Just Had A Run In With A Lecky Scooter...
Society & Culture1 min ago
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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.No. Simply. I went through a period of depression over the last 2 years and I still get very low sometimes and when I do I listen to Aimee Mann, a singer song writer who has written beautifully about everything from love and break ups to depression and drug addiction.
Of course when people feel down they listen to music (or read poetry prehaps) that reflects how they are feeling, but everyone gets like that. I think a much better way of telling if a person has problems is look at them. Are they withdrawn, sullen? If the person is a child or teenager look to their friends. It can often be a good indication because they are likely to be into teh same things. If in doubt ask. Nobody can hide emotions so well that you have no idea what they are going through.
I think everyone listens to lots of different music. I teach music at College, and I have noticed that certain "types" of students listen to certain "types" of music-- at least to start with! It's like fashion; all the 16 year old boys I teach basically like metal. It is fashionable. But as soon as they are exposed to other types of music, they get into that too. One boy was particularly "narrow" when he first came to college- now, three years on, he is learning the trombone!!!! He used to be a really hard-core DJ! But after he was exposed to Classical music, he grew to really love some of it.
So... I think a lot of what we listen to is initially influenced by the Media (crazy frog- say no more), friends and what is fashionable. As people get older, they develop their own tastes.
Also I do think that teenagers DO need to listen to "angsty" music, as they are very often angsty themselves, and have stuff to resolve. Not meaning to sound patronising, in my experience, they do tend to grow out of it!!
I grew up with a Heavy Metal brother, a sister who loved all the 'latest' stuff which was in the 70s at the time so now its 'old' and my parents who listened to Country.
I then went through the U2, Simple Minds stage in life and then dated people whose tastes ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous! (I never did get the Enya/Clannad lad!)
The result - the most confusing CD collection ever! But they more or less get played every now and then. I play AC/DC in the car and some classic classical at home and today i listened to the Ballad of Lucy Jordan which is not for the sad hearted!!
Isnt life and music great!
I believe that we are drawn to certain types of music, sometimes to lift us up, or to match how happy we feel at that moment,( or to match any emotion at all, and this because of our innermost selves), It can't really identify us to others as being one or the other, because we are complex. and are many things inside.
I definitely know that music can change the way you feel. Some music can make you cry, others will exhilerate, depress , make you want to dance...in other words it gets in touch with the different aspects of who you are.
nicola_red. I know your pain of hassle in the street just for choosing to look different. I am quite tame now compared to my teenage days, more of a scruffy goth look. When I was a teen and had a red mohican, the more hassle I got the bigger and brighter and spikier I grew it.
I do think you get the stereotypical depressed traumatised teenager becoming a Goth or similar, but they never last long, to them it is a fashion, to us it is a way of life. xx
cont.
I think Buggsbird21 and others make the point when they say they listen to music that reflects their mood. I can swing from Opeth (death metal band) to Billy Joel to Porcupine Tree to Beth Orton to Tool without suffering the musical equivalent of the bends (not the Radiohead album!). My favourite bands are the ones which can cover a wide sectrum of emotions and musical approaches.
I can well relate to NicolaRed's comments about recieving abuse for the way she looked, I got similar for my goth/metal/complete lack of style dress sense. However, it's quite easy to take the high ground and claim that we were discriminated against for the way we looked but I recall that all the alternative cliques (or whatever denomination) tended to dismiss people who didn't look like them as 'straights' or 'Trevs' or 'Trendies' or whatever - include chav and scally and all of a sudden there's an awful lot of terms for steroetyping people on the basis of their appearence. I know it wasn't entirely two way traffic - 'straights' tended not to get beaten up because of the way they looked - but there were definitely double standards involved!
nicola_red, i'm with you completely on this one ! I've loved heavy music since a teen (now 36 !) and it still sounds as good as it ever did ! But i have absolutely no problem listenin to most music. As you get older you tend to listen to the music for your mood rather than what the fashion is. Hence my collection other than metal contains classical, Carpenters, Turin Breaks, Seal, Gorillaz, Chemical Brothers, Scissor Sisters etc.......... You get the idea !
All in all, i hate how people get labelled as one thing or another for the type of music they prefer, or choice of dress sense. Live and let live !