Music : Influence to Teenager
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MATRICULATION COLLEGE OF NEGERI SEMBILAN
ENGLISH WB023
SESSION 2010/2011
‘THE INFLUENCE OF MUSIC ON TEENAGERS’
MEMBERS OF RESEARCH TEAM :
MUHAMMAD AFIQ BIN MD DAIM MS1012505095
IDA FARHANA BINTI ROSLAN MS1012504521
SITI NORHANNAN ASHIKIN BINTI A MUIN MS1012506771
SITI NADIRAH BINTI OTHMAN MS1012506751
PRACTICUM GROUP : F2P7
LECTURER : MADAM CHEAH YIT YING
SUBMISSION DATE : 11TH January 2011
Acknowledgement
First and foremost, we would like to thank Madam Cheah Yit Ying, our English Lecturer, for guiding us throughout this project. Without her guides and help we would not be able to finish this folio in time according to the rightful format.
Next, we would like to thank our parents for providing us with the support we needed when times are dreary, mentally and physically.
Not forgetting our peers at Matriculation College of Negeri Sembilan who participated in this research especially to our respondents. Without their critics and honesty this folio would have been a failure.
And to all who are not aforementioned, we give our utmost gratitude. Without all of you, this folio would not exist.
This research is conducted to help students and readers to understand the relationship between music and teens. We hope that we are able to do so and for any inadequacy, please accept our apology beforehand.
Contents
Acknowledgement
Table of contents
1. Chapter One : Introduction
1. Thesis statement
2. Definition of key terms
3. Objectives
4. Research questions
2. Chapter Two : Literature Review
2.1 What is Music?
2.2 History of Music
2.3 The influence of Music
2.4 How to overcome the influence of Music?
2.5 Latest issues
3. Chapter Three : Methodology
3.1 Respondents
3.2 Instruments
3.3 Research procedures
4. Chapter Four : Results and Discussions
4.1 What type of Music do you prefer?
4.2 Where do you get your favourite Music?
4.3 How much time do you spend listening to Music?
4.4 Why do you listen to Music?
4.5 Where do you get the latest information about Music?
4.6 Are you obsessed to certain type of Music?
4.7 Do people around you prefer the same type of Music?
4.8 Do you listen to music during studies?
4.9 Do you think music affect your studies?
4.10 Do your parents approve your choice of music?
5. Chapter Five : Conclusion
5.1 Overall observations and discussions
5.2 Recommendations
References
Appendices
CHAPTER ONE : INTRODUCTION
In this section,
✓ Thesis statement
✓ Definition of key terms
✓ Objectives
✓ Research questions
1. Background/thesis statement
Singing and music have always played an important role to teenagers. With music being such a staple in youth culture, it seems that each teenager has their own ‘soundtrack to their life’. But are they just innocently listening to their favourite tunes? Or are they in for something more?
This is what our research team is trying to find. The question whether music has a big impact to Malaysian students is the key in uncovering this musical mystery.
To begin with, we will study the types of music teenagers nowadays prefer since media is often seen to affiliate certain groups to particular genres of music such as rap and heavy-metal. These are pinpointed when something within their community goes awry, as having been strongly influenced by the music they listen to.
On April 1999, 12 students as well as a teacher were fatally injured in Columbine High School in Littletown of Jefferson County, Colorado. Media had immediately instilled a moral panic on the two shooters’ musical interest; heavy-metal and Goth music.
What we are trying to prove and portray in this folio is whether there is a definite link of music to people’s behaviour and will it affect a student’s academic performance.
▪ The following troublesome themes are prominent:
o Advocating and glamorizing abuse of drugs and alcohol.
o Pictures and explicit lyrics presenting suicide as an "alternative" or "solution."
o Graphic violence.
o Preoccupation with the occult; songs about Satanism and human sacrifice, and the apparent enactment of these rituals in concerts.
o Sex which focuses on controlling sadism, masochism, incest, devaluing women, and violence toward women.
In order to get an approximately close to reality result, a survey is conducted to 100 students of Kolej Matrikulasi Negeri Sembilan.
1.2 Definition of Key Terms
According to Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2003) published b Cambridge International Corpus and Wikipedia.org;
Music : A pattern of sounds made by musical instruments, singing or computer, or a combination of these, intended to give pleasure to people listening to it.
Music therapy : An interpersonal process in which the therapist uses music and all of its facets, to help client to improve or maintain their health.
Charity : A system of giving money, food or help free to those who are in need because they are ill, poor or homeless, or any organization which is established to provide money or help in this way.
Genre : A style especially in arts that involves a particular set of characteristics.
Teenagers : A young person between 13 to 19 years old.
Society : A large group of people who live together in an organized way, making decisions about how to do things and sharing the work needs to be done.
Black metal : An extreme subgenre of heavy metal that often uses fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structure.
Goth music : A musical subgenre of post-punk and alternative rock that formed during the late 1970s
Jazz music : An American musical art form that originated in the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions.
1.3 Objectives (Justification of the Topic)
• To investigate the various types of music genre and the type commonly listened by teens.
• To study the pros and cons of music to teenagers.
• To scrutinize the relationship between music and society and the concentration to teenagers.
• To prove the benefit of music to teenagers.
1.4 Research Question
• How does music influence teenagers’ behaviour?
• What type of music do the teens prefer?
• Does listening to music affect their studies?
CHAPTER TWO : LITERATURE REVIEW
In this section,
✓ What is Music?
✓ History of Music
✓ The influence of Music
✓ How to overcome the influence of Music?
✓ Latest issues
2.1 What is Music?
According to the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2003) published by Cambridge International Corpus, music is a pattern of sounds made by musical instruments, singing or computer, or a combination of these, intended to give pleasure to people listening to it whilst Wikipedia.org states that music is an art form whose medium is sound where it’s common elements are pitch (which governs melody and harmony), rhythm (and its associated concepts tempo, meter, and articulation), dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture.
The word music is a derivation from a Greek word μουσική (pronounce as mousike), which means the art of the Muses.
The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of music vary according to culture and social context. Music ranges from strictly organized compositions (and their recreation in performance), through improvisational music to aleatoric forms.
Music can be divided into genres and subgenres, although the dividing lines and relationships between music genres are often subtle, sometimes open to individual interpretation, and occasionally controversial.
Within "the arts," music may be classified as a performing art, a fine art, and auditory art. There is also a strong connection between music and mathematics.
Common genres of music includes country, jazz, blues, electronic, Latin, pop, ska, rock, world and hip-hop and rap.
2.2 History of Music
According to Wikipedia.org, in the prehistoric eras, ‘music can only be imagined by scholars’. These imaginations are based on the findings of any tools similar to musical instrument exist to the day. For example, bones in which lateral holes have been pierced are usually identified as flutes, blown at one end like the Japanese shakuhachi. Instruments, such as the seven-holed flutes and various types of stringed instruments have been recovered from the Indus Valley Civilization archaeological sites. India has one of the oldest musical traditions in the world—references to Indian classical music (marga) can be found in the ancient scriptures of the Hindu tradition, the Vedas. The earliest and largest collection of prehistoric musical instruments was found in China and dates back to between 7000 and 6600 BC.
There are also references of music from the Bible and Arabian scholars.
The Journal of Religion and Theatre noted that among the earliest forms of litany, ‘Hebrew litany was accompanied by a rich musical tradition. For example, Genesis 4.21 identifies Jubal as the “father of all such as handle the harp and pipe.
In the 9th century, the Arab scholar al-Farabi wrote a book on music titled Kitab al-Musiqi al-Kabir ("Great Book of Music"). He played and invented a variety of musical instruments and devised the Arab tone system of pitch organization, which is still used in Arabic music.
