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Music can be a powerful force and tool in the life of an adolescent. It forms a social context and informs the adolescent about the adult world through the lens of artists' lives, language, and presence as models. Allegiance to a form of music is allegiance to those who make it, a way to friendship and kinship, and a road to personal identity through belonging. In their relationships formed through music, teens can create a sense of community that may be lacking in the life of family. The rebellious music of earlier generations has given rise to complex musical genres, rap and heavy metal, that are strong in defiance and controversial in their violent and sexual content. What do these musical affiliations tell us about certain segments of adolescent development and culture? The authors consider this question by exploring the form and content of the music while using it to illuminate psychodynamic and psychosocial aspects of adolescent development. (Acad Psychiatry 2002; 26:51-59)
Nothing makes a community more than music. -Bobby McFerrin, VH1 Behind the Music
From very early in our lives, music is an important, ubiquitous form of human expression and experience. As infants we smile at the shakers, laugh at the bells and whistles, and coo at the sound of our parents' lullabies. As the infant transforms into an adolescent, this form of human expression takes on new meaning and fragments into a variety of genres that metaphorically clothe the modern teen's style and purpose. As the teen enters adolescence, much of the fact-finding and knowledge-building that involved television and books during the school-age period of development is replaced by the choices, morals, and loyalties of adolescence as teens ask the questions, Who am I? What do I stand for? and Where do I belong?
From the early moments of Elvis's hip thrust, Jerry Lee Lewis's fireballs, and Chuck Berry's chicken walk, and the later ages of psychedelia, acid-tests, Woodstock, and loathing and fear in Las Vegas, rock music has since differentiated into deeper, often more intense genres such as rap and heavy metal that carry the same messages of rebellion, anti-establishment attitude, and individuation through nonconformity. In their relationships through music, teens can create the sense of community...