Music's role in cultural identity and social movements in America

Society and Culture -- Music Habits

Music is one of the most common human activities and is evident throughout human cultures everywhere on earth. It has a long history of cultural and religious significance and still plays a fundamental role in modern social life and religious worship as well. In the United States, music has played a significant role in the identity of cultural groups as well as in connection with various important social movements in addition to generating intensely different feelings and perceptions among different generations.

The close connection between musical and language and between musical ability and other aspects of cognitive functioning in humans led to speculation that early exposure to music in children, and even in prenatal infants, could potentially stimulate greater intelligence. Music is typically also a component of adolescent development and personal identity in young adults. In modern society, the way young people listen to music has been (and continues to be) heavily influenced by the growth of digital technology, not the least of which has been the emergence of new legal concepts to govern intellectual property rights in the digital age.

Music and Cultural Significance

Some of the most common features of human religious worship and other cultural traditions have involved musical expression (Henslin, 2002; Macionis, 2003). Throughout the world, virtually every known society from the most advanced and technologically sophisticated to the most ancient and primitive have rich musical histories going back many generations all the way to antiquity. The range of musical instruments, sounds, and musical styles includes many different definitions of music, many of which seem quite foreign to those not raised in those communities.

However, in all instances, the fundamental elements of music are the same in principle and their common purpose has always been to help communicate and preserve cultural learning from one generation to the next (Henslin, 2002; Macionis, 2003). A survey of even the most disparate human cultures would reveal that music plays a very similar role in cultural rituals and especially in religious worship. It is a fixture in human celebration of good fortune to such an extent that breaking out into song is a universal metaphor for human happiness and joy. It is also just as universally associated with expressions of grief in times of great loss and tragedy.

In the U.S., just about every social group is associated with a specific type of music and in eras of racial and ethnic prejudice, music played a major role in inspiring negative stereotypes and, later, in breaking down some of the social barriers separating different groups. Only in relatively recent times, since the invention of equipment capable of reproducing, broadcasting, and storing music, has music become more of an entertainment medium than a form of cultural communication, ethnic identity, and cultural preservation (Macionis, 2003).

Music as a Form of Personal Identity

On an individual level, music is often an important component of personal social identity, beginning in early adolescence (Gerrig & Zimbardo, 2008; Myers & Spencer, 2004). To a large extent, adolescents use music to establish distance between themselves and their parents; they also use music to define the social groups with which they choose to identify among their peers. In high school especially, music typically becomes one of the most important defining features of the different social groups that form the basis of the different identities of friends and social acquaintances. Even among young adults, it is not infrequent for the topic of musical preference to be one of the first questions asked during initial conversations in which individuals become acquainted with one another.

Music, Language Development, and Intelligence

Scientists first began studying the possible connection between music and cognitive intelligence after documenting several high-profile cases in the medical literature seemed to connect precocious musical ability with certain forms of so-called "idiot savants" who displayed tremendous musical talents and abilities in conjunction with serious cognitive impairments linked to various forms of autism (Dennet, 1997).

Similarly, child psychologists began to understand the neurological similarities between the manner in which human language is hard-wired into human cognitive development and the manner in which communication mechanisms in non-human animals (most notably, songbirds) are hard-wired (Gerrig & Zimbardo, 2008; Simonds, 2002). Just as in the case with songbirds, human infants and young children have a specific window of opportunity during which they must be exposed to the sounds of the language of their respective species in order to be able to learn to communicate vocally. In both cases, in circumstances where infants are not exposed to the sounds of adult communications during that window, they become unable to learn to communicate through language thereafter (Gerrig & Zimbardo, 2008; Simonds, 2002).

Partly as a result of these types of observations and partly of other connections such as the frequent coexistence of superior mathematical ability and superior musical talent (as well as the mathematical structure of music), scientists also began to consider the possibility that early exposure of infants to complex music (typically classical music) could enhance certain elements of human cognitive intelligence potential (Dennet, 1997; Gerrig & Zimbardo, 2008). Early experiments into prenatal exposure to music seemed somewhat promising but more carefully controlled studies called those results into question. One of the difficulties involved is that it can be almost impossible to isolate the effects of music as opposed to the unintended effects of the relaxed state of consciousness experienced by mothers (Dennet, 1997; Gerrig & Zimbardo, 2008).

Specifically, it had been independently established that the emotional state experienced by mothers during the latter stages of pregnancy could directly influence aspects of cognitive development and temperament of their infants. Furthermore, anecdotal evidence seeming to connect early exposure to classical music and intelligence could not be distinguished from the fact that parents who listened to classical music are statistically much more likely to be more educated and have higher IQs than other parents (Dennet, 1997; Gerrig & Zimbardo, 2008). Ultimately, the most carefully controlled experiments into the possible beneficial effect of prenatal exposure to music were not able to establish an empirical link between the variables. On the other hand, musical exposure is generally considered beneficial to younger children, albeit in a more general way rather than specifically in connection to producing higher intelligence necessarily (Gerrig & Zimbardo, 2008).

Music and Contemporary Society

The popularity of music among young people in contemporary American (and other) young people has revolutionized various areas of modern intellectual property law (Halbert & Ingulli, 2007). That is mainly attributable to the rate at which digital media technology exploded around the turn of the 21st century. Initially, the use of Internet file- sharing methods, primarily among teenagers, led to landmark court rulings on the nature of intellectual copyrights. Those issues have not yet been resolved, mainly because the technology of media sharing and file storage are continually evolving while two hundred year-old legal concepts struggle desperately to incorporate capabilities that could never have been envisioned when American copyright law was first designed. However, it is already clear that the music industry had been irrevocably changed as the revenue potential shifts from traditional sources to those corresponding to the way music is typically enjoyed and shared by youthful consumers today (Halbert & Ingulli, 2007).

Conclusion

Regardless of the many ways that modern technology and societies have changed the way music is produced, in many respects, music still provides many of the same functions as it always has. Music continues to be featured prominently in cultural and religious expression and it continues to be an important part of adolescent development and self-expression. Ultimately, music will likely always continue to change in superficial ways and in the manner in which it is produced and disseminated, but in its most fundamental character, it remains unchanged in it significance to human society and culture..