Classical music
Indian classical music is one of the oldest musical traditions in the world. The Indus Valley civilization has sculptures that show dance and old musical instruments, like the seven holed flute. Various types of stringed instruments and drums have been recovered from Harappa and Mohenjo Daro by excavations carried out by Sir Mortimer Wheeler. Indian classical music (marga) is monophonic, and based on a single melody line or raga rhythmically organized through talas. Hindustani music was influenced by the Persian performance practices of the Afghan Mughals. Carnatic music popular in the southern states, is largely devotional; the majority of the songs are addressed to the Hindu deities. There are a lot of songs emphasizing love and other social issues. Chinese classical music, the traditional art or court music of China has a history stretching over around three thousand years. It has its own unique systems of musical notation, as well as musical tuning and pitch, musical instruments and styles or musical genres. Chinese music is pentatonic-diatonic, having a scale of twelve notes to an octave (5 + 7 = 12) as does European-influenced music.
20th and 21st century music
With 20th century music, there was a vast increase in music listening as the radio gained popularity and phonographs were used to replay and distribute music. The focus of art music was characterized by exploration of new rhythms, styles, and sounds. Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg, and John Cage were all influential composers in 20th century art music. Jazz evolved and became a significant genre of music over the course of the 20th century, and during the second half of that century, rock music did the same. From its early development until the present, jazz has also incorporated music from 19th and 20th century American popular music. Jazz has, from its early 20th century inception, spawned a variety of subgenres, ranging from New Orleans Dixieland (1910s) to 1970s and 1980s-era jazz-rock fusion. Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed in the 1960s from 1950s rock and roll, rockabilly, blues, and country music. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, rock music branched out into different subgenres, ranging from blues rock and jazz-rock fusion to heavy metal and punk rock, as well as the more classical influenced genre of progressive rock and several types of experimental rock genres.
2.3 The Problems Arises from Music to Teenagers
Music has many influences to teenagers. Certain music influenced teens positively where teens can benefit from them while some prove to convey negative impact on teens.
One of the negative impact music have on youths are sexual curiosity. Modern music is known for its sexual hints or explicit sexual lyrics. Since teenagers and youngsters are the most concerned about sex of all groups of age, especially when they have not had any intimate relationships, this type of music acted like a trap to them. The US based Rand Corporation, Pittsburgh research found how the music teenagers listen to influence their desire of being sexually active. After investigating 1461 participants with ages ranging from 12 to 17, researchers came to the conclusion that teenagers who listen to music with degrading sexual messages are twice more prone to start their sex life in the following two year period than those who listen to little or no such music. 51% of the heavy listeners started having sexual intercourse within two years, as compared to only 29% of those who did not enjoy sexually explicit lyrics. To add on, music affected youngster negatively when students became prone and accepting destructive behaviors as a norm. According to a WebMD Health News, a research conducted in the US showed that rap and ‘gangsta’-based music videos affects the young to be more likely to hit teachers and 2.5 times more likely to be arrested for assault. Researcher Ralph J. DiClemente, PhD, of Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health said that it is alarming to discover that no associations were found with just violence or one or two risky behaviors but there were connections to a string of these behaviors. In other words, music can affect teens to behave in many unfavorable conducts. Youth’s fashion senses and attitude are now greatly affected by their musical preference. More and more teens dressed to imitate their favorite singers. Goths will imitate the outlook and even sometimes the behavior of performers whose mainstream is Goth music such as Marilyn Manson. Some of this fashion senses can be seen as too aggressive and unsuitable to teens especially in the Asian region where demureness and reserved attitudes are practiced. Teens are also related to attitude change when listening to certain type of music. They often imitate the haughty attitude of rappers and hip-hop artist. Some are even inclined to follow these artists lifestyle where drugs are involved such as 50cent, Snoop Dogg, Lindsay Lohan, and atheistic behavior is portrayed such as practiced by Lady Gaga. Lastly, problems related to negative impact of music also includes suicidal intentions. Some songs are notoriously known for its depressing lyrics such as Gloomy Sunday (1935) where it hold the record of 200 suicidal attempts related to it all over the world. Many countries banned this song from being played in the public. People with weak state of mind to be led astray by what they hear repetitively and teens are one of the groups of people who have a weak mindset. Eighteen-year-old Phillip Morton hung himself while listening to songs “Goodbye Cruel World" and "Waiting for the Worms," from Pink Floyd play in the background. With the high strung guitar, vibrating drums and destructive themes playing, rock music can increase the mood of the individual listening to it and promote anti-social behaviors and suicidal actions.
As a conclusion, music may exhibit negative impact to youths of today. It does not matter the music genre teenagers listen to. It may be dance, hip-hop, rap, rock or pop. All that matters is the message comprised in the song’s lyrics. Clearly, rap is not the only music that portrays negative stereotypes or can negatively impact behaviours, and not all rap music should be implicated. But there have been nearly thousands of studies that have looked at the effects that the music has on children’s behaviour. And nearly all of them find there is a strong effect. Though it is undeniable that music can also impact this group positively, but we cannot simply overlook the cons when there are pros.
2.4 How to Overcome It?
Now that we have seen the negative impact of music, we must come up with ideas to overcome the problems.
Firstly, it will be the responsibility of parents to control the type of music that their children prefer. Sure, some would say with the access of internet today, this proved to be easier said than done. Even so, parents must take the initiative to train their children from little. This is because it is easier to mend and set up the discipline of a 5 to 10-years-old child compared to doing so to a teen. Parents must take a more proactive and preventive measures to control teens preferences of music such as putting the radio and internet where we can see clearly what the children are doing and get to know the latest trend and issues concerning music. As Susan Buttross, MD, FAAP, chief of child development and behavioural paediatrics at the University of Mississippi Medical Centre and spokeswoman for the American Academy of Paediatrics (AAP said, “They (parents) cannot stick their heads in sand and expect their child to only look at the good stuff. Parents need to know what their children are exposed to.”
Having said that, parents must make sure that their methods are not too excessive since children has the tendency to react opposite to what they are supposed to do. This behaviour is also known as reverse psychology.
Next, we should concentrate on how music can be beneficial to students. Many studies have proved that certain type of music can alleviate tension and improve their academic performance. In an analysis of U.S. Department of Education data on more than 25,000 secondary school students, researchers found that students who report consistent high levels of involvement in instrumental music over the middle and high school years show "significantly higher levels of mathematics proficiency by grade 12." This observation holds regardless of students' socio-economic status, and differences in those who are involved with instrumental music vs. those who are not are more significant over time. (Lateral, J, Wangi, J., 1999.)
Lastly, the government should work hand in hand with the media to filter music that can provoke irrational behaviours. Music that is brought into the country should be analyzed to detect any potential threat as well as other countries acceptance to that music. Though some might regard this method as ‘fighting a losing battle’ since we cannot stop the onslaught of music through internet, it is important to educate people on music and its possible effect on them.
There many other ways to overcome the negative effect of music towards teens and all of it requires hard work and cooperation of every parties; parents, society, media and government. Though Asian registered very little impact on music because we are very demure and in some places, traditional and religious beliefs are deeply rooted, but that does not mean we should turn a blind eye on the effect of music towards people particularly teens. We cannot let our youth to be turned emotionally depraved and psychologically disturbed by this ‘War of Harmony’ as quoted by Henry Jean, teen psychologist in Washington DC. The future of our country lies on the youth of today!
CHAPTER THREE : METHODOLOGY
In this section,
✓ Respondents
✓ Instruments
✓ Research procedures
3.1 Respondents
Our respondents consist of male and female students of Matriculation College of Negeri Sembilan, which is a sum up to 50 individual altogether. We chose them as they are just around us thus it is very convenient for us to complete the research in two months. Furthermore, our research focuses the effect of music on teens and that age group includes the students of this college. For each respondent, we refer to them into different genders as it plays a vital aspect for us to look at. This is due to the different ways of thinking of male and female. Therefore, different opinions of each individual will contribute more to this research.
