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[tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>]

Open the window facing his house and play country music---P.S.  Wear a 
pair of Bose earphones.


        

        
* The Effect of Country Music on Suicide *

STEVEN STACK, Wayne State University JIM GUNDLACH, Auburn University

* Abstract *

This article assesses the link between country music and metropolitan 
suicide rates. Country music is hypothesized to nurture a suicidal mood 
through its concerns with problems common in the suicidal population, 
such as marital discord, alcohol abuse, and alienation from work. The 
results of a multiple regression analysis of 49 metropolitan areas show 
that the greater the airtime devoted to country music, the greater the 
white suicide rate. The effect is independent of divorce, southernness, 
poverty, and gun availability. The existence of a country music 
subculture is thought to reinforce the link between country music and 
suicide. Our model explains 51% of the variance in urban white suicide 
rates.

Sociological work on the relationship between art and society has been 
largely restricted to speculative, sociohistorical theories that are 
often mutually opposed. Some theorists see art as creating social 
structure ( Adorno 1973), while Sorokin ( 1937 ) suggests that society 
and art are manifested in cyclical autonomous spheres; and still others 
contend that art is a reflection of social structure ( Albrecht 1954). 
Little empirical work has been done on the impact of music on social 
problems. While some research has linked music to criminal behavior ( 
Singer, Levine & Jou 1990), the relationship between music and suicide 
remains largely unexplored. Music is not mentioned in reviews of the 
literature on suicide ( Lester 1983; Stack 1982, 1990b); instead, the 
impact of art on suicide has been largely restricted to analyses of 
television movies and soap operas (for a review, see Stack 1990b).

In this article, we explore the link between a particular form of 
popular music (country music) and metropolitan suicide rates. We contend 
that the themes found in country music foster a suicidal mood among 
people already at risk of suicide and that it is thereby associated with 
a high suicide rate. The effect is buttressed by the country subculture 
and a link between this subculture and a racial status related to an 
increased suicide risk.