To fully understand how music exercises power in the lives of our kids, we must remember where they are in the developmental process. Younger children are especially susceptible to media and music messages because of their inability to distinguish between fiction and reality. Tell them anything and they'll believe it. Teenagers are vulnerable too. Caught in a tumultuous period of tremendous physical, mental, emotional and spiritual change, they want to know what life is about and how to approach it.
Adolescence is a time of uncertainty.
Their uncertainty leads them to see and process new information from a variety of sources in the hope of finding answers to their questions about life. The lyrics, videos, concerts and performers' lifestyles all combine to make music one of the most effective teachers, preachers, and evangelists of our time. Its messages are providing a sound track for a generation that is being molded in the image of music itself. I see it all the time. The negative messages of popular music take root and grow where the soil of a child's life hasn't been nurtured by the flood-rains of parental love, time, listening ears, and attention.