3.2 Research Instrument
Upon handling the survey, our main instrument is the questionnaire. We randomly selected students from three courses which are physical science, life science and accounts. We had chosen this method because we will be able to see their responses concerning our research topic through answering several questions provided. Other than that, this method is easier to be conducted as our respondents are among us and distributions of questionnaire are easily done. This also allows us to finish the survey within the time limit.
3.3 Research Procedures
In order to
|15 to 19/11/2010 |Briefing about reports writing and possible research |
| |The team agrees on ‘The Influence of Music on Teenagers’ |
| |Looking through samples to get a general idea of the format of report |
| |Search for related article/cases related to research |
|22 to 27/11/2010 |Chapter One |
| |Write the thesis statement of research |
| |Discuss the issues related to research |
| |Discuss suitable research questions |
| |Define the meaning of related key terms for better understanding of project |
|01 to 05/12/2010 |Chapter Two |
| |Summarize article on definition of music, history of music, influence of music on teenagers, method to |
| |overcome negative effect of music and latest issue. |
|08 to 13/11/2010 |Chapter Three |
| |Prepare the questionnaire and the methodology of the projects; respondents, instruments and research |
| |procedure |
|17/12 to 03/01/2010 |Chapter Four |
| |Carrying out fieldwork |
| |Analyse and discuss the result and data from the survey |
|06 to 10/01/2010 |Chapter Five |
| |Conclude the discovery |
| |Recommend and suggest ways to overcome the problem and improving the research for future reference |
|11/01/2010 |Submission of project |
CHAPTER FOUR : RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
In this section,
✓ What type of Music do you prefer?
✓ Where do you get your favourite Music?
✓ How much time do you spend listening to Music?
✓ Why do you listen to Music?
✓ Where do you get the latest information about Music?
✓ Are you obsessed to certain type of Music?
✓ Do people around you prefer the same type of Music?
✓ Do you listen to music during studies?
✓ Do you think music affect your studies?
✓ Do your parents approve your choice of music?
4.1 What Type Of Music Do You Prefer?
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The visuals illustrate the musical preference of each student by gender. A majority of male respondents choose rock as their preferred music genre while for female respondents preferred pop.
For male students, 21.88% favoured rock as their music genre, followed by 18.75% pop. A mere 3.13% responded to hip hop while 12.50% chose other type of music such as jazz and classical music.
On the other hand, for female students, the highest figure, 18.75% goes to pop, followed by 4.69% and 3.13% for hip hop and rock respectively. 17.19% had chosen other genre of music such as country and ballad music.
Majority of teens preferred pop music with 37.5% total male and female, followed closely by rock with 25.01% by rock. Only the slightest amount of respondents favoured hip hop. There is a fraction of 2% each for the ‘others’ category; jazz, classical (instrumental), country, ballad (slow, romance) dance (techno), RnB.
As a conclusion, majority of male respondents preferred rock with 21.88% while 3.13% is the percentage of respondents who chooses hip hop. On the other hand, majority of female favoured rock with 18.75% and the least favoured music by female is rock. We can see how the nature of men who are more physically active preferred rock and female with a more demure attitude mostly preferred pop.
4.2 Where Do You Get Your Favourite Music?
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The data from sources for teens to obtain their favourite music is depicted in the above column bar graph. Generally, male respondents answered to obtain music from internet while for female, friends.
Here we can see that The Internet was the most frequently used to download their favourite songs with 48.57% respondents. This figure is distributed by 30% male students and 18.57% female students. More male used this method since they are a frequent internet user and spends more time surfing the Web.
Meanwhile, female students showed better public relation skills than members of the opposite sex when 25.71% download music via their friends who get it from another friend or download it directly from the Internet. Only 20% male used this method. Even so, downloading music from friends is second in the most used method of obtaining songs with 45.71% respondents who do so.
Only a mere 5.72% student actually bought the original CD to obtain their favourite songs. This may be an act to show their devotion to their favourite artist. This is also an indicator that Malaysian students are not entirely obsessed to music or even the artists.
As a conclusion, teens used Internet the most to download songs (48.57%), followed by obtaining songs via their friends (45.71%) and lastly buying the actual CD (5.72%).
4.3 How Much Time Do You Spend Listening To Music?
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The visuals illustrate the hours spend by teens listening to music of their preference. A majority of respondents for both male and female individuals listened up to 3 hours of music.
38% respondents listened from a range of 2 to 3 hours of music. This figure is distributed by 22% male and 16% female. More male students are listed under this category. They can be classified as medium music listener.
Meanwhile female students showed a higher figure than male when 14% listened to music more than 5 hours compared to 12% of the reverse sex. This is an amazing finding since it contradicts to the many beliefs that male listened to music for more hours than female.
The next figure further contradicts the theory that girls listened to music less than boys. Our findings showed that less than 10% female students listen to music up to one hour while almost 15% male students are listed under this category.
Music listeners from 4 to 5 hours are in the minority when only a sum of 14% respondents listed under this category. Even here, more female students listen up to 5 hours of music (8%) compared to 6% male.
4.4 Why Do You Listen To Music?
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The graph shows the reason respondents listen to music. Generally, male students listen to music as one of their hobbies while a significant amount of female students release their tension by listening to music.
23.29% male students listened to music as a hobby followed by listening to music to release their tension for about 20.55%. Only 6.85% used music as a distraction.
Meanwhile, 16.44% female respondents listened to music as a hobby, 23.29% used music to release their tension and almost 9.6% said music as a distraction to something else.
We can see that more male used music as their hobby where they simply listened to songs in their free time. On the other hand, more female students used music to release their tension. Maybe this group of students find solace listening to the lyrics which shows almost the same situation as they are in.
4.5 Where Do Teenagers Get The Latest Information On Music
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The graph above shows where the respondents get the latest information about music. A majority of both male and female students used radio to do this.
Surprisingly, 39.74% respondents used radio to get the latest scoop concerning music and artists. This figure is distributed with 17.95% male and 21.79% female. This goes against the theory that teens used internet the most to search for their favourite music and the most recent information.
Next, to obtain latest news about their favourite music 16.67% male and 10.26% female use the Internet. There is considerably large difference to the radio listeners especially in the female category. It seems that female tend to listen to radio a lot.
In the third ranking, the hottest reports about music for 12.82% male are acquired through their friends while a marginal difference of 2.56% to the female group. This shows that boys do gossip around to find out information.
Lastly is obtaining the latest findings about music through magazine. 2.56% male use this method compared 7.69% female. This result is no surprise since it is common knowledge that girls love to read more than boys. Even so, this figure is minute compared to other categories showing that Malaysian students are reading less and less compared to listening to radios and surfing the Web.
4.6 Are You Obsessed To Certain Type Of Music?
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The graph shows whether the respondents are obsessed to certain type of music or not.
64% respondents answered yes with 32% male and 22% female. More male students admitted to be obsessed to certain type of music. When asked to state the type of music they are obsessed to, 56% answered rock, pop rock, scream and electronic. These types of music are known to have an entrancing aura. For female students on the other hand, they admitted to being obsessed to slow rock and pop music.
Meanwhile, 46% respondents answered no with 22% male and 24% female.
As a conclusion, more male respondents are obsessed to certain music genre compared to female. Further study must be conducted to know the effect of this type of music to the students’ personality as certain types of music can lead to more depression and mood alteration.
4.7 Do People Around You Prefer The Same Music?
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The chart depicts the preference of people around the respondents for liking the same music genre as the respondents.
Majority (74%) said that their friends preferred the same type of music such as pop for female respondents and rock for male respondents. It can be said that musical preference is influenced by peers since liking something in a collective group is more fun than doing that as an individual.
On the other hand, less than 30% students said that they do not share the same interest as their friends and this group of students preferred jazz and instrumental music. Therefore, it is no surprise that their friends do not prefer the same music.
As a conclusion, musical preference can be influenced by what their peers prefer. A group of students in one room may share the same interest as they also hear the same music when one of them puts it on speaker mode or simply singing along. This in return sparks interest and thus friends of the same room or the same floor will prefer the same music. Having said that, we cannot deny that there are people who are not affected by this. We cannot be sure whether this type of people is strong-hearted or purely a loner.
