Hege Bjørnestøl Beckmann: Life-giving music. On music, youth and health

Field of study: Music Therapy

Summary

The last decade’s technological advances have increased the availability of music. With portable stereos like MP3 players, iPods and smartphones, and music libraries such as Spotify, WiMP and iTunes, we have access to all music whenever we want. Adolescents are, more than most, up to date on technical innovations, and many young people are surrounded by music in their daily activities. In the words of Swedish music researcher Carin Öblad, music exists in young people’s lives ‘like the air they breathe’.

Music is no longer just a leisure activity. It also has an important symbolic function. Further, music has more influence on several social and psychosocial fields than before. Recent publications within youth research indicate that a large number of current adolescents struggle with physical or mental health issues. There is a variety of explanations for this, but most frequently the causes are connected to non-material threats to health, such as a lack of fellowship, faith, meaning and hope. Even if present adolescents perform better and are more forward-looking than before, scholars are concerned about their mental health. On the basis of the outlined topic area, the dissertation examines the connections between adolescents’ daily use of music and their understanding of its effect on their quality of life or in a broad sense, their experience of health.

The dissertation

Title (translated from Norwegian): Life-giving music. A qualitative study of music, youth and health.

The dissertation is a monograph, and it is available in NMH's digital archive.

The dissertation is written in Norwegian.