Is music that powerful and that influential? Do you think that listening to a certain genre of music can turn you into a racist asshole? This is the subject of a new study conducted by Heather LaMarre, an assistant professor of journalism and mass communication at the University of Minnesota, Greg Hoplamazian, a graduate student in communication, and Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick, an associate professor in communication at Ohio State.
This seems super serious, right? But just listen what these three did: they made 148 students (all white) listen to three different genres of music while sitting in a waiting room for 7 minutes, and found out that a few minutes of listening to mainstream rock music, let’s say Bruce Springsteen and the White Stripes, made the students ‘focus on the interests of other whites at the expense of black people and latinos’. What? Listening to the boss makes you a racist?
How did they conclude this? After having made them listen to music, the students had to decide how funds should be divided between different college ethnic-based groups such as the Centres of African American Studies, Latino American Studies, Arab American Studies, and Rural and Agricultural Studies. And this is what happened:
‘Those who listened to the rock music gave more to the white group, but split the rest equally among the other three – in other words they weren't punitive against the others as were the listeners of the white power rock,’ said Knobloch-Westerwick,…. Students gave about 35% of the funds to the white American group and divided the rest between the three other groups. This is insane, and I suppose the Rural and Agricultural Studies group is the white one in this weird study?
There is more, this was even worst when students listened to radical 'white power' groups such as Prussian Blue, Skrewdriver and Bound for Glory, which triggered some ‘almost punitive take-aways from the African-American and Arab-American groups’ added Knobloch-Westerwick. Students gave about 40% to the white American group, 25 % to the Latino-American group, 16% to the African-American group and 15 % to the Arab-American group.
When the students listened to Top 40 pop such as Gwen Stefani, Akon and Fergie, the students divided money more equally between white, black and latinos, a very surprising result when you consider that Akon is the only non-white person in this list.
How do you explain this? Knobloch-Westerwick is just concluding that ‘Music has a lot of power to influence our thoughts and actions’ and ‘has the power to reinforce our positive biases toward our own group, and sometimes negative biases toward others’, and that it is not even due to the lyrics: ‘Good, old-fashioned rock and roll – with no incendiary or hateful lyrics at all – was enough of a cue to increase the percentage of money allocated for the white-American group’.
Bruce Springsteen should be told about this ridiculous study just published in the March 2012 issue of the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media (again, I am saying this to keep it serious!). I just wonder why researchers limited the music genres to three, you just have to wonder what would have happened if the students had listened to rap or reggae, would they have been more generous to the African-American group?
But can we assume that music has a skin color? I mean white rock has its roots in African-American music anyway despite the fact these professors are saying that ‘Rock music is generally associated with white Americans’, and rap-wise, there are the Eminems of the world…
This seems like a weak study, 148 people? I can’t believe this article was even published and passed the peer review,… Oh yeah, and they should do a study to see whether listening to 7 minutes of Bowie makes you an ET, to 7 minutes of Coldplay makes you gay, or to 7 minutes of U2 makes you want to join the salvation army, … I could go on all night.