When Ariana Grande sings, "Feel my blood runnin', swear the sky's fallin.' How do I know if this shit's fabricated? Time goes by and I can't control my mind" (Grande, 2018, 0:29), or when Shawn Mendes goes, "Laying on the bathroom floor, feel nothing. I’m overwhelmed and insecure" (Mendes, 2018, 0:15), or when Rihanna sings, "It's a thief in the night to come and grab you. It can creep up inside you and consume you. A disease of the mind, it can control you" (Merritt, 2008, 0:33) – most of us feel a sense of relatability with their words. A common theme that emerges from the popular songs quoted above is the experience of anxiety, including symptoms like restlessness, difficulty concentrating, muscular tension or feeling easily fatigued (American Psychiatric Association, 2013, p.222). Grande's song 'Breathin' or Mendes' 'In My Blood' or Rihanna's 'Disturbia'—all quoted above—are in fact only a few of the many pop songs dealing with such themes as anxiety that have climbed the Billboard charts over the years (Kresovich, 2022). Pop music undoubtedly holds a strong influence on young individuals and has been a central part of youth culture since its inception in the mid-twentieth century (Frith, 1978, Kotarba, 2017). An American study revealed that young adults spend longer than five hours on average listening to music every day, and this figure continues to rise rapidly (Nielsen, 2017). It is indeed unsurprising, then, how much popular music can influence young populations.
But, statistically speaking, is anxiety actually a prominent theme in popular music? Recently, Kresovich et al., (2021) conducted a longitudinal analysis of popular rap music in the United States between 1998 and 2018, examining the lyrical content of 125 songs for mental health references. The study found mental health struggles to be an exceedingly recurring theme across songs, with 35 (28%) out of 125 songs containing anxiety-related references. Notably, there was a significant rise in the frequency of these references over the past two decades (Kresovich et al., 2021). This indeed probes one to wonder about the ways in which this increasing prevalence of anxiety-related themes in popular music could influence people, particularly the young population that constitutes the largest proportion of its listeners; Could this anxiety referencing potentially transform the discourse around mental health and mitigate stigma? Could these references also have a negative impact on individuals’ attitudes towards mental health?
The first of these questions was addressed in a subsequent research study by Kresovich (2022), which examined the influence of popular songs about mental health problems like anxiety on mental health empathy, stigma and behavioural intentions among university students. The study revealed that college students who perceive a personal connection to popular songs about anxiety, or a parasocial interaction (PSI)—that is, a one-sided relationship that audience members imagine with celebrities (Horton & Richard Wohl, 1956)—with popular artists who perform these songs, experience increased mental health empathy for others. This growth in empathy mediates a reduction in anxiety-related stigma among students, while simultaneously strengthening their willingness to support others with such difficulties. Since young adults typically consume several hours of popular music on a daily basis, they are repeatedly exposed to anxiety references in songs. Furthermore, it has become increasingly commonplace for pop singers, like Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, Zayn Malik, Adele, among many others, to open up about their experiences suffering from anxiety on public platforms. In doing so, as illustrated by Bandura’s (2001) famous social cognitive theory, these celebrities can become role models in mental health awareness and hygiene for young adults. Therefore, repeated exposure to anxiety references in songs, along with celebrity mental health disclosures can serve to normalise mental health struggles such as anxiety among the youth (Kresovich et al., 2021; Horowitz & Graf, 2019).
A surprising result of this study, however, was that even though songs about anxiety facilitate growth in empathy, and decrease in stigma, they do not influence young students to seek help for themselves. Instead, the study indicated that most of these students listen to their favourite anxiety-themed songs because it enables catharsis and helps them regulate their anxious mood states. This is found to be true more so in males than in females. In fact, females also reported greater willingness to support their peers with mental health difficulties, as compared to males. So, while there are no gender differences in other outcomes of listening to anxiety-related songs, such as empathy or stigma, there exist gender differences in behavioural intentions with respect to seeking mental health treatment and supporting others (Kresovich, 2022).
Yet another experimental study by Kresovich (2022) investigated how anxiety-themed lyrics affects female university students' mental health empathy and perceived personal connection to songs. Here too, the findings suggested that exposure to such music elevates empathy in female students towards peers struggling with mental health. This study additionally highlighted the importance of being exposed to song lyrics, since participants who watched lyrical videos of popular songs perceived greater personal connection with them than those who listened to the songs without reading the lyrics.
These findings are especially consequential to the field of mental health communication as they enable popular music and musicians to be potent message-bearers in campaigns devised towards achieving mental hygiene and awareness among young adults. In recognising pop music as a novel source of communication, mental health practitioners can leverage it—not only the lyrical content of songs, but also the celebrity artists who perform them—in designing interventions for anxiety-related illnesses. Popular music has the potential to be a tremendously influential medium in alleviating mental health difficulties like anxiety and in disseminating awareness among the youth, and thus warrants further exploration. At the same time, it might also be useful for future research to explore the possible negative impacts of anxiety-related references in popular music.
References
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). DSM-5 TM. http://repository.poltekkes-kaltim.ac.id/657/1/Diagnostic%20and%20statistical%20manual%20of%20mental%20disorders%20_%20DSM-5%20%28%20PDFDrive.com%20%29.pdf
Bandura, A. (2001). Social Cognitive Theory of Mass Communication. Media Psychology, 3(3), 265–299. https://doi.org/10.1207/s1532785xmep0303_03
Frith, S. (1978). Youth and music. In S. Frith (Ed.), Taking popular music seriously: Selected essays (pp. 1–30). Routledge.
Grande, A., Kotecha, S., Salmanzadeh, I., Svensson, P. (2018). Breathin [Recorded by A. Grande]. On Sweetener. Republic Records.
Horowitz, J. M., & Graf, N. (2019, May 30). Most U.S. teens see anxiety and depression as a major problem among their peers. Pew Research Center's Social & Demographic Trends Project. Retrieved October 23, 2022, from https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2019/02/20/most-u-s-teens-see-anxiety-and-depression-as-a-major-problem-among-their-peers/
Horton, D., & Richard Wohl, R. (1956). Mass communication and para-social interaction. Psychiatry, 19(3), 215–229. https://doi.org/10.1080/00332747.1956.11023049
Kotarba, J. A. (2017). Understanding society through popular music. Routledge.
Kresovich, A. (2022). An experimental test of pop music lyrics referencing anxiety on female college students’ audience involvement and Peer Mental Health Empathy. Journal of Health Communication, 27(3), 192–200. https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2022.2078910
Kresovich, A. (2022). The influence of pop songs referencing anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation on college students’ mental health empathy, stigma, and behavioral intentions. Health Communication, 37(5), 617–627. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2020.1859724
Kresovich, A., Reffner Collins, M. K., Riffe, D., & Carpentier, F. R. (2021). A content analysis of mental health discourse in popular rap music. JAMA Pediatrics, 175(3), 286–292. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.5155
Mendes, S., Warburton, G., Geiger, T., Harris, S. (2018). In My Blood [Recorded by S. Mendes]. On Shawn Mendes. Island Records.
Merritt, A.D., Seals, B.K., Brown, C.M., Allen, R.L. (2008) Disturbia [Recorded by Rihanna]. On Good girl gone bad. Def Jam.
Nielsen. (2017, November 2). Time with Tunes: How Technology is Driving Music Consumption. https://www.nielsen.com/insights/2017/time-with-tunes-how-technology-is-driving-music-consumption/
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