Can lyrics influence behaviour ?

[VomitHatSteve]

DARE to resist KISS and violence!

Music is like any form of communication. It can present new ideas to a listener, and it can reinforce ideas they already have. It's ridiculous to give lyrics full credit for anyone's behavior, but it can influence them.

 

[fat_fleet]

Some songs are simply there to move your feet, other there to make you think, make you laugh, make you cry, make you dream, but change comes from yourself

Yeah, I think it's kind of like that song "Can't start a fire without a spark"... can't remember the name right now....

 

[dragonworks]

dirty dancing?

 

[ido1957]

It's Dancing in the Dark by Springsteen.

 

[fat_fleet]

LOL! I've got this LP in my collection, but it has a different cover. It has a pair of shattered mirror sunglasses with blood oozing out of them as it's cover! LOL! The Green Manilish! LOL! That is actually a Peter Green song. He also wrote Black Magic Woman made popular by Santana. I prefer Green's playing and tone over Santana's. Just MHO. LOL!

Not to get all trivia happy on ya, but I think that's Hell Bent for Leather. I have that Peter Green solo album End of the Game which is pretty cool for it's time... kinda loose guitar psych jams. I think he was estranged from Fleetwood Mac and highly drugged up at that point.

 

[PTravel]

Do you think the lyrics of songs can influence the behaviour of some that listen to those songs ?
Do you think song lyrics can cause people to go or assist people in going down paths that they otherwise would not have ?

I haven't read the whole thread, but this is the first thing I thought of:

All we are saying,
Is give peace a chance . . .

Songs like that fueled the anti-war movement. I remember singing it at many demonstrations.

And I have to add: no disrespect intended to any Vietnam vets -- you guys got a raw deal all around (and I remember how you were treated when you came home). Most of us in the movement always respected you -- it was the government at whom we were angry for squandering your sacrifices in an unnecessary and illegal war.

 

[XploZiveToyz]

You're exactly right! LOL! I just went and dug it out of it's cabinet. It's been 20 or 25 years since I last even looked at it. The old mind isn't as sharp as it used to be! LOL!

Not to get all trivia happy on ya, but I think that's Hell Bent for Leather. I have that Peter Green solo album End of the Game which is pretty cool for it's time... kinda loose guitar psych jams. I think he was estranged from Fleetwood Mac and highly drugged up at that point.

More trivia: Gary Moore ended up with Peter Green's Les Paul. You probably already knew that, but I thought I'd throw it in there just in case. LOL!

 

[grimtraveller]

The composer's intentions (if any) for the song are irrelevant, because the song will be interpreted by the listener according to his or her own frame of reference. John Lennon vigorously and unwaveringly claimed that "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" had nothing to do with LSD, yet thousands still believe the opposite.

While it's true that "Lucy in the sky with diamonds" wasn't deliberately emphasizing the L for Lucy, the S for sky and the D for diamonds, it's naive to claim it wasn't an acid inspired song {as opposed to a song about or encouraging the use of acid} because almost everything John Lennon wrote from January of 1966 to early 1968 was written either while he was tripping or while he was in that frame of reference. By his own admission. As he himself put it "acid didn't write the songs.....it was a mirror and I write the songs whether on acid or in the water." He was trying to capture the otherworldly imagery of writers like Lewis Carroll in stuff like "Through the looking glass and what Alice found there." Much of the material he came up with in those years showed acid to be his "door in the wall" and that's partly why so many impressionable people cling to the claim that "Lucy" is about LSD.
Paul McCartney's subsequent views on drugs show very clearly that the Beatles were trying to turn people on ~ not those that were already turned on. And some of the lyrics in some songs were carriers of that evangelistic bent.

You might think this cold-hearted

It's consistent with where you're coming from much of the time ! You like to fire loud and whisper questions when in court !

I think it's Darwinism at it's finest: anyone so weak-minded that they'd commit suicide because of a song has done the rest of society a big favor! Keeps our tax dollars from being spent treating, supporting, and cleaning up the messes that these individuals make. Is it sad? Of course it's sad, but I'd much rather them commit suicide than to go on murderous rampages against innocent people. Because I sometimes do work within prison system, I see the direct result of what happens when young, impressionable minds, without any parental supervision, listens to gangster rap. Our prisons are over-flowing with the aforementioned individuals.

To me, this doesn't make sense. It seems that you're saying that these people would commit suicide because of a song but if they hadn't committed suicide, they'd have created one hell of a mess that money would have to have been spent to clean up. And part of the mess would be murderous rampages against innocent people. Then you link this with jails being full of these youngsters that have been influenced by the lyrics of gangster rap but also skate over the fact that they have no parental supervision.
It's like you're making several points that are all deserving of scrutiny on their own but jumbled up into one which, because of this, renders it, confusing as to what you're actually saying about whom.......

 

[XploZiveToyz]

While it's true that "Lucy in the sky with diamonds" wasn't deliberately emphasizing the L for Lucy, the S for sky and the D for diamonds, it's naive to claim it wasn't an acid inspired song {as opposed to a song about or encouraging the use of acid} because almost everything John Lennon wrote from January of 1966 to early 1968 was written either while he was tripping or while he was in that frame of reference. By his own admission. As he himself put it "acid didn't write the songs.....it was a mirror and I write the songs whether on acid or in the water." He was trying to capture the otherworldly imagery of writers like Lewis Carroll in stuff like "Through the looking glass and what Alice found there." Much of the material he came up with in those years showed acid to be his "door in the wall" and that's partly why so many impressionable people cling to the claim that "Lucy" is about LSD.
Paul McCartney's subsequent views on drugs show very clearly that the Beatles were trying to turn people on ~ not those that were already turned on. And some of the lyrics in some songs were carriers of that evangelistic bent.

