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King, Jalen.
Grant,Emilia
Inquiry Paper
April 8th.
Musical Influence On Our Society.
Music has a lot of influence on the society that we live in today. These many influences
cover a wide range of topics that we tend to face in everyday life. Topics that go into depth about
police, social issues, as well as political issues. There are different genres that cover different
kinds of topics. Not only that, but over the last few decades there have been many influences
within the difference in musical genres. For example, in the early 90s police were beginning to
develop a very bad reputation in the hip hop community because of the police brutality and the
way that they treated minorities. J. Cole, a very successful hip hop artist, raps about this in an
interview with Funkmaster Flex ( A popular radio DJ) when they talked about his new album and
how he thinks that minorities are treated when it comes to police. This is for that hatin ass cop
harassing me cause Im black, you didn't have to do that man like that, he didnt even commit a
crime but you squeezed 50 times, the cop turns around with a smirk 51 to be exact.These lyrics
are fitting because 25% of police officers stated that they witnessed fellow officers harassing a
citizen because of their race (Infographics). These lyrics also give a great demonstration of
how the whole hip hop community feels about cops and their police brutality. This is the kind of
music that targets the youth and tends to stick with them as they get older, especially for the
minority youth. The music may be negative, but it keeps people informed about certain topics

that need to be spoken out against. Hip Hop gives the people that voice that they need in order to
speak out against these topics, making it the most powerful weapon in the minority community.
However, police brutality and other social issues are not the only things that being talked
about in Hip Hop. Teens are heavily influenced with the use of drugs and under age drinking
because of the songs that glorify this type of behavior. According to an essay written by Tara
Parker Pope one in three songs contains explicit references to drug or alcohol. While songs about
drugs and alcohol are not new, the issue tends to get more attention because of the fact that teens
now have easy access to these kinds of songs through the internet. Nearly 9 out of 10 adolescents
and teens have an mp3 player or compact disc player in their bedroom. (Parker-Pope). This kind
of exposure to smoking and drinking creates the possibility that the listeners will pick up on the
habit. Music is well known to connect deeply with adolescents and to influence identity
development, perhaps more than any other entertainment medium said Parker Pope. These types
of influences are the more negative ones and they tend to shape and cement ideas or specific
ideologies about our society. Hearing statics like this would probably make parents want to limit
the amount of access their kids have to the internet, social media, and other things that play a role
in the musical influence of our generation. But young adults tend to sometimes sit down and ask
themselves, what kind of music did the generation before us listen to? Where they heavily
influenced to do drugs, drink, and hate cops as well? What kind of social issues did this kind of
music talk about? Exploring these questions is very important because there are many things that
could be learned through different generations of music and how they influenced the people of
the specific time period.
Different decades of music tend to create certain trends and usually address the major
social issues of that era. For example, in the 1980s popular music of the United States saw a new

wave entering the year as the single best mainstream market with Heavy Metal, Punk Rock and
Hardcore Punk, and Hip Hop achieving increased crossover success. (Wikipedia). With all of this
popular music on the rise, there were a lot of issues that were talked about that reached out to the
generation of that era and gave them a sense of rebellious attitude toward some of the things that
went on in this decade. For example, the song Nineteen by Paul Hardcastle protest the
conscription of young soldiers to fight in the Vietnam War, as young as nineteen years old. The
song also went on to talk about the survivors who were traumatized at the senseless destruction
and nonsense of war. The song Why by Bronski Beat is a anti-gay bashing song by band
members who were openly gay at the time. The song Women In Chains by Tears For Fears
talks about the maltreatment of women throughout the world, and appears to cover wife abuse.
All of these songs seem to cover very controversial, but important topics of the decade, and
although the easy access to music was not the case at this time, the music had very powerful
influence for this generation. Perhaps some of these songs and ideas are what led to all of the
current ideas and ideologies that we currently have in todays society.
Although there were many topics and issues that were introduced and very important in
the 80s music, there were still some negative influences that attempted to negatively impact the
minds of many. Cocaine being one of those many negative influences. Cocaine was one of the
most popular recreational drugs in the 80s. It was frequently used by youth because it was
cheap, highly addictive, and it was also highly glamorized by hollywood (Drug abuse). This
type of popularity and glamorization was the major influence for people in the 80s to get
involved with drugs. Perhaps that kind of influence is a bit stronger than the influence that is now
given to all people in our society. Cocain ruined many lives and brought negativities to whoever
chose to fall under those certain influences. For example, a college basketball star by the name of

Len Bias died shortly after he had been chosen to play basketball in the National Basketball
Association. A famous comedian by the name of John Belushi also died because of his use with
cocaine. It was those two deaths that had an impact on society and made people think about the
influence they were under. Music is one of the most powerful influences no matter what decade
you date back to. Older generations were just as influenced as we are now when it comes to the
music. But, it is up to the person who listens to either let the music make a positive or negative
impact on their life. The people who chose to let music impact them negatively have strayed
down paths that have gotten them into trouble or made them go crazy because they see musicians
who have material wealth and power that they are not able to obtain because of limited
resources. Some music even gets people to think that you are able to obtain success without hard
work and dedication. This is very misleading because we live in a world today that demands hard
work and the reward is success. However, people who are influenced positively and understand
that hard work dedication is rewarded usually get to important places and they are the people
who make differences in community, even if it is the smallest contribution. All generations have
both types of people. But turning those influences that music has to bring into positive ones is a
choice that each individual person has to make.
Music covers social issues and police, but that is not all. A little bit of politics are covered
as well. Songs that are anti-establishment or protest themes including anti-war songs but pro
establishment like the National Anthem, patriotic songs, and political campaigns. Yes, songs can
portray a specific political message, but there are barriers that come along with these kinds of
songs. Making an understanding of the history that inspired the music is necessary in order for
the listener to fully understand the message that is trying to be portrayed. Some of the music is
considered political by cultural association. It is sometimes hard to know how generations will

respond or react to political songs. It all depends on what political message that is trying to be
portrayed in the song. If it is anti-war, many people may choose to react positively and try to
spread the influence amongst fellow peers which is always a good thing. But just like with
everything else, there are negative songs that condone things like war or other controversial
political topics.
Music is a very powerful tool. It is a voice for minorities to talk about struggles with the
cops and other problems that they face in everyday life. It covers a wide range of social issues
that we deal with. Music also influences people politically, talking about controversial issues like
war. But although there are a lot of negative influences there are a tremendous amount of
positive messages that influence people in a good way. Whether it is about going out in the
community and trying to make a difference, or doing something as small as smiling at a person
when you pass them, the influence is undeniable. It makes you feel a certain way, happy, sad,
angry, or sometimes even confused. But that is the beauty of music, you never know what
emotional connection you will have to a song. You also do not know how influential a song will
be on a generation when it comes out, until you start to see the way that it impacts a person or a
group of people. There are a lot of things that each generation could learn from music, because
so many things are portrayed. Music will only get more influential as time progresses. Mainly
because of the easy access that people in the future will have. People can only hope that the
messages in the future are focused on mainly positivity influences and try to gear away from the
more negative influences that are in music in todays society.