rock music nevertheless allows individual listeners to coalesce into subcultures that see themselves as somehow separate from and/or in opposition to mainstream social values. rock and roll provides its audiences with the opportunity to create identities through difference. Howard explains:įor much of America’s youth rock and roll would seem to remain a source of faith, hope, and refuge, and it is the first and best medium for carrying creative and powerful stories about the things that count most in their daily lives…by offering a rejection of dominant cultural values. For many teens, music represented a rejection of dominant cultural values that they wanted to separate themselves from. Music, especially rock music, became a way of expressing one’s individual culture. The 1960s saw an increase in teenagers and young adults who desperately wanted to break away from the cultural mainstream. It is their passion nothing else excites them as it does they cannot take seriously anything alien to music.” This was especially the case in the post-World War II era, as music became a place of refuge for many teens who were questioning the role of religion in their lives. In Closing of the American Mind, author Allan Bloom states, “Nothing is more singular about this generation than its addiction to music … Today, a very large proportion of young people between the ages of ten and twenty live for music. The traumatic religious experiences of these musicians and the way that they are using their lyrics to work through said trauma should be taken as an indicator to point out the strong connection between religious trauma and the cathartic value of music. Music is a key coping mechanism for those experiencing RTS, and this proves that RTS should be taken seriously by therapists and psychologists around the world. My intention is to shed light on the fact that religious trauma, as unknown as it may seem, is actually presented right in front of us in music that we listen to everyday. The way that these artists have created their music and its lyrics, as well as the way that they have used certain depictions in their music videos, makes the listener think about religion in a different light. Moving forward, I want to focus on the idea that the lyrics of certain musicians should be looked at through the lens of religious trauma. I think that one of the places where RTS is most visible is in the current world of music, as there are now many examples of rock musicians who have publicly renounced their religious upbringings because of their traumatic experiences and who now identify as non-religious. As I have already pointed out, Religious Trauma Syndrome is one of the most unrecognized psychological disorders in the United States today. As the percentage of those who identify as “none” is increasing, so too is the idea that religion is becoming more brainwashing and damaging. The 18.7 million people who fall in this gap have presumably come from mainline Protestant, Baptist, and Catholic churches, which have lost 12.