It's consistent with where you're coming from much of the time ! You like to fire loud and whisper questions when in court ! To me, this doesn't make sense. It seems that you're saying that these people would commit suicide because of a song but if they hadn't committed suicide, they'd have created one hell of a mess that money would have to have been spent to clean up. And part of the mess would be murderous rampages against innocent people. Then you link this with jails being full of these youngsters that have been influenced by the lyrics of gangster rap but also skate over the fact that they have no parental supervision.
It's like you're making several points that are all deserving of scrutiny on their own but jumbled up into one which, because of this, renders it, confusing as to what you're actually saying about whom.......

I must admit that I was being kind of facetious when I wrote that. Let's face it: anyone that would do anything as tragic as taking their own life has a lot more underlying problems than the music they're listening to! LOL! Some of the stuff I hear on Top 40 sometimes makes me want to commit suicide, but that's another story LOL! And I didn't skate over the parental supervision part. That's why I mentioned it. A well-adjusted person with a decent up-bringing won't be influenced by the idiocy that they see or hear in a censorship free society. I think one of the people in this thread mentioned that they wouldn't let their child play a video game because of the violent content. That is an example of the kind of parental supervision that society needs, but sadly doesn't have enough of.

 

[grimtraveller]

I think one of the people in this thread mentioned that they wouldn't let their child play a video game because of the violent content. That is an example of the kind of parental supervision that society needs, but sadly doesn't have enough of.

I really should model myself on that upstanding citizen !

 

[XploZiveToyz]

It amazes me all the stuff that is out there now that kids can potentially be exposed to. None of this stuff was around when I was a kid. The only time I was able to see naked women was in National Geographic magazines! LOL!

 

[radi0j0hn]

The best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup. One...two..three..what'r we fighting for? I don't give a damn, next stop is Vietnam. We shall overcome. Oh beautiful for spacious skies.

 

[rpm61]

For example, my early exposure to "My Ding-A-Ling" leading to my self amusement. Damn you Chuck Berry!

 

[lipservice]

Behaviour modification

Doesn't have to be blatant but still exists undeniably

The choice of words in a news article lays blame or is blameless - influences opinion. In psych studies even hinting at words associated with age made people move more slowly down the hallway after the test as if they felt old - that is a real physical influence

People saying "I did this because of a song" tend to rationalize their own desire to lash out. The actual influence is real and it adds up but you aren't going to make granny jump on a male stripper. You influence mood with lyrical selection. Add the sad chords to produce sympathetic emotional resonance. Put in an iconic emotional scene tha people relate to and you seed a response.

That being said no song has ever made me drink any moonshine or snort cocaine. It is an "edge" that pushes people a little at a time.

More power comes from the illusion that everybody else with a particular image is doing it. We are social copycats ... That is if you want to influence people directly

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Do you think the lyrics of songs can influence the behaviour of some that listen to those songs ?
Do you think song lyrics can cause people to go or assist people in going down paths that they otherwise would not have ?

 

[David O'Donnell]

If they didn't, I wouldn't write them.

 

[Btyre2013]

words are still only 7% of all communication! the other 93% is body language... so are words really important?

 

[grimtraveller]

words are still only 7% of all communication! the other 93% is body language... so are words really important?

They might be if you only ever hear them and have no other way of gauging the writer{s} or singer{s}.

 

[citizen77]

You always have such good and thought provoking questions, grim.

Lyrics always have an influence on the listener. How lyrics manifest themselves in a person is varied depending on herd theory or "isolated" individuals though.

When I was younger, I went to many different conferences and workshops about sales or self-help "becoming the best you can be" crap. (no, i do not like reading self-help books... any books i read on personal psychology is to help me become a better teacher and understand different pedagogical methods.) The idea they all agreed upon is how your thoughts become your personal beliefs and how it directs your behavior. What dictates your thoughts is what you put into them: what you listen to or what you read or watch.

Simply said by a plethora of famous people: “Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habit. Watch your habits; they become character (values). Watch your character (values); it becomes your destiny.”

Even scientific studies have shown the biological changes in people when they believe positively or negatively.

The meaning of the lyrics of a song exists only in the mind of the listener. The composer's intentions (if any) for the song are irrelevant, because the song will be interpreted by the listener according to his or her own frame of.

I think it was Seal who intentionally left out his lyrics from the CD sleeves so people could interpret lyrics from their own experiences. I know that when I actually learned what some songs meant, it totally ruined my perspective and enjoyment of the song. Sarah McLachlan's "Possession" or Rolling Stones "Wild horses" come to mind.

 

[MrUserNameIV]

Yes and no. A song can stir someone's emotions, and if they don't have good control over their emotions, or other personal issues, THAT can influence their behavior. I don't think lyrics in and of themselves can do anything.

 

[gecko zzed]

Yes and no. A song can stir someone's emotions, and if they don't have good control over their emotions, or other personal issues, THAT can influence their behavior. I don't think lyrics in and of themselves can do anything.

This makes sense to me.

We respond emotionally to things we see on TV or read in the papers. We likewise respond emotionally to the lyrics (and mood) of songs.

Behaviour, though, is a choice we make. Some people have more control over that choice than others. Some people, when angry, pound their fists through walls, or beat up their partners or throw rocks through windows. But they don't have to; it's not forced upon them. Other people, when angry, don't do those things.

I accept that lyrics will influence emotions, but I do not accept that they will influence behaviour.