SDG here. As a card-carrying Yankee and confirmed city slicker, I’ve never been into country music — not because it makes me suicidal, although over time I can see where it might begin to, but just because it triggers my guffaw response, sort of the way Laugh-In does for other people. (Man, after this Jimmy ain’t NEVER going to let me blog on his site again…)
Last week, on his way to the Catholic Answers cruise, Jimmy stopped by our house for a night, and on a couple of long car rides we had a chance to listen to a bit of one anothers’ CDs, and I can say that, in spite of the culture gap, I was able to appreciate some of Anthony Smith’s guitar tricks and even lyrics. (I especially liked this sweet little song.)
Unfortunately, this article on “The Effect of Country Music on Suicide” is available only through the subscription Questia.com website. Here’s an excerpt from the free preview:
In this article, we explore the link between a particular form of popular music (country music) and metropolitan suicide rates. We contend that the themes found in country music foster a suicidal mood among people already at risk of suicide and that it is thereby associated with a high suicide rate. The effect is buttressed by the country subculture and a link between this subculture and a racial status related to an increased suicide risk.
What I can tell you, after Googling the authors, is that both are sociology professors, Stack at Wayne State U and Gundlach at Auburn U, and that Stack is chairman of WSU’s criminal justice department, and Gundlach is director of AU’s social science computer lab. (According to Gundlach’s personal page at INeedCoffee.com, co-authoring this paper with Stack was Gundlach’s “fifteen minutes of fame.”)
Any thoughts, country music lovers?
I am shocked! How could they possibly link country music to suicide? I mean how could anyone listening to
The Perfect Country and Western Song possibly get depressed?
Whenever someone claims that the music Ozzy or George Jones or Morris Albert or whoever causes suicide, you have to ask about cause and effect. The popular assumption is that the music results in the suicide, but I suspect that it’s the suicidal thoughts that result in the choice of music. Just think of all of the people who have listened to Ozzy et al and HAVEN’T offed themselves.
At least as much a link as that with anti-depressants. Especially if you protest that southern-fried rock is -not- country and western! 😉
Ontario,
The problem with saying that it’s the suicidal thoughts that result in choice of music is that this study is based on which cities play more country on the radio. Now, maybe you could try to argue that some cities are just more depressed than others and that the radio stations are just picking up on the local vibe, but that seems a stretch.
If your local research library has access to Business Search Premier or Academic Search Premier, you can get the e-text from them.
It’s also a fairly widely-held print journal in sociology collections.
If the study is based on correlating suicide rates with the number of local country music stations then the study is going to be utter junk science.
Noting that one thing is part of the local culture and then correlating it that loosely with another item of local culture is worthless scientifically. By that logic you could look at Russia and conclude that blintzes cause alcoholism. (Indeed, blintzes are high in carbs, and carb withdrawal is positively correlated with alcohol cravings among drinkers.)
Other factors (most especially, a depressed local economy) are much more likely to lead to suicide and alcoholism than whether a commuity has several country music stations or several blintz bakeries.
Incidentally, I didn’t know Confederate Railroad or anybody else had ever recorded “What Brothers Do.” I always tought of it as an Anthony Smith song.
: Other factors (most especially, a depressed
: local economy) are much more likely to lead to
: suicide… than whether a commuity has several
: country music stations…
That may be, but FWIW the authors claim that “The effect is independent of divorce, southernness, poverty, and gun availability.”
I’ve heard higher suicide rates in less populated areas, perhaps because people are social animals. Wyoming, Idaho have higher rates than big cities like New York or Philly. Since
there are more country music stations in less populated areas, they could be trying to make a correlation that isn’t true.
Again, since the study purports to examine METROPOLITAN suicide rates, population density would seem not to be a huge factor.
Several rebuttals of this article appear in later issues of Social Forces…
Thanks, Naomi! Will be interested to check them out.
And I’ll be interested to hear about them after Jimmy checks them out! 😀
Seems to me this whole question is irrelevant today. Country music ended in 1953. It could be argued that the cause was suicide, though. 🙂
Joel,
Didn’t The Sons of the Pioneers last a little longer than that?
So . . . Patsy Cline wasn’t “country”?
I’m crushed!
And I’m not so sure of the suicide-country music link at all. My buddy Richard Buckner makes really pretty – yet sorta bleak at times – alt. country music & it always has a way of being sorta uplifting for me! (He’s the fella who’s music is on that Toureg commercial where the young couple drive over hill & dale to take a picture for an older lady. Nice spot.) Maybe it’s sorta like the blues, you know?