How does music shape our adolescent experience?
In the words of Katrina McFerran of the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, “the way that adolescents engage with music can be understood through the use of two metaphors – music as a mirror that reflects self-knowledge, and music as a stage where identity is performed in relationship with others.”
Music has become for many – if not all – teenagers a way in which we engage with and explore our identity. For some, it is the model to which we shape our individuality, and to others, it is merely the background by which we define our lives.
The model that music provides for us as teenagers influences everything from our style, hair, and interests to the values, attitudes, and morals we develop at a time of extreme emotional and physical development. As stated by Professor Simon Frith of the University of Edinburgh, music is a “badge of identity” for many adolescents – a badge that some may showcase proudly on their school lanyard, or a badge that others may wear as a more personal symbol of their adolescent identity.
The influence music has on our teenage lives is not just a recent development in society, but has historical occurrences across the ages, most famously noted in the 1940s and 50s with the rise of popular media during the post-war era, as people of all ages began to celebrate their liberties again.
Rock and Roll music of the 50s and 60s was defined by its mass youth culture and marked the beginning of the transformation of the generational gap between teenagers and their parents in a post-war era. The defining sound of the emergent youth culture of the period was rock and roll music, which took influences from popular music styles such as the African American introduced Blues music and American country music of the previous decades. The surfacing of rock and roll music marked the beginning of a period of independent youth culture away from the expectations of adulthood and society, allowing the teenagers of the time a free adolescent experience and an opportunity to sculpt their identity.
Music, even during this time, has been crucial in providing young people with a label in which they define themselves during a period where ‘finding one’s identity’ becomes the focus of life, from the ‘bobby soxer’ of the 1940s – the label given to enthusiastic teenage fans the likes of Frank Sinatra – to those crazed by Beatlemania in the 60s following the rise of the original One Direction, The Beatles. Nowadays this label has become crucial in providing young people with a community of fans that share their love of icons within the music industry, giving them a place to belong, to call their own, to feel at one with their identity.
Adolescents’ engagement with music also serves a reflection of a wider political engagement of teenagers in the society around them. The period of being a teenager and finding one’s identity involves a development of young people’s own morals and political beliefs away from that of their parent’s. Examples of this have developed in society with the emergence of new music styles such as punk, rock and rap music, born in periods of tumultuous political climates, and was even demonstrated in more recent years with the rise of music as a form of political expression for the youth of Sierra Leone following the end of the civil war in 2002. The post-war era saw a rise in poverty, high unemployment, and the marginalisation of youth and women – it is in this societal climate that teenagers in Sierra Leone used music to articulate their political beliefs. A former youth combatant against the political regime of the civil war explained that “we were nothing to politicians” … “we tried to explain what we were going through to the elders in our communities, but they did not listen.”
It is this ignorance of society to the voices of young people that led Sierra Leonean teenagers to use music as a form of political and self-expression, creating popular songs that called for their desire to create change in society, and ending the pre-war domination of the older generations in the music industry. Thus, music plays a crucial role in not just defining our adolescent identities and personalities, but in transforming how we as teenagers perceive the world around us. Music serves as a form of artistic expression focal to the amplification of the voices of the next generation.
Now from one of the many creative voices that make up our generation, an opinion piece submitted by Salma Amin on how music has defined her personal adolescent experience:
Music tells stories.
It’s the incredibly pertinent ones that mean the most to me. Lyrics are layered in between harmonies that are so transformative and fantastically beautiful. It’s one of humanity’s greatest triumphs.
Being this age warrants many experiences I find myself unable to navigate correctly. I incessantly consume different forms of media - music, books, and film - to try and form an understanding. More cynically, I just try to escape.
It was my best friend who really introduced me to music. When you’re thirteen, you encounter the unfathomable ordeal of being human. I did not know how to do that - I still don’t - but I was able to learn. ‘When will you accept yourself for heaven’s sake [Accept Yourself, The Smiths]’ vibrated through my ears every time I got ready for school. I made a big deal about being culturally literate, and I still do (apologies to my friends for always saying ‘Once more unto the breach dear friends, once more’ when we’re walking up those god-awful stairs). I spoke others’ words because I couldn’t use my own.
Music tells stories.
It can be and was always political (what’s the difference between Radiohead’s Hail to The Thief and Shostakovich’s Symphony No.10 anyway?). Perhaps it’s humanity’s greatest gift to relay these stories and retell them thousands and thousands of times. Maybe that’s what music is.
There’s so much music that perfectly articulates what it feels like to be uncertain and in pain. Life in its brutality often breeds an unbreakable optimism. Partly in others, I’d engage in that sacrificial labour because a duty to others is a person’s greatest obligation.
I think that art and hope build off each other. In times where we are uncertain about our future, there is nothing more noble than to provide hope and comfort to others. It is my belief that people have a duty to each other.
All art is intertwined with philosophy.