Subject: [Homestead] Want to off an annoying neighbor without feasr of prosecution?
Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2005 10:42:09 -0500
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.
[Homestead] Want to off an annoying neighbor without feasr of prosecution?,
tvoivozhd, 01/25/2005