Peer Pressure As Opposed to Adult Misperception

Rebellion through music by Heather Wendtland addresses the cultural phenomenon of females, teenagers in particular, listening to non-mainstream rap and hip-hop music and it aims to explore the various underlying motivations behind this social trend. This music originated from the African American community and is generally perceived to be coarse, uncouth and barbaric due to the extensive use of vulgarities in the lyrics. According to the passage, it is deemed by many to be unsuitable for females. Wendtland wrote this piece for a composition class in her university and hence, her targeted audience was her sociology professor who would comment on and grade her piece. She penned her own experiences with a narrative style which I find interesting and easy to relate to. She occasionally revealed her group identity and their notion of the non-mainstream music. Throughout the text, Wendtland implicitly presented the dilemma faced by youths: In the process of conforming to peer pressure to pursue their identity, youths are, at the same time, desperately trying to break free from the misperception and stereotyping by the society and the adults. I believe it is arduous, yet possible, for youths to pursue an identity by conforming to peer pressure and simultaneously complying with the adults ideal perception of their behaviour. This seems to be a vicious cycle but if the youths can discover means to improve the adults perception of them, it is still possible to break away from the cycle. In the text, Wendtland makes the claim that females, in actual fact, have sufficiently good reasons for listening to such non-mainstream music. The main reason is that it is pleasing and fulfilling to understand that something they enjoy is considered bad and they feel

empowered (Wendtland, 2002, p.386). In addition, the singing of the lyrics is a mean for them to unleash their suppressed hostile feelings which females are not supposed to have (Wendtland, 2002, p.386, p.387). She provides evidence to support her reasoning as can be seen from paragraphs 3 to 6, where she cites examples of two females adoring such music and their respective similar motivations. She reinforces this reason in three paragraphs, further explaining that the music acts as a tool to enhance the adults understanding of them; that they are actually sturdy and self-sufficient (Wendtland, 2002, p.387). However, I feel that the reasons provided are the secondary motivations. I perceive them mainly as the benefits that Wendtland and her friends will reap when listening to the music. She does not explore the genuine, fundamental factor or motivation which causes them to be exposed to and be attracted to such music at the very beginning. I find this unsatisfactory because the initial fundamental motivation is a crucial factor to examine the social trend. At first glance of the above reasons, it seems that the fundamental motivation is to clear the adults misperception and to convince the adults to be more receptive of their behaviour. Upon more conscientious and closer reading, however, I realise that the primary motivation is actually to create an identity by conforming to peer pressure. As I read the text, I can infer the intense weight of peer pressure upon them to fit into a desirable social network. Although this is not explicitly stated in the passage, we can deduce from the way Wendtland pens the text. The text was consistently written from the viewpoint of her group of girlfriends, Vanilla Nation, and they share the same sentiments throughout the text, especially towards the controversial non-mainstream music. For instance, they want

to be known as a group of girls loving rap music (Wendtland, 2002, p.385). Despite being fully aware that the music didnt send positive messages, will offend those in their presence and that they should hate it (Wendtland, 2002, p.387, p.386), they adore the music so much so that it has somewhat been diffused into their lives. I suppose Wendtland does not present this deeper motive explicitly or she avoids mentioning it bluntly because she believes that it will deepen the adults misperception of them. This is due to the fact that the adults disapprove of such music, much less will they be supportive of them creating their identities through this music. This clearly shows their dilemma between conforming to peer pressure to fit into an ideal social platform and complying with the adults ideal perception of their behaviour. Next, I find the reasons provided by Wendtland to substantiate her claim that her group has good reasons to listen to the unconventional rap and hip-hop music unconvincing. She proves to me that she does not know her stand well and thus contradicts herself. For example, while Wendtland and her friends wish to drive a message across to the adults to focus on their internal qualities through the lyrics used by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony (Wendtland, 2002, p.387), they do not even fully comprehend the meaning of the lyrics themselves (Wendtland, 2002, p.385). To them, the music is only for entertainment and for them to interpret in their own ways (Wendtland, 2002, p.385). This will in turn result in further adult misperception as the message has a high probability of not being conveyed in the way they desire. Hence, I am not swayed by her argument. Even if the message does get across desirably, I strongly believe that their method of relying on uncouth music to express themselves is amateurish and illogical. There are plenty of other ways for them to showcase their talents and qualities - taking up leadership roles,

providing community service, or simply through their social behaviour in their daily lives. Complying with peer pressure to listen to such a coarse genre of music in a bid to create their identities, I believe, will definitely create an undesirable adult misperception of their behaviour. This proves that it is indeed arduous to create an identity through peer pressure while having the need to abide by the ideal adult perception. Lastly, Wendtland barely illustrates using her own experiences as to how the music has helped to improve the adults perception of their behaviour. Instead, she spends four long paragraphs showcasing two other females listening to such music and elaborates on their respective experiences, which I find somewhat irrelevant. As she does not provide her own experiences to back this point up, the point appears to be superficial. This somehow shows that she is not really clear of how the music can help improve the adults perception of her group and the identity that she wants to pursue though embracing the uncouth, non-mainstream music together with her peers. It triggers me to ponder if her resolution of proving the adults wrong and thus creating an identity without the need to comply with the ideal adults perception, is firm. This once again portrays the difficulty in breaking away from the vicious cycle of dilemma that youths are involved in. In sum, the dilemma that youths face between conforming to peer pressure to fit into a desirable social platform and the need to abide by the adults ideal perception of their behaviour will always be present unless the youths make a conscientious effort to find means to break away from this vicious cycle, in which the first daunting yet possible task is to improve the adults general perception of them.

Reference: Wendtland, H. (2002). Rebellion through music. In J. C. Bean, V. A. Chappell, & A. M. Gillam (Eds.), Reading rhetorically: A reader for writers (pp. 385-387). New York: Longman.