Music as an Agent of Socialization

Music has played a major role as an agent of socialization in each of my 4 decades. I know and hope that it will continue to do so. During each period music has affected my personality, shown my personality, affected my perceptions and helped me to cope with growing and changing as a person. My Looking Glass Self has compared the person in song and possibly the singer themselves to myself to gain perspective of who I was at each time. I am going to discuss each decade with the thought of how music was an agent of socialization in each.

I believe that music as an agent of socialization is prominent in Symbolic Interactionism. Songwriters and musicians, like poets, includes symbolism in there lyrics. They give musical symbols by which we know things about our world. Take for instance the music from Psycho, the shower scene. It is the precursor for things that are frighteningly scary.

During my first decade music was extremely prevalent in my primary socialization. My parents whether or not they realized socialized me greatly with music in different forms. My Momma could not read due to a learning disability. She used little 45 records that helped me learn things like Barney and Dora the Explorer teach children now. She and I had an extremely special time while I was little that involved Elvis Presley and his musical movies. When my Daddy would work the graveyard shift she allowed me to crawl in bed with her and watch the Elvis late movie with her. In this way the music became a symbol of comfort to me. I still love to hear Elvis; his music is comforting to me. My Daddy used old time rock ‘n’ roll to show me how to have fun in dance. We had hardwood floors and he would move all of the furniture into the hallway and turn the mus...

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... area full of “good ole boys” and prejudice, I saw him judged by the music he liked. There is race conflict in what music is supposed to be for whom.

Music lifts us up. It calms the nerves and soothes the soul. It invigorates the imagination and the body as in dance. It helps us to relate our culture. It brings people together in social interaction. It has a part in the Motivational Theory, by the way that it can motivate us and brings about social solidarity. It gives a vent to normal deviances in society. It can help us understand and accept our roles. Our choice of music can define our status in society whether a person is highly cultured or a street gangster. Like the Rolling Stones song You Don’t Always Get What You Want says in the last line of the lyrics says, “You just might find … You get what you need, ah yes..” from music as an agent of socialization.