Is Music Making Us Into Me Monsters?

Remember that music gem? Yesterday, while driving home from work and listening to my daily dose of grown-up radio on NPR, I heard a study entitled Narcissism on the Rise in Pop Lyrics. Essentially, this study compares music lyrics from 20 years ago to those of 2007. The difference was quite obvious. We moved from "we" and "us" (like Bruce Springsteen's "We Are the World") to "I" and "me" (like the wonderful song featured above). So are there any implications to this? Dr. Nathan DeWall, the professor that conducted this study, seems to think so. There is a correlation between the increase in egotistical lyrics and narcissism within our society.

Naturally, this got me thinking about my classroom. Granted, I teach first grade and of course everything is egocentric when you are 6 years-old. But at our faculty meeting, where we discussed adopting a new behavior model, teachers voiced concern that throughout the past decade, in general, there has been an increase in student behavior problems. This same view has been voiced numerous times in my graduate classes as well: Students expect everything to be handed to them. Is this true? I can only speak from experience with my first graders, and overall they are pretty dang sweet. But it makes me wonder, should I be softly playing 80s rock ballads that reinforce working together and creating a better world for the common good? Or will the all too catchy pop lyrics of today win out and continue to fuel the narcissistic side of us? Can there be a blend of both? "We're bringing sexy back...yeah?" (ok, that might be too cheesy!)