Music and Culture

[Josh F]

I have a theory I would like to share.  I believe the musical tastes expressed in a culture or subculture are all subconscious expressions of the desires of their true selves.  Let me give a few examples.

 

Latin Music:

After living in latin America for over a year now, let me reaffirm some stereotypes... they cheat on each other a lot. And latin music is notorious for being the most corny, over the top, love songs on the planet.  Every song is about undying love.  To paint the picture, a macho married latino guy picking up a girl at a bar while the music says "I will always love you."

 

Rasta Music:

I also spent the last year and a half living in a Caribbean part of latin America with a lot of Caribe Culture.  The black communities here comprise the hot spots for extreme poverty, violence, theft, drug dealing and use, etc.  And the music is all about peace, and a world without violence.  I've literally seen drug dealers getting in fights while the DJ is playing music about ending war, violence and suffering.

 

The list goes on....

Rap songs about how women aren't shit, coming from a community with possibly the most over bearing and abusive mothers in American society. 

It is also about being rewarded with fame and wealth for selling drugs and being a criminal, when the reality is that most drug dealers and criminals end up poor and or dead.

 

American Rock

American Rock music is about freedom.  It exploded during the Vietnam War where Americans were being drafted, the opposite of freedom.  Its popularity has persisted as a theme in metal, hair bands, punk, and pop music in corresponding to the growing lack of freedom in the US.

 

Lets see what else...

 

Oh Death Metal, most of those kids are the most timid and non-violent people I've ever met, but they have the most violent imagery in their music. I suspect they have a lot of inner rage at their parents and society, and they suffer to express it because they're so shy.

 

I'll admit, this theory probably doesn't work on polka or Mongolian throat chanting.

[JCalvin]

Mongolian throat chanting?  Do you have any links to that ?

[Josh F]

its quite strange stuff, just do a search

[thewayofthefool]

The biggest challenge I find in responding to your theory is how to approach your musical classifications. Are you referring to corporate-sponsored major label music from these genres? If so, it helps their business model to put forward simple archetypes that people can readily identify with. The extent to which these song scenarios resemble a culture's reality can only be answered on the most general level. On an individual level, I think there is a psychic fatigue setting in from identifying with over-simplified archetypes within ultimately self-defeating allegories.

Example: I don't dislike hip hop, but I don't listen to it much at all because I'm tired of hearing about rims and strip clubs. There are plenty of hip hop acts that come from a different perspective, but they don't get corporate support.

Your argument is to loosely constructed for a concise response, but could be compelling with further refining.