Mary Eberstadt's Eminem Was Right

Eminem Was Right

Throughout the years many methods have been utilized in making a macroscopic analysis of the youth of America. Traditionally, when using music to make this analysis, the overall influence of pop music on adolescents and children would be examined. Mary Eberstadt flips this logic around and asks the question: "What is it about today's music, violent and disgusting though it may be, that resonates with so many American kids?" By answering this question, Eberstadt hopes to not to learn what music "does" to adolescents, but rather what music can "tell" about them. Is it possible that today's pop music can be used as a lens to glimpse into the lives of today's youth? Eberstadt finds her evidence through examining many of the lyrics
written by current pop stars, along with multiple interviews, newspaper, and magazine articles. After reading just a few pages it was fairly obvious that Eberstadt's main conclusion is that the dissolution of the modern American family is mirrored in today's music.

Before I was even going to attempt at making a cursory analysis of this article I decided to check up on a few of the references that Eberstadt used.
Her fist reference is to the August 2002 edition of the magazine, Blender. She references a piece of information from writer Mark Shaw saying 50% of parents get divorced. No credible source for this statistic is cited in either article. Eberstedt then goes on to take a direct quote from an interview with Mark Hoppus of Blink 182 about the effect divorce has on kids. "Divorce is such a normal thing today and hardly anybody ever thinks how the kids feel about it or how they are taking it, but in the U.S. about half of all the kids go through it." I didn't realize Mark Hoppus had the credentials to make a sociological analysis about divorce. Eberstedt explored Papa Roach's album Infest which sold more than 3 million albums. She once again assumes credibility in a non credible source (MTV.com) to explain success of this album. "The pained, confessional songs struck a nerve with disenfranchised listeners who were tired of the waves of directionless aggression spewing from the mouths of other rap-rockers..." However a recurring theme, divorce, is exemplified by three of the members of this band. Just like Papa Roach - Everclear, Blink 182, Pink, Good Charlotte, Kurt Cobain, Eddie Vedder, Tupac Shakur, and Eminem all came from broken homes. Eberstadt confirms this through the examination of their lyrics. Using this analysis, she makes
a very implicit assumption about divorce in America. She implies that almost all kids live with their moms after a divorce. According to the 2002 U.S. census bureau, about 1.7 million single fathers are maintaining their own household with children. While this number is still significantly lower than the 7.5 million single mothers maintaining their own household given by the 2002 census, it is still indicates that children living with single fathers make up almost 20% of the post divorce households.
Eberstadt implies that the basic function of the family is nonexistent because the dad is away and the mom has to be at work. Many of these kids get home from school and have a few hours to be mischievous before mom gets home from work often getting involved in
violence, drugs, and casual sex. Many of these children have been termed "latchkey" children because they commonly carry keys to let themselves in and out of the homes when the parent(s) are working (Robinson, Coleman 1986). But according to the article Taking Action for Latchkey Children and their Families, many experts believe that latchkey children become "more independent, self-reliant, and resourceful than peers who are constantly supervised...this early independence training leads children to participate more in household duties than children of non-employed mothers" (Robinson, Coleman 1986). Considering this, it is hard to say that a child left home alone will always get involved in bad behavior. Eberstadt states that baby boomers rebelled against their parents because they were too controlling and they were actually parents, while teenagers today are rebelling against parents because they are not parents. Now, the current generation is constantly being abandoned by the baby boomer (parents) generation. It's a chicken and egg scenario when trying to figure out which generation to cast the blame on. One thing is for certain amongst many of the artists - they themselves are not to blame. They believe their music is more of a reflection what is already going on with adolescents. So, what is exactly going on? Stephanie Coontz, professor of history at Evergreen State College and a national co-chair of the Council on Contemporary Families, refers to what has been happening simply as "family diversity." In her Washington Post article, What Will Last?, she discusses that the changes in marriage and family life that have been occurring recently aren't going away but it should not be looked at as a problem. She also talks about some different ways to strengthen America's changing families. Better social support systems and family-friendly work reforms are to suggestions that Coontz made (Coontz 2004).

Many of the pop stars that have been discussed obviously came from broken homes and their lyrics have struck a note with millions of American adolescents. Is it possible that some of these artists are just glorifying their dysfunctional past because they know what sells in today's music market? I went to high school with the two of the members from Good Charlotte. I have known one of them, Billy Martin, since 6th grade. Many of the lyrics that this band writes and sings about do not accurately portray what they went through. Billy discussed this with me and told me that they exaggerated a lot of their lyrics especially at the beginning of their career because they knew what American youth could relate to. Even though there may some falsity in some of the lyrics, the fact that Good Charlotte knows that songs about broken homes and abandonment will be much more popular than songs about love, peace, etc. tells a lot about the youth of America. This information is very credible because I know the homes that some of the members came from. They are not as bad as they are made out to be in the lyrics.

There are a few things that society could do to help the issue of disaffected children. I agree with Stephanie Coontz in that the changing family should not be looked at as a problem. We need to accept this trend and instead of trying to force parents back into traditional roles, they should be educated on how to provide a functional family for their children to thrive in. Society could impose harsh penalties for divorce. This could possibly make couples think twice before jumping into marriage and having children. But I think forcing parents to stay together is not a viable solution. This would eventually be more detrimental to the mental health of a child. A possible work reform that could be implemented may entail a single mother or father getting a 1-2 hour break if they have a child under the age of 16. The break could come right around the time the child is getting home from school. One or two hours does not seem like a lot, but over the course of a school year that approximates an extra 100 hours of family time. This is a modest estimate; because I took into account the child's social life and extracurricular activities. Single parents of their children's social group could form a network where there are always at least a few parents around to give support to the kids, but making sure the time is equally distributed so that no child feels his or her parent doesn't care. These are just a few proposed solutions to this problem. Hopefully over time society will evolve to meet the needs of the evolving family structure.

1. Stephanie Coontz. What Will Last, Washington Post, Sunday, January 4, 2004; Page B02

2. Bryan E. Robinson; Bobbie H. Rowland; Mick Coleman Taking Action for Latchkey Children and Their Families Family Relations, Vol. 35, No. 4. (Oct., 1986), pp. 473-478.

3. William Shaw, "Why Are America's Rock Bands So Goddamned Angry?" Blender August 2002.