Music that Makes You Dumb?
According to the Wall Street Journal, the results are somewhat interesting.
"For example, the favorite musician of the smartest students was Beethoven, with an average SAT score of 1371. Also on the "smart" end of the scale were Sufjan Stevens (1260), Counting Crows (1247), and Radiohead (1220). And sadly for Lil Wayne, enjoying his music was associated with being the dumbest, with an average SAT score of 889."
The idea that Beethoven is enjoyed by the mentally gifted is not surprising. That Lil Wayne-as well as Ludacris, according to Virgil Griffin's chart-is enjoyed by the mentally challenged is also not a surprise. They are rappers, after all, and nothing good comes from listening to that sort of music.
But one wonders how scientific the "music that makes you dumb" study is. Taking n unofficial survey of my close friends, I found the following. One likes British rock bands such as the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. Another likes Medieval sacred music. Still another likes Cat Stevens and Gordon Lightfoot. I like classical and Celtic folk. Mind, my circle of friends tends to be older than the college students Virgil Griffith used in his "music that make you dumb" study and are of above average intelligence.
And the very premise of "music that makes you dumb" is somewhat suspect. Is it the "music that make you dumb" or to dumb people like certain kinds of music? Certainly the sort of person who likes "Ode to Joy" is a bit different than someone who gets off on listening to lyrics about wasting cops and beating up on women.
There a story of a store owner in a rundown neighborhood who had a problem with local hoodlums loitering outside his store, scaring off the customers. The store owner hit upon the idea of piping out classical music to the outside of his store. The tactic worked in that it drove away all of the loitering hoodlums except for one young man who actually liked classical music. The store owner gave him a job.
There is, one supposes, a lesson in that. If you want to get ahead in life, there is nothing like Beethoven and Mozart to sharpen the mind and impress other people.
Meanwhile, Virgil Griffin has another study called "books that make you dumb." The favorite book for the gifted? Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov's classic about pedophilia. There is something disturbing in that result.
Source: Books and Music That Make You Dumb, Marisa Taylor, Wall Street Journal, February 27th, 2009
Published by Mark Whittington
Mark R. Whittington is a writer residing in Houston, Texas. He is the author of The Last Moonwalker, Children of Apollo, Dark Sanction, and Nocturne. He has written numerous articles, some for the Washington... View profile
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17 Comments
Post a CommentI do appreciate Hip-Hop/Urban and Pop but I'm getting sick to death of every artist throwing in a "haters" bit into every single they release. It's getting old and isn't going to change anything so just STOP. Talking about the haters actually makes me hate you. Maybe if you'd stop talking about haters, people wouldn't hate you. Why would anybody purposely want to use this odd psychology which makes people purposely "hate on" them? Rappers and singers are getting really weird.
None,
Maybe he is not being racist but he is being awefully offensive. He's basically generalizing that all rappers uneducated and dumb and by saying that all of the fans of select artists are mentally challenged, he offends the fans.
He's basically stereotyping an entire genre of music, from the fans to the artists. Everyone goes so hard on Hip Hop, but no one ever criticizes other genres of music so harshly. Maybe less time should be spent of picking out the faults in Hip Hop and more time should be spent on educating the children.
Music rarely has anything to do with a person's mental capacity. The music that we listen to is mainly based off of our emotions and what we are feeling at the time that we are listening. I bet you that you can tell me how you're feeling and I can find a Hip Hop song that relates to it and you find it enjoyable. Music does not define your intelligence.
How wonderful that yet another person condems the listeners of Hip Hop music to be unintellegent and violent "hoodlums", like we need more stereotypes. "Nothing good comes from listening to that sort of music", is such a delightful statement (that is sarcasm if you did not catch it). There are no intellegent people on the face of this planet that listen to Hip Hop. (yet and still more sarcasm, Mark) We're all gangsters (or would you prefer I spell that gangstaz so you can talk about grammar and spelling next), hoochies, and baby's mamas and daddies. You know us so well, Mark.
Remember, a generalization is yet another way for you to make yourself look dumb.
"nothing good comes from listening to that sort of music." Public Enemy. Mos Def. Talib Kweli. Common. The Roots. KRS-One. Michael Franti. Yeah, none of these artists have contributed anything positive to society. Painting with some awfully broad strokes here, Mark.
Funny how you only mention crappy rappers like Lil Wayne and T.I being in the bottom, yet fail to mention Outkast. Also, where is Tupac?
This study was horrible. Honestly, I think lil' wayne and...well, nearly all mainlstream musicians today are horrible and have no talent but that being said, nothing was proven with this study. Nothing in this ruled out coorelation vs causation, the samples were poorly done and the testing itself is pretty poor. No social factors were taken in to effect and that is just the begining. While mainstream rappers such as 50 cent genuinely don't have any kind of musical talent, you can't completely write off a genre because of what prominent in it. there are plenty of rappers/hip hop musicians that are like Zach DelaRocha (rage against the machine)but never get the same level of success. The same can be said for just about any genre. But thats not at all what this is about. This is all about why this study was done more poorly than a 6th grade science fair project.
None, honestly your assumption that all hip-hop and only hip-hop now is uncreative is quite wrong. All genres are uncreative today with exceptions in ALL genres. Rap/hip-hop is a perfectly fine genre of music and is getting heavy criticism from the older generation just like Rock did when it first started, which only means that it is becoming bigger and bigger.
The ways that the statistics were compiled in this make this worthy of nothing more than the trash can. You Can't use Facebook, it doesn't contain an appropriate sample. You also can't use SAT scores. SAT scores do not = intelligence. Plus the ACT is becoming more accapted so the SAT doesn't provide a good enough sample either. Virgil, go re-study statistics. What I pointed out where only the beginners mistakes, there is a lot more.
Nomad, your response is more racist than the people you are attacking. First of all, assuming that what you call "corporate America" is the same as the "white man" is ridiculous. White people are not all corporate executives (hardly any of them are), and corporate executives are not all white (although I'll agree far too many of them are). Secondly, in terms of music, I would argue that big label music records (and their executives) amass their wealth off the backs of all of their artists, not just black ones. It has nothing to do with race, it has to do with economic classes and greed. Lastly, if you're going to accuse others of "dumming down" material and making others stupid, it would really benefit your argument to check your spelling and grammar (as well as resisting the urge to capitalize everything because screaming on the internet is largely ignored, as it should be).
Hey "None", I have some constructive criticism for you. Next time, proof read what you write. I am sure you were trying to make a valid point, but your misspelled words kept me from understanding it.