4.8 Do You Listen To Music While Studying?
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The graph shows the respondents preference for listening to music while study. Majority answered yes with 38% male and 36% female. Most of them prefer slow music such as instrumental music and showed a significant improvement on their studies as they got more than 3.0 GPA level in their final exam compared to the mid semester test.
However, a number of 26% respondents admitted they do no listen to music while studying. Both male and female prefer a quiet environment while studying with percentage of 10% and 165 respectively. More than half acquire low result in their final exam.
As a conclusion, the majority who listen to music while studying have a positive impact on their final exam result compared to the mid semester test.
4.9 Do You Think Music Affect Your Studies?
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The graph shows the relationship between affect of music on studies for different genders of students. Majority of students answered that they were affected by music.
Out of 50 respondents of Matriculation College of Negeri Sembilan, an astonishing percentage of 72% said that their studies were affected by music. 54% of these students are male and 46% female. Out of 36 students, 71% showed a positive effect of music on their studies when they received more than 3.0 GPA level for their final exam. To add on, these students showed a high level of preference to slow type of music such as jazz and country. On the other hand, 29% showed that they were negatively affected by music. Majority of their music preference is rock and hip hop.
A total of 14 female and male respondents said that they were not affected by music. 45% and 55% are male and female students respectively. From this data, only 20% showed that even though music does not affect their studies, they are still able to attain good results while the rest achieved level of GPA 2.9 and below. This group of students also showed the same preference to rock and head-banging music.
It can be concluded that music have a positive effect on some student’s academic performance since majority received a high GPA results. There are several students who exhibit a good result but proclaimed that their studies were not affected by music. The same students listen up to four hours of music. It can be said that they too are affected by music only they are not aware of it.
4.10 Do Your Parents Approve Your Choice Of Music?
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A study is conducted on whether the teen’s musical preferences are approved by their parents. Majority responded that their parents approved with their choice of music.
From 50 respondents of Matriculation College of Negeri Sembilan, 76% replied that their parents were okay with their musical preference. However, 34% of these students preferred hip hop and rock while the rest preferred pop and other types of music such as instrumental and jazz. This proved that some parents are fine with their children listening to music that are known to exhibit strong lyrics and influential beating. Further studies must be conducted whether these parents are aware of the effect of the musical preferences of their children.
24% of respondents replied that their parents did not approve of their musical choice. 70% of these students preferred rock and hip hop while 30% preferred pop and others. This may indicate that some parents are still concerned enough to know what their children do and liked. Though this is just a small number, it is better and measures must be taken to increase this figure in the future.
In conclusion, majority of students’ musical preference were approved by their parents. Even so, some parents seem to be unaware of the effect of such genre of music on their children.
CHAPTER FIVE : CONCLUSION
In this section,
✓ Overall observations and discussions
✓ Recommendations
5.1 Overall Observations And Discussions
Now we have almost come to the end of the report. Here we will summarize our findings and discuss the results even further.
In 4.1 we discuss the findings of musical preference of youths of today’s generation. It seems that pop and rock is the favourite among male and female students with 37.5% and 25.01% respectively. A connection between gender and musical preference can be seen when male respondents preferred rock while female respondents preferred pop.
In 4.2, we found out that youths obtained their favourite music mostly through the Internet with 48.57% respondents do so. This supports the theory that youths spend a lot of time surfing for music. Very little students bought the CD of their favourite music or artist. Here we can say that Malaysian students are not as obsessed to their favourite music as the students of other countries.
In 4.3 we discovered that youths spends an average up to 3 hours listening to music and the theory that male listen to music more than female is proved otherwise. More female students were found to spend more than 5 hours listening to radio per day.
In 4.4 we learn that teens used music mostly to release tension. 43.84% respondents confirmed the fact that female students found solace through listening to music.
In 4.5 noticed how teens attain information about music mostly through magazine with 39.74% compared to 26.93% who used the Internet.
In 4.6 we learn that a few male students were obsessed to rock music. However, we could not confirm the effect of this music on their behaviour.
We found that music preference can be influenced by what the peers preferred. This is discovered in part 4.7 of the project.
Listening to music may affect the academic performance of students in a positive way. This fact we have discovered through part4.3, 4.8 and 4.9 of this research where students who spend an average of 3 to 4 hours and listens to music during studying achieved a better grade of GPA level in the last semester final exam.
Lastly, we learn that a majority of parents approve their children’s choice of music but a few of these music preference includes rock and heavy metal songs.
5.2 Recommendations And Suggestions
Here, we would like to give several recommendations of how negative effects of music can be reduced based on our studies.
We found that a majority of students choose pop and rock as their favourite genre of music. Since, rock and several other types of songs have long been associated with violent behaviour; producers of this type of songs should pay attention and tone down a bit the songs. Sure some would say preventing artist to expand their music talents will just invite trouble but we are not saying that rock and pop songs be disbanded completely. Many rap songs of today promotes violence and sexual harassment as a norm and this should not continue. We must not promote bad moral to teens of today and later question why they are behaving the same way. Thus, toning down the lyrics is a necessity to improve the behaviour of teens even if by a marginal difference.
Next is a suggestion to the media. Students find the latest information mostly through radio and internet. Thus control must be taken so that students are not excessively dragged into the world of music and be forever in trance. Messages of bad influence of strong music should be spread across the nation so that teens are aware. More studies like this should be conducted so that there is legitimate prove of this effects.
Lastly, is a suggestion to all parents. Children nowadays have unlimited access to music and internet. Steps must be taken so that a sense of control is established within the household. Put your computers in the living room so that you can always monitor what your child is doing. Always be up-to-date with the latest music that may bring bad influence to the children and get to know what your child is listening to everyday. Having said that, do not be too uptight since children, especially teens, tend to rebellious. Therefore, control but not excessively. Set a limit but do it in a way so that teens understand why you did so. Teens are clever today. They will understand if you break down the information correctly.
This project had been done with success but of course there are rooms for improvements. First improvement that could be done for future research is increase the number of respondents. 50 respondents are too little to have an accurate result.
Next, improve the questionnaire by including behavioural questions such as ‘How do you rate your temper?’ This is so that effects of music on teen behaviour can be observed. An even accurate result may be obtained if a separate personality test can be done. Survey should also be conducted to different ranges of respondents.
Lastly, future research should be conducted to fine deeper connection of music to teens’ behaviour. This folio is somehow limited to the academic performance of students. Thus future projects should be conducted to determine the relation of music to youth’s attitude, way of thinking, temper level and how they connect with others around them.
All in all, this project is important since teens relate themselves so much to music. Thus, to understand the many issues revolving around students, this research is compulsory. A famous person once quoted, ‘Understanding solves half the problem already’.
References
• Madam Cheah Yit Ying, English Lecturer of Matriculation College of Negeri Sembilan
• Friends and family of our research team
• http://www.childrenmusicworkshop.com
• The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• Alex Keshen http://www.musicismylife.blogspot.com
• http://www.wikipedia.org
• http://www.ideal.forestry.ubc.ca/frst524/time.pdf
• http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/mar.10043/abstract
• http://www.chinamusictherapy.org/file/doc/Relaxing%20Music%20Prevents%20Stress-Induced%20Increases%20in%20Subjective%20Anxiety,%20Systolic%20Blood%20Pressure,%20and%20Heart%20Rate%20in%20Healthy.pdf
• http://www.lavoisier.fr/notice/frJWOOX3XAARWXSR.html
• http://books.google.com.my/books
• http://sip.medizin.uni-ulm.de/abteilung/projekte/357Musiktherapie.pdf
• http://muir.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/255
• http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL
Appendices
In this section,
• Related articles
• Magazine and newspaper cuts
• Questionnaires
• Others
MATRICULATION COLLEGE OF NEGERI SEMBILAN
ENGLISH WB023
SESSION 2010/2011
‘THE INFLUENCE OF MUSIC ON TEENAGERS’
MEMBERS OF RESEARCH TEAM :
MUHAMMAD AFIQ BIN MD DAIM MS1012505095
IDA FARHANA BINTI ROSLAN MS1012504521
SITI NORHANNAN ASHIKIN BINTI A MUIN MS1012506771
SITI NADIRAH BINTI OTHMAN MS1012506751
PRACTICUM GROUP : F2P7
LECTURER : MADAM CHEAH YIT YING
SUBMISSION DATE : 11TH January 2011
Acknowledgement
First and foremost, we would like to thank Madam Cheah Yit Ying, our English Lecturer, for guiding us throughout this project. Without her guides and help we would not be able to finish this folio in time according to the rightful format.
