Sunday is gloomy, my hours are slumberless
Dearest, the shadows I lice with are numberless
Little white flowers will never awaken you
Not where the black coach of sorrow has taken you
Angels have no thought of ever returning you
Would they be angry if I thought of joining you?
Gloomy Sunday
The stanza above was from composer Rezso Seress's 1933 song, "Gloomy Sunday." It was a song the composer wrote for a former girlfriend who committed suicide (shortly after the song's release, the composer committed suicide). The song did not become a major hit until 1936, when the Budapest Police in Hungary believed that the song was connected to hundreds of suicides in the country. For example, in February of 1936, the police were investigating the suicide of a local shoemaker, Joseph Keller. The investigation showed that Keller had left a suicide note in which he quoted the lyrics to "Gloomy Sunday." Many suicides followed and the investigation raged on. Two people were shot when they were listening to a gypsy band perform "Glommy Sunday," one gentleman walked out of a nightclub and blew his brains out after requesting the band to play the song, a young shopkeeper hung herself with a copy of the song beneath her feet, and several others drowned in teh Danube River clutching sheet music of the song. The song was eventually banned in Hungary in 1936 for its connections with suicides. Billie Holiday's version of the song in 1941 was banned from radio stations across the U.S. also because of its connections with the suicides in Hungary.
But is there really a direct connection between music and the mind? Jill Rosenbaum and Lorraine Prinsky, professors at Bowling Green university, conducted a survey in 1987 to figure out a possible link between music as instigator of moral depravity in teenagers. Similar conclusions had already been drawn in the 1960s. In the period of hippies and flower power, fewer than one third of high school students surveyed by Robinson and Hirsch provided accurate interpretations of popular songs they listened to.
Rosenbaum and Prinsky handed out a survey to 266 high school students in California, asking about their favorite song and why. When explaining the reason for liking their favorite song, many students chose the following option: "it helps me to relax and stop thinking about things." "It helps me to get into the right mood" was the second highest response. Their conclusion was that people see in their favorite song a form of escapism. The song creates a world for their own where they can create a feeling of sercurity and fantasy.
Further examination in the students' choice for choosing a particular song as their favorite resulted in the following conclusions: most students had different reasons for choosing a favorite song (they selected the option 'other' 53%). However, the majority of the students who chose a given theme on the form ('Devil', 'Drugs', 'Violence', 'Love', and 'Sex') chose 'love' (16%). Thus, the majority of adolescents is not interested in morally depriving songs. The percentages of students that did choose themes Devil (2%), Drugs (2%), Violence (1%), and Sex (4%) were relatively low. The relevance of this result is that the majority of youth selects songs that are non-related to any form or moral depriving songs.
Their conclusion was that the content of a song is of minor importance to adolescents. Many students reported that they had no idea what the song they selected was about, but just liked the beat. Those students that gave a content description interpreted the song falsely. For example, Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven", a song about drug use, was interpreted as a song about 'going to heaven through a stairway', or, 'Stairway to Heaven is about buying your way to heaven.' The song, "Oh Shelia", a song with clear sexual overtones, was interpreted as a song 'about a girl some guy loves, but she ignores him.' Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA," a song about veterans returning to the U.S. and the hardship they meet, was interpreted as a song about 'life in the USA,' or, 'the town Bruce Springsteen was born in.' These examples indicate that many of the teenagers' interpretations were based on something other than simply listening to the lyrics. The intention of a song does not affect the audience becasue it is either misinterpreted or misunderstood. In conclusion, Rosenbaum and Prinsky confirmed that there is no casual connection between rock lyrics and the songs intentions with growing violence, drugs, and sexual misconduct rates. |
