definitely had a quality that everyone easily could fall in love with.

Elvis Presley had sold an estimate of over one billion records, more than anyone in record history. He had 150 different albums and singles that have been called gold, platinum or multi-platinum. Elvis did not just impress the United States, over 40% of Elvis' record sales have been sold outside of the United States. Elvis had at least 149 songs on Billboards Hot 100 Pop Chart in America, 114 were in the top forty. He also appeared on many television guest shows. He went on "Stage Show", "The Milton Berle Show", "The Steve Allen Show" and "The Ed Sullivan Show". Ed Sullivan once said he would never put Elvis Presley on his show but when Elvis appeared on "The Steve Allen Show" the ratings sky rocketed. Soon after, Ed Sullivan had Elvis Presley on his show. Elvis got paid 50,000 to make three guest appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and at the end of it Ed really enjoyed Elvis' company.

Elvis not only sang, he starred in 31 feature films. For a few years he was Hollywood's top box office draws. He also had 3 network television specials. Elvis' 1973 special (Elvis aloha from Hawaii) was seen by 1 billion to 1.5 billion people. It made television history and topped the number of people who watched the man on the moon. Elvis received 14 Grammy nominations from the National Academy and Performing Arts and Sciences. His three Grammy wins were from gospel recordings. In 1970 Elvis was named one of the Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Nation. This was one of Elvis' proudest moments. This achievement is given to men who have done something outstanding, whether it is in sports, music, science etc.

As you can see Elvis was an amazing and talented person. America's music would be very different today if Elvis was never alive. Elvis once said: “Some people tap their feet, some people snap their fingers, and some people sway back and forth. I just sorta do ‘em all together, I guess.”

"Discover Elvis." Elvis Presley. Ed. Elvis Presley enterprises. 2010. Web. 11 Jan. 2010. .

Music: An American Fascination

Whenever you switch on your television, or go to the movies, or sometimes even just walk down the street, something is always there. Whether it's the subject of a certain thing, or just providing ambiance to an otherwise quiet subject, music is a constant medium to daily life. Commercials play and you hear a catchy jingle behind the advertising of the product featured. At the movies, various musical numbers provide emotional cues to scenes of sadness, happiness, or anything in between. Even just driving in the car, most of the programs on the radio feature music instead of news shows.

Why is this though? Why do we, as a culture, enjoy music so much? There are many answers to this question. On a purely scientific standpoint, music has been proven to change your mood (http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1428802/how_music_affects_your_mood.html). By listening to classical music, you can feel more calm, relaxed, and productive. On the other side of the spectrum though, people who listen to country music regularly have a higher chance of depression and suicide when compared to people who don't.

From a purely cultural standpoint though, it's all up to personal interpretation. Types of music that is popular changes with age and area, so no concrete statement can be said about what music is better. In the southern United States, jazz and country are more popular in the south, while rap and rock tend to have a larger audience in the northern regions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_the_United_States). You can see music's affect on how we perceive the people of each region though. When you think of someone from the south, what do you think? Most people would say something about country music. When you think of someone from any large city, a lot of the time people would assume they listen to rap or rock music.

Why can something like music affect the various way we think about people? As I stated before, music can affect your mood, so why would it be unheard of to affect your social ideas too? It wouldn't be all that hard to believe. Simple ideas about how people from a different area act would probably be easier to change then how you actually feel about something.

Another thing is, music can be a medium between different cultures. The way we hear a musical number is the same as anyone in the entire world hears it, despite living in different areas or cultures. In this way, you can see how music can connect people. It can bring us all together, help us see eye to eye, and show us that despite differences, everyone is the same when it comes to the simplest of things, music.

Rap Music: How does it influence today’s youth?

(POSTED FOR CHERRYH)

Music is a huge part of today’s society. Either in the car, on the computer, or on the television, music is all around us. The question is though, is rap music harmful to our society? Today’s youth looks up to people they admire. They want to dress and act just like their favorite singer or dancer. This is not always a good thing. According to Associated Content News, rap music is all about money, fame and women. If you listen to a random rap song, usually the artist is singing about one of the three. Many young kids are dropping out of school to try and make it as a professional rap artist. As you could probably guess, most do not make it and often turn to illegal activity to obtain some kind of money income. Another reason rap music is harmful to today’s youth is how they portray women. They talk as if women are objects and should be treated with no respect. Today’s youth thinks that’s “cool” because their favorite artists treat women like this so they should too. The women in music videos and in songs that send out this message do not help with the situation either. Many young girls think it is okay to be treated like this because it’s in their favorite songs or music videos.

Rap music also affects the choices kids make about sex. According to Web MD, teenagers who listen to rap music and look up to rap artists are more likely to do these behaviors in everyday life. They are more likely to be involved in gangs, have children out of wedlock, and to disrespect authority. In a study, after interviewing 522 girls between the ages of fourteen and eighteen who spent fourteen hours per week watching music videos were three times more likely then girls who do not watch them to hit a teacher, over 2.5 times more likely to get arrested, twice as likely to have multiple sex partners and 1.5 times more likely to get a sexually transmitted disease, use drugs, or drink alcohol. When I read these statistics the first thing I thought of was why are artists continuing to rap about things that have such a negative influence on the youth of today? The answer is simple. According to The Coalition against Violence, the entertainment industry has invested billions of dollars into promoting rap artists with music influenced by gangs, gangsters and the pimp culture itself. Is this money worth corrupting the future of America?

As you can see, there are definitely some reasons why rap music is harmful to our society. In reality though, all rap music is not bad. There are actually some artists out there that rap about their problems and the issues going on in the world. They tell their listeners how they are feeling and what their life is like. I support the artists that rap about this because they can really connect to teenagers that are going through similar situations as themselves.