Genre of Music and Lyrical Content: Expectation Effects

This study was designed to examine whether people's expectations differ regarding how music lyrics affect individual behavior as a function of music genre. Because legislative attention and media publicity have been biased against certain types of popular music (i.e., heavy metal and rap), the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	The Journal of genetic psychology Vol. 160; no. 4; pp. 476 - 487
Main Authors:	Ballard, Mary E., Dodson, Alan R., Bazzini, Doris G.
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Washington, DC Taylor & Francis Group 01-12-1999 Heldref Journal Press, etc Taylor & Francis Inc
Subjects:	Adolescent Adolescents Adult Antisocial Behavior Behavior Biological and medical sciences College students Drug Use Expectation Female Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology Gender Discrimination Humans Male Music Music - psychology Poetry as Topic Preferences Prosocial Behavior Psychology Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry Psychology. Psychophysiology Publicity Rock Music Singing Social attribution, perception and cognition Social Behavior Social Perception Social psychology Suicide Urban Culture Violence Young Adult Human Social influence Text Social perception Expectation Music
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Summary:	This study was designed to examine whether people's expectations differ regarding how music lyrics affect individual behavior as a function of music genre. Because legislative attention and media publicity have been biased against certain types of popular music (i.e., heavy metal and rap), the authors expected that those genres of music would be viewed more negatively than other genres of popular music, for which there has been little or no negative publicity (i.e., pop and country). Participants (N = 160 college students) rated their perceptions of how the lyrical content of a song would affect listeners' behavior. The authors presented prosocial or antisocial lyrical passages to students (N = 160) under the guise of four musical genres (heavy metal, rap, pop, and country). Participants rated the potential impact of the lyrics on listeners' behavior. Findings indicated that lyrics labeled as heavy metal or rap were perceived as less likely to inspire prosocial behavior but not more likely to inspire antisocial behavior than the same lyrics labeled as country or pop.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0022-1325 1940-0896
DOI:	10.1080/00221329909595560