Next, we would like to thank our parents for providing us with the support we needed when times are dreary, mentally and physically.
Not forgetting our peers at Matriculation College of Negeri Sembilan who participated in this research especially to our respondents. Without their critics and honesty this folio would have been a failure.
And to all who are not aforementioned, we give our utmost gratitude. Without all of you, this folio would not exist.
This research is conducted to help students and readers to understand the relationship between music and teens. We hope that we are able to do so and for any inadequacy, please accept our apology beforehand.
Contents
Acknowledgement
Table of contents
1. Chapter One : Introduction
1. Thesis statement
2. Definition of key terms
3. Objectives
4. Research questions
2. Chapter Two : Literature Review
2.1 What is Music?
2.2 History of Music
2.3 The influence of Music
2.4 How to overcome the influence of Music?
2.5 Latest issues
3. Chapter Three : Methodology
3.1 Respondents
3.2 Instruments
3.3 Research procedures
4. Chapter Four : Results and Discussions
4.1 What type of Music do you prefer?
4.2 Where do you get your favourite Music?
4.3 How much time do you spend listening to Music?
4.4 Why do you listen to Music?
4.5 Where do you get the latest information about Music?
4.6 Are you obsessed to certain type of Music?
4.7 Do people around you prefer the same type of Music?
4.8 Do you listen to music during studies?
4.9 Do you think music affect your studies?
4.10 Do your parents approve your choice of music?
5. Chapter Five : Conclusion
5.1 Overall observations and discussions
5.2 Recommendations
References
Appendices
CHAPTER ONE : INTRODUCTION
In this section,
✓ Thesis statement
✓ Definition of key terms
✓ Objectives
✓ Research questions
1. Background/thesis statement
Singing and music have always played an important role to teenagers. With music being such a staple in youth culture, it seems that each teenager has their own ‘soundtrack to their life’. But are they just innocently listening to their favourite tunes? Or are they in for something more?
This is what our research team is trying to find. The question whether music has a big impact to Malaysian students is the key in uncovering this musical mystery.
To begin with, we will study the types of music teenagers nowadays prefer since media is often seen to affiliate certain groups to particular genres of music such as rap and heavy-metal. These are pinpointed when something within their community goes awry, as having been strongly influenced by the music they listen to.
On April 1999, 12 students as well as a teacher were fatally injured in Columbine High School in Littletown of Jefferson County, Colorado. Media had immediately instilled a moral panic on the two shooters’ musical interest; heavy-metal and Goth music.
What we are trying to prove and portray in this folio is whether there is a definite link of music to people’s behaviour and will it affect a student’s academic performance.
▪ The following troublesome themes are prominent:
o Advocating and glamorizing abuse of drugs and alcohol.
o Pictures and explicit lyrics presenting suicide as an "alternative" or "solution."
o Graphic violence.
o Preoccupation with the occult; songs about Satanism and human sacrifice, and the apparent enactment of these rituals in concerts.
o Sex which focuses on controlling sadism, masochism, incest, devaluing women, and violence toward women.
In order to get an approximately close to reality result, a survey is conducted to 100 students of Kolej Matrikulasi Negeri Sembilan.
1.2 Definition of Key Terms
According to Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2003) published b Cambridge International Corpus and Wikipedia.org;
Music : A pattern of sounds made by musical instruments, singing or computer, or a combination of these, intended to give pleasure to people listening to it.
Music therapy : An interpersonal process in which the therapist uses music and all of its facets, to help client to improve or maintain their health.
Charity : A system of giving money, food or help free to those who are in need because they are ill, poor or homeless, or any organization which is established to provide money or help in this way.
Genre : A style especially in arts that involves a particular set of characteristics.
Teenagers : A young person between 13 to 19 years old.
Society : A large group of people who live together in an organized way, making decisions about how to do things and sharing the work needs to be done.
Black metal : An extreme subgenre of heavy metal that often uses fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structure.
Goth music : A musical subgenre of post-punk and alternative rock that formed during the late 1970s
Jazz music : An American musical art form that originated in the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions.
1.3 Objectives (Justification of the Topic)
• To investigate the various types of music genre and the type commonly listened by teens.
• To study the pros and cons of music to teenagers.
• To scrutinize the relationship between music and society and the concentration to teenagers.
• To prove the benefit of music to teenagers.
1.4 Research Question
• How does music influence teenagers’ behaviour?
• What type of music do the teens prefer?
• Does listening to music affect their studies?
CHAPTER TWO : LITERATURE REVIEW
In this section,
✓ What is Music?
✓ History of Music
✓ The influence of Music
✓ How to overcome the influence of Music?
✓ Latest issues
2.1 What is Music?
According to the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2003) published by Cambridge International Corpus, music is a pattern of sounds made by musical instruments, singing or computer, or a combination of these, intended to give pleasure to people listening to it whilst Wikipedia.org states that music is an art form whose medium is sound where it’s common elements are pitch (which governs melody and harmony), rhythm (and its associated concepts tempo, meter, and articulation), dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture.
The word music is a derivation from a Greek word μουσική (pronounce as mousike), which means the art of the Muses.
The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of music vary according to culture and social context. Music ranges from strictly organized compositions (and their recreation in performance), through improvisational music to aleatoric forms.
Music can be divided into genres and subgenres, although the dividing lines and relationships between music genres are often subtle, sometimes open to individual interpretation, and occasionally controversial.
Within "the arts," music may be classified as a performing art, a fine art, and auditory art. There is also a strong connection between music and mathematics.
Common genres of music includes country, jazz, blues, electronic, Latin, pop, ska, rock, world and hip-hop and rap.
2.2 History of Music
According to Wikipedia.org, in the prehistoric eras, ‘music can only be imagined by scholars’. These imaginations are based on the findings of any tools similar to musical instrument exist to the day. For example, bones in which lateral holes have been pierced are usually identified as flutes, blown at one end like the Japanese shakuhachi. Instruments, such as the seven-holed flutes and various types of stringed instruments have been recovered from the Indus Valley Civilization archaeological sites. India has one of the oldest musical traditions in the world—references to Indian classical music (marga) can be found in the ancient scriptures of the Hindu tradition, the Vedas. The earliest and largest collection of prehistoric musical instruments was found in China and dates back to between 7000 and 6600 BC.
There are also references of music from the Bible and Arabian scholars.
The Journal of Religion and Theatre noted that among the earliest forms of litany, ‘Hebrew litany was accompanied by a rich musical tradition. For example, Genesis 4.21 identifies Jubal as the “father of all such as handle the harp and pipe.
In the 9th century, the Arab scholar al-Farabi wrote a book on music titled Kitab al-Musiqi al-Kabir ("Great Book of Music"). He played and invented a variety of musical instruments and devised the Arab tone system of pitch organization, which is still used in Arabic music.
