Stereotypes and Music

Music is one common form of entertainment that is stereotyped. People judge music and perceive it a certain way for many reasons. A few influences of stereotyping music includes; the genre, the gender of the vocalist, the voice of the vocalist, and even the lyrics of the music. Music is also used in different environments that create a connection between hearing certain music in certain places. For example, “elevator music” is known to be a more classical kind of music with no vocals. If someone hears this kind of music in an elevator everyday don’t like riding elevators then they could possibly begin to dislike the music that became associated with it. It can happen both ways and can really change peoples perspectives.

 The song “Sunburn,” by Fuel, is my all time favorite song. When I first heard the song I was in the car with my family listening to the CD. I enjoyed every part of the song. I loved learning the lyrics and hearing sounds of the music. It has become a song that I listen to whenever I am stressed or in a great mood. The song relaxes me and put me in a comfortable state of mind and erases all the frustrations on my mind. “Sunburn” has become my escape and my way of coping. The lyrics in the song go in depth about life and that it has a bigger meaning in life. I believe it explains that if you don’t find or create that part of life that makes living worth it then letting the concept of living take control it the only thing left to do. This song became my favorite song because of all the deep meanings in the song. I literally think of nothing except the song whenever I listen to it.

             Listening to the song may make people think the lyrics mean something to the author. A stereotype from this song includes the idea that the band does not believe that life is worth living because those words were a piece of the song. Just because a song is written does not necessary mean the song is a real experience, or that it was made to having any deep meaning at all. Because of this people may stereotype the people in the band based on the lyrics of there songs. This can be an issue with any band. Socially people are going to judge a song by its lyrics or by the tone of the music at times. This can create an automatic judgment and stereotype.

            A stereotype that may be explicit based on the song would include that the song was put in the thriller movie, “Scream 3.” Because the movie is known to be a scary film then people may associate the song and the movie together, which can give a good or bad impression of the song if people did or did not like the movie. This kind of association can really do damage to the band or even this kind of music. Since the movie is a rated R film then if a parent hears this kind of music on the movie and their young child is not allowed to watch it, they could possibly also choose to not let the child listen to that music.

            The stereotypes can be seen as both positive and negative. It leaves a false impression of the band members if listeners are judging the members based on the words in the songs. This is a negative stereotype all because they are a rock band. At the same time, the stereotypes can have a positive entity. If people do see a positive side to the song “sunburn,” like I did, then the individuals in the band are being judged but being appreciated.

            Stereotypes are sometimes implicit or explicit but either way people are affected by stereotypes and continue to feed into the idea of stereotyping. People will always view the world the way they want to. They will judge things based on taste, experience, likes, and dislikes. Everything has a demand because we are all different. If it was not for stereotypes then the world would be an extremely happy place to live, but you would not know the world to have opposing views. With out these opposing views then we would all be too much a like and not unique. I believe our attitudes and beliefs towards things and people help to define us as individuals. Stereotyping has become a way of life. That is way my favorite song is not everyone else’s favorite song.