Music's influence on society

It was a fresh March day, just hauling my cumbersome backpack and myself back home. Nothing special about the day, other than no snow, but, while I was strolling down the street, this old Civic was driving by me really slowly while pulling up to the stoplight, and the guy inside looked really stoned, he looked like he was practically napping on the wheel and still oriented with himself at the same time, and I don’t even know how, but I was waiting at the crosswalk, the music that he was playing at that moment was really pissing me off. First why would this guy be listening to this crap on the radio, especially 97.9, and second; What song is this? It is so. Damn. Annoying. Apparently the title of the song that was playing was “Talk Dirty” and at that moment I was literally tapping my feet just for the the ‘walk’ sign to come up already. The everything of the song was just so “urghh” to me, and I wanted the walk sign to just light up already. It took a minute of my life to wait, but it felt like forever, and when the crosswalk finally lit up, all I could say was “thank the LORD” under my breath, before I crossed Fishinger. At that moment I was pretty disappointed at 97.9 for having such catchy and annoying songs on their station all the time, but that’s what makes the bucks and people happy these days. And songs like “Talk Dirty” are the formula to commercial success apparently and today’s pop songs currently rule the music market with 28.7% in market shares, in a market worth $15 billion in the last 3 years. These songs also have spread their influences to people across the globe like wildfire, as 21 billion plays of pop music have been streamed over radio apps and an additional 158 million plays have been aired over FM radio, according to a research study conducted by Jay Frank, an independent blogger. With this number in mind, the scope of music can be seen on a MASSIVE level, as well as it’s influence like mentioned earlier which affects what people think and like and want to do. Songs about drugs makes people more inclined to do drugs, songs about getting high make people want to smoke weed and drinking songs make you want to drink (Am I right?)! According to the Addiction Magazine, According to Addiction Magazine, “teens use music as part of their identity formation…. teens use music to resolve or better understand their own inner conflicts and emotional turmoil, and as an outlet for angst.”. Obviously this correlates to drugs, drinking, weed and sex, as songs that foster that kind of activity will ultimately influence listeners to do it as well. As well as this perspective on drugs, it also shapes a person’s identity and shows or shapes personality, as aforementioned above it helps people find people with common interests and form friend groups with those people. According to Psychology Today, music also can reveal what kind of personality you have. People who like Top 40 or country are usually, “simpleminded and straightforward,” while electro fans are more often, “likely to impulsively blurt out their thoughts,” and you indie lovers might be, “introverted, intellectual, and creative.” As you can see, it is very evident that music also has a emotional and mental connection to people. With the widespread reach of music today, the widespread influence of it can show the massive amounts of things it can influence you to do and the things it can reveal about you.