Classical music
Indian classical music is one of the oldest musical traditions in the world. The Indus Valley civilization has sculptures that show dance and old musical instruments, like the seven holed flute. Various types of stringed instruments and drums have been recovered from Harappa and Mohenjo Daro by excavations carried out by Sir Mortimer Wheeler. Indian classical music (marga) is monophonic, and based on a single melody line or raga rhythmically organized through talas. Hindustani music was influenced by the Persian performance practices of the Afghan Mughals. Carnatic music popular in the southern states, is largely devotional; the majority of the songs are addressed to the Hindu deities. There are a lot of songs emphasizing love and other social issues. Chinese classical music, the traditional art or court music of China has a history stretching over around three thousand years. It has its own unique systems of musical notation, as well as musical tuning and pitch, musical instruments and styles or musical genres. Chinese music is pentatonic-diatonic, having a scale of twelve notes to an octave (5 + 7 = 12) as does European-influenced music.
20th and 21st century music
With 20th century music, there was a vast increase in music listening as the radio gained popularity and phonographs were used to replay and distribute music. The focus of art music was characterized by exploration of new rhythms, styles, and sounds. Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg, and John Cage were all influential composers in 20th century art music. Jazz evolved and became a significant genre of music over the course of the 20th century, and during the second half of that century, rock music did the same. From its early development until the present, jazz has also incorporated music from 19th and 20th century American popular music. Jazz has, from its early 20th century inception, spawned a variety of subgenres, ranging from New Orleans Dixieland (1910s) to 1970s and 1980s-era jazz-rock fusion. Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed in the 1960s from 1950s rock and roll, rockabilly, blues, and country music. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, rock music branched out into different subgenres, ranging from blues rock and jazz-rock fusion to heavy metal and punk rock, as well as the more classical influenced genre of progressive rock and several types of experimental rock genres.
2.3 The Problems Arises from Music to Teenagers
Music has many influences to teenagers. Certain music influenced teens positively where teens can benefit from them while some prove to convey negative impact on teens.
One of the negative impact music have on youths are sexual curiosity. Modern music is known for its sexual hints or explicit sexual lyrics. Since teenagers and youngsters are the most concerned about sex of all groups of age, especially when they have not had any intimate relationships, this type of music acted like a trap to them. The US based Rand Corporation, Pittsburgh research found how the music teenagers listen to influence their desire of being sexually active. After investigating 1461 participants with ages ranging from 12 to 17, researchers came to the conclusion that teenagers who listen to music with degrading sexual messages are twice more prone to start their sex life in the following two year period than those who listen to little or no such music. 51% of the heavy listeners started having sexual intercourse within two years, as compared to only 29% of those who did not enjoy sexually explicit lyrics. To add on, music affected youngster negatively when students became prone and accepting destructive behaviors as a norm. According to a WebMD Health News, a research conducted in the US showed that rap and ‘gangsta’-based music videos affects the young to be more likely to hit teachers and 2.5 times more likely to be arrested for assault. Researcher Ralph J. DiClemente, PhD, of Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health said that it is alarming to discover that no associations were found with just violence or one or two risky behaviors but there were connections to a string of these behaviors. In other words, music can affect teens to behave in many unfavorable conducts. Youth’s fashion senses and attitude are now greatly affected by their musical preference. More and more teens dressed to imitate their favorite singers. Goths will imitate the outlook and even sometimes the behavior of performers whose mainstream is Goth music such as Marilyn Manson. Some of this fashion senses can be seen as too aggressive and unsuitable to teens especially in the Asian region where demureness and reserved attitudes are practiced. Teens are also related to attitude change when listening to certain type of music. They often imitate the haughty attitude of rappers and hip-hop artist. Some are even inclined to follow these artists lifestyle where drugs are involved such as 50cent, Snoop Dogg, Lindsay Lohan, and atheistic behavior is portrayed such as practiced by Lady Gaga. Lastly, problems related to negative impact of music also includes suicidal intentions. Some songs are notoriously known for its depressing lyrics such as Gloomy Sunday (1935) where it hold the record of 200 suicidal attempts related to it all over the world. Many countries banned this song from being played in the public. People with weak state of mind to be led astray by what they hear repetitively and teens are one of the groups of people who have a weak mindset. Eighteen-year-old Phillip Morton hung himself while listening to songs “Goodbye Cruel World" and "Waiting for the Worms," from Pink Floyd play in the background. With the high strung guitar, vibrating drums and destructive themes playing, rock music can increase the mood of the individual listening to it and promote anti-social behaviors and suicidal actions.
As a conclusion, music may exhibit negative impact to youths of today. It does not matter the music genre teenagers listen to. It may be dance, hip-hop, rap, rock or pop. All that matters is the message comprised in the song’s lyrics. Clearly, rap is not the only music that portrays negative stereotypes or can negatively impact behaviours, and not all rap music should be implicated. But there have been nearly thousands of studies that have looked at the effects that the music has on children’s behaviour. And nearly all of them find there is a strong effect. Though it is undeniable that music can also impact this group positively, but we cannot simply overlook the cons when there are pros.
2.4 How to Overcome It?
Now that we have seen the negative impact of music, we must come up with ideas to overcome the problems.
Firstly, it will be the responsibility of parents to control the type of music that their children prefer. Sure, some would say with the access of internet today, this proved to be easier said than done. Even so, parents must take the initiative to train their children from little. This is because it is easier to mend and set up the discipline of a 5 to 10-years-old child compared to doing so to a teen. Parents must take a more proactive and preventive measures to control teens preferences of music such as putting the radio and internet where we can see clearly what the children are doing and get to know the latest trend and issues concerning music. As Susan Buttross, MD, FAAP, chief of child development and behavioural paediatrics at the University of Mississippi Medical Centre and spokeswoman for the American Academy of Paediatrics (AAP said, “They (parents) cannot stick their heads in sand and expect their child to only look at the good stuff. Parents need to know what their children are exposed to.”
Having said that, parents must make sure that their methods are not too excessive since children has the tendency to react opposite to what they are supposed to do. This behaviour is also known as reverse psychology.
Next, we should concentrate on how music can be beneficial to students. Many studies have proved that certain type of music can alleviate tension and improve their academic performance. In an analysis of U.S. Department of Education data on more than 25,000 secondary school students, researchers found that students who report consistent high levels of involvement in instrumental music over the middle and high school years show "significantly higher levels of mathematics proficiency by grade 12." This observation holds regardless of students' socio-economic status, and differences in those who are involved with instrumental music vs. those who are not are more significant over time. (Lateral, J, Wangi, J., 1999.)
Lastly, the government should work hand in hand with the media to filter music that can provoke irrational behaviours. Music that is brought into the country should be analyzed to detect any potential threat as well as other countries acceptance to that music. Though some might regard this method as ‘fighting a losing battle’ since we cannot stop the onslaught of music through internet, it is important to educate people on music and its possible effect on them.
There many other ways to overcome the negative effect of music towards teens and all of it requires hard work and cooperation of every parties; parents, society, media and government. Though Asian registered very little impact on music because we are very demure and in some places, traditional and religious beliefs are deeply rooted, but that does not mean we should turn a blind eye on the effect of music towards people particularly teens. We cannot let our youth to be turned emotionally depraved and psychologically disturbed by this ‘War of Harmony’ as quoted by Henry Jean, teen psychologist in Washington DC. The future of our country lies on the youth of today!
CHAPTER THREE : METHODOLOGY
In this section,
✓ Respondents
✓ Instruments
✓ Research procedures
3.1 Respondents
Our respondents consist of male and female students of Matriculation College of Negeri Sembilan, which is a sum up to 50 individual altogether. We chose them as they are just around us thus it is very convenient for us to complete the research in two months. Furthermore, our research focuses the effect of music on teens and that age group includes the students of this college. For each respondent, we refer to them into different genders as it plays a vital aspect for us to look at. This is due to the different ways of thinking of male and female. Therefore, different opinions of each individual will contribute more to this research.
3.2 Research Instrument
Upon handling the survey, our main instrument is the questionnaire. We randomly selected students from three courses which are physical science, life science and accounts. We had chosen this method because we will be able to see their responses concerning our research topic through answering several questions provided. Other than that, this method is easier to be conducted as our respondents are among us and distributions of questionnaire are easily done. This also allows us to finish the survey within the time limit.
3.3 Research Procedures
In order to
|15 to 19/11/2010 |Briefing about reports writing and possible research |
| |The team agrees on ‘The Influence of Music on Teenagers’ |
| |Looking through samples to get a general idea of the format of report |
| |Search for related article/cases related to research |
|22 to 27/11/2010 |Chapter One |
| |Write the thesis statement of research |
| |Discuss the issues related to research |
| |Discuss suitable research questions |
| |Define the meaning of related key terms for better understanding of project |
|01 to 05/12/2010 |Chapter Two |
| |Summarize article on definition of music, history of music, influence of music on teenagers, method to |
| |overcome negative effect of music and latest issue. |
|08 to 13/11/2010 |Chapter Three |
| |Prepare the questionnaire and the methodology of the projects; respondents, instruments and research |
| |procedure |
|17/12 to 03/01/2010 |Chapter Four |
| |Carrying out fieldwork |
| |Analyse and discuss the result and data from the survey |
|06 to 10/01/2010 |Chapter Five |
| |Conclude the discovery |
| |Recommend and suggest ways to overcome the problem and improving the research for future reference |
|11/01/2010 |Submission of project |
CHAPTER FOUR : RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
In this section,
✓ What type of Music do you prefer?
✓ Where do you get your favourite Music?
✓ How much time do you spend listening to Music?
✓ Why do you listen to Music?
✓ Where do you get the latest information about Music?
✓ Are you obsessed to certain type of Music?
✓ Do people around you prefer the same type of Music?
✓ Do you listen to music during studies?
✓ Do you think music affect your studies?
✓ Do your parents approve your choice of music?
4.1 What Type Of Music Do You Prefer?
[pic]
The visuals illustrate the musical preference of each student by gender. A majority of male respondents choose rock as their preferred music genre while for female respondents preferred pop.
For male students, 21.88% favoured rock as their music genre, followed by 18.75% pop. A mere 3.13% responded to hip hop while 12.50% chose other type of music such as jazz and classical music.
On the other hand, for female students, the highest figure, 18.75% goes to pop, followed by 4.69% and 3.13% for hip hop and rock respectively. 17.19% had chosen other genre of music such as country and ballad music.
Majority of teens preferred pop music with 37.5% total male and female, followed closely by rock with 25.01% by rock. Only the slightest amount of respondents favoured hip hop. There is a fraction of 2% each for the ‘others’ category; jazz, classical (instrumental), country, ballad (slow, romance) dance (techno), RnB.
As a conclusion, majority of male respondents preferred rock with 21.88% while 3.13% is the percentage of respondents who chooses hip hop. On the other hand, majority of female favoured rock with 18.75% and the least favoured music by female is rock. We can see how the nature of men who are more physically active preferred rock and female with a more demure attitude mostly preferred pop.
4.2 Where Do You Get Your Favourite Music?
[pic]
The data from sources for teens to obtain their favourite music is depicted in the above column bar graph. Generally, male respondents answered to obtain music from internet while for female, friends.
Here we can see that The Internet was the most frequently used to download their favourite songs with 48.57% respondents. This figure is distributed by 30% male students and 18.57% female students. More male used this method since they are a frequent internet user and spends more time surfing the Web.
Meanwhile, female students showed better public relation skills than members of the opposite sex when 25.71% download music via their friends who get it from another friend or download it directly from the Internet. Only 20% male used this method. Even so, downloading music from friends is second in the most used method of obtaining songs with 45.71% respondents who do so.
Only a mere 5.72% student actually bought the original CD to obtain their favourite songs. This may be an act to show their devotion to their favourite artist. This is also an indicator that Malaysian students are not entirely obsessed to music or even the artists.
As a conclusion, teens used Internet the most to download songs (48.57%), followed by obtaining songs via their friends (45.71%) and lastly buying the actual CD (5.72%).
4.3 How Much Time Do You Spend Listening To Music?
[pic]
The visuals illustrate the hours spend by teens listening to music of their preference. A majority of respondents for both male and female individuals listened up to 3 hours of music.
38% respondents listened from a range of 2 to 3 hours of music. This figure is distributed by 22% male and 16% female. More male students are listed under this category. They can be classified as medium music listener.
Meanwhile female students showed a higher figure than male when 14% listened to music more than 5 hours compared to 12% of the reverse sex. This is an amazing finding since it contradicts to the many beliefs that male listened to music for more hours than female.
The next figure further contradicts the theory that girls listened to music less than boys. Our findings showed that less than 10% female students listen to music up to one hour while almost 15% male students are listed under this category.
Music listeners from 4 to 5 hours are in the minority when only a sum of 14% respondents listed under this category. Even here, more female students listen up to 5 hours of music (8%) compared to 6% male.
4.4 Why Do You Listen To Music?
[pic]
The graph shows the reason respondents listen to music. Generally, male students listen to music as one of their hobbies while a significant amount of female students release their tension by listening to music.
23.29% male students listened to music as a hobby followed by listening to music to release their tension for about 20.55%. Only 6.85% used music as a distraction.
Meanwhile, 16.44% female respondents listened to music as a hobby, 23.29% used music to release their tension and almost 9.6% said music as a distraction to something else.
We can see that more male used music as their hobby where they simply listened to songs in their free time. On the other hand, more female students used music to release their tension. Maybe this group of students find solace listening to the lyrics which shows almost the same situation as they are in.
4.5 Where Do Teenagers Get The Latest Information On Music
[pic]
The graph above shows where the respondents get the latest information about music. A majority of both male and female students used radio to do this.
Surprisingly, 39.74% respondents used radio to get the latest scoop concerning music and artists. This figure is distributed with 17.95% male and 21.79% female. This goes against the theory that teens used internet the most to search for their favourite music and the most recent information.
Next, to obtain latest news about their favourite music 16.67% male and 10.26% female use the Internet. There is considerably large difference to the radio listeners especially in the female category. It seems that female tend to listen to radio a lot.
In the third ranking, the hottest reports about music for 12.82% male are acquired through their friends while a marginal difference of 2.56% to the female group. This shows that boys do gossip around to find out information.
Lastly is obtaining the latest findings about music through magazine. 2.56% male use this method compared 7.69% female. This result is no surprise since it is common knowledge that girls love to read more than boys. Even so, this figure is minute compared to other categories showing that Malaysian students are reading less and less compared to listening to radios and surfing the Web.
4.6 Are You Obsessed To Certain Type Of Music?
[pic]
The graph shows whether the respondents are obsessed to certain type of music or not.
64% respondents answered yes with 32% male and 22% female. More male students admitted to be obsessed to certain type of music. When asked to state the type of music they are obsessed to, 56% answered rock, pop rock, scream and electronic. These types of music are known to have an entrancing aura. For female students on the other hand, they admitted to being obsessed to slow rock and pop music.
Meanwhile, 46% respondents answered no with 22% male and 24% female.
As a conclusion, more male respondents are obsessed to certain music genre compared to female. Further study must be conducted to know the effect of this type of music to the students’ personality as certain types of music can lead to more depression and mood alteration.
4.7 Do People Around You Prefer The Same Music?
[pic]
The chart depicts the preference of people around the respondents for liking the same music genre as the respondents.
Majority (74%) said that their friends preferred the same type of music such as pop for female respondents and rock for male respondents. It can be said that musical preference is influenced by peers since liking something in a collective group is more fun than doing that as an individual.
On the other hand, less than 30% students said that they do not share the same interest as their friends and this group of students preferred jazz and instrumental music. Therefore, it is no surprise that their friends do not prefer the same music.
As a conclusion, musical preference can be influenced by what their peers prefer. A group of students in one room may share the same interest as they also hear the same music when one of them puts it on speaker mode or simply singing along. This in return sparks interest and thus friends of the same room or the same floor will prefer the same music. Having said that, we cannot deny that there are people who are not affected by this. We cannot be sure whether this type of people is strong-hearted or purely a loner.
4.8 Do You Listen To Music While Studying?
[pic]
The graph shows the respondents preference for listening to music while study. Majority answered yes with 38% male and 36% female. Most of them prefer slow music such as instrumental music and showed a significant improvement on their studies as they got more than 3.0 GPA level in their final exam compared to the mid semester test.
However, a number of 26% respondents admitted they do no listen to music while studying. Both male and female prefer a quiet environment while studying with percentage of 10% and 165 respectively. More than half acquire low result in their final exam.
As a conclusion, the majority who listen to music while studying have a positive impact on their final exam result compared to the mid semester test.
4.9 Do You Think Music Affect Your Studies?
[pic]
The graph shows the relationship between affect of music on studies for different genders of students. Majority of students answered that they were affected by music.
Out of 50 respondents of Matriculation College of Negeri Sembilan, an astonishing percentage of 72% said that their studies were affected by music. 54% of these students are male and 46% female. Out of 36 students, 71% showed a positive effect of music on their studies when they received more than 3.0 GPA level for their final exam. To add on, these students showed a high level of preference to slow type of music such as jazz and country. On the other hand, 29% showed that they were negatively affected by music. Majority of their music preference is rock and hip hop.
A total of 14 female and male respondents said that they were not affected by music. 45% and 55% are male and female students respectively. From this data, only 20% showed that even though music does not affect their studies, they are still able to attain good results while the rest achieved level of GPA 2.9 and below. This group of students also showed the same preference to rock and head-banging music.
It can be concluded that music have a positive effect on some student’s academic performance since majority received a high GPA results. There are several students who exhibit a good result but proclaimed that their studies were not affected by music. The same students listen up to four hours of music. It can be said that they too are affected by music only they are not aware of it.
4.10 Do Your Parents Approve Your Choice Of Music?
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A study is conducted on whether the teen’s musical preferences are approved by their parents. Majority responded that their parents approved with their choice of music.
From 50 respondents of Matriculation College of Negeri Sembilan, 76% replied that their parents were okay with their musical preference. However, 34% of these students preferred hip hop and rock while the rest preferred pop and other types of music such as instrumental and jazz. This proved that some parents are fine with their children listening to music that are known to exhibit strong lyrics and influential beating. Further studies must be conducted whether these parents are aware of the effect of the musical preferences of their children.
24% of respondents replied that their parents did not approve of their musical choice. 70% of these students preferred rock and hip hop while 30% preferred pop and others. This may indicate that some parents are still concerned enough to know what their children do and liked. Though this is just a small number, it is better and measures must be taken to increase this figure in the future.
In conclusion, majority of students’ musical preference were approved by their parents. Even so, some parents seem to be unaware of the effect of such genre of music on their children.
CHAPTER FIVE : CONCLUSION
In this section,
✓ Overall observations and discussions
✓ Recommendations
5.1 Overall Observations And Discussions
Now we have almost come to the end of the report. Here we will summarize our findings and discuss the results even further.
In 4.1 we discuss the findings of musical preference of youths of today’s generation. It seems that pop and rock is the favourite among male and female students with 37.5% and 25.01% respectively. A connection between gender and musical preference can be seen when male respondents preferred rock while female respondents preferred pop.
In 4.2, we found out that youths obtained their favourite music mostly through the Internet with 48.57% respondents do so. This supports the theory that youths spend a lot of time surfing for music. Very little students bought the CD of their favourite music or artist. Here we can say that Malaysian students are not as obsessed to their favourite music as the students of other countries.
In 4.3 we discovered that youths spends an average up to 3 hours listening to music and the theory that male listen to music more than female is proved otherwise. More female students were found to spend more than 5 hours listening to radio per day.
In 4.4 we learn that teens used music mostly to release tension. 43.84% respondents confirmed the fact that female students found solace through listening to music.
In 4.5 noticed how teens attain information about music mostly through magazine with 39.74% compared to 26.93% who used the Internet.
In 4.6 we learn that a few male students were obsessed to rock music. However, we could not confirm the effect of this music on their behaviour.
We found that music preference can be influenced by what the peers preferred. This is discovered in part 4.7 of the project.
Listening to music may affect the academic performance of students in a positive way. This fact we have discovered through part4.3, 4.8 and 4.9 of this research where students who spend an average of 3 to 4 hours and listens to music during studying achieved a better grade of GPA level in the last semester final exam.
Lastly, we learn that a majority of parents approve their children’s choice of music but a few of these music preference includes rock and heavy metal songs.
5.2 Recommendations And Suggestions
Here, we would like to give several recommendations of how negative effects of music can be reduced based on our studies.
We found that a majority of students choose pop and rock as their favourite genre of music. Since, rock and several other types of songs have long been associated with violent behaviour; producers of this type of songs should pay attention and tone down a bit the songs. Sure some would say preventing artist to expand their music talents will just invite trouble but we are not saying that rock and pop songs be disbanded completely. Many rap songs of today promotes violence and sexual harassment as a norm and this should not continue. We must not promote bad moral to teens of today and later question why they are behaving the same way. Thus, toning down the lyrics is a necessity to improve the behaviour of teens even if by a marginal difference.
Next is a suggestion to the media. Students find the latest information mostly through radio and internet. Thus control must be taken so that students are not excessively dragged into the world of music and be forever in trance. Messages of bad influence of strong music should be spread across the nation so that teens are aware. More studies like this should be conducted so that there is legitimate prove of this effects.
Lastly, is a suggestion to all parents. Children nowadays have unlimited access to music and internet. Steps must be taken so that a sense of control is established within the household. Put your computers in the living room so that you can always monitor what your child is doing. Always be up-to-date with the latest music that may bring bad influence to the children and get to know what your child is listening to everyday. Having said that, do not be too uptight since children, especially teens, tend to rebellious. Therefore, control but not excessively. Set a limit but do it in a way so that teens understand why you did so. Teens are clever today. They will understand if you break down the information correctly.
This project had been done with success but of course there are rooms for improvements. First improvement that could be done for future research is increase the number of respondents. 50 respondents are too little to have an accurate result.
Next, improve the questionnaire by including behavioural questions such as ‘How do you rate your temper?’ This is so that effects of music on teen behaviour can be observed. An even accurate result may be obtained if a separate personality test can be done. Survey should also be conducted to different ranges of respondents.
Lastly, future research should be conducted to fine deeper connection of music to teens’ behaviour. This folio is somehow limited to the academic performance of students. Thus future projects should be conducted to determine the relation of music to youth’s attitude, way of thinking, temper level and how they connect with others around them.
All in all, this project is important since teens relate themselves so much to music. Thus, to understand the many issues revolving around students, this research is compulsory. A famous person once quoted, ‘Understanding solves half the problem already’.
References
• Madam Cheah Yit Ying, English Lecturer of Matriculation College of Negeri Sembilan
• Friends and family of our research team
• http://www.childrenmusicworkshop.com
• The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• Alex Keshen http://www.musicismylife.blogspot.com
• http://www.wikipedia.org
• http://www.ideal.forestry.ubc.ca/frst524/time.pdf
• http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/mar.10043/abstract
• http://www.chinamusictherapy.org/file/doc/Relaxing%20Music%20Prevents%20Stress-Induced%20Increases%20in%20Subjective%20Anxiety,%20Systolic%20Blood%20Pressure,%20and%20Heart%20Rate%20in%20Healthy.pdf
• http://www.lavoisier.fr/notice/frJWOOX3XAARWXSR.html
• http://books.google.com.my/books
• http://sip.medizin.uni-ulm.de/abteilung/projekte/357Musiktherapie.pdf
• http://muir.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/255
• http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL
Appendices
In this section,
• Related articles
• Magazine and newspaper cuts
• Questionnaires
• Others
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