Teenagers are known to be very selective regardless of what they want. They are usually bombarded with wide selections and options that the world of music has offered them. Naturally, teens will go for what most people don’t expect of them. They clearly want to be different, unique and somewhat left alone to enjoy whatever it is. Well, what music do these youngsters listen to? We all know that preference will always remain different from one person to another hence making it quite difficult to learn people. Also we do know that teens love trendy music, trendy clothing, trendy hairstyles; everything that is new in the industry just seems to belong to them.
If today you ask teenagers if they could do without music, most of them will not even like the question in the first place. Music and teenagers are two inseparable things. This is the reason why you will find most teenagers listening to music anytime and anywhere. For teenagers, music is a means of labeling or identifying certain emotions. In song lyrics, teenagers may express varying emotions from happiness, anger and sadness but surely it’s a way of bringing out what the teenagers feels at that particular point in time.
Different teenagers have different tastes and preferences to music. Also, a teenager will listen to a particular song because it has been downloaded the highest number of times or he/she has heard somebody speak about how hot the song it. In fact, a research conducted concluded that the reward and pleasure segments of a teenager’s brain become activated one a teenager listen to a new song. When asked to rate some songs, after realizing the following behind the songs, teenagers changed the song ratings by a margin of up to 22%.This means teenagers will listen to a song if they find its trending or if it suits their particular needs. There are those who like country music especially girls while most boys will go rap and R&B music. Most boys will agree that they are fans of Jay-Z, Eminem and even Snoopdog. But really, it would be unfair to group them together and say they all like hard rock or any other kind of music out there.
For those teenagers who could be having issues revolving around depressions, adolescence, sexuality and sexual orientations or even loneliness. So, if you would like to know what emotions a particular teenager is having, then it would work if you observe the kind of music he/she is listening to. This is especially true when teenagers fail bringing up their problems for discussion and solving. They will revert to music when they can’t find friends, family members or even peers to help get them out of their problems. When teenagers use music as a mood –modifier, it can be very helpful in perpetuating or even reinforcing any positive as well as negative emotions.
Parents are nowadays unable to fully control what music their boys and girls listen. Arguments on this one are as old as disagreements on who should take out the trash or wash the dishes. This is because parent’s take and taste of music is parallel to their children’s. Above all, music has the power to influence emotions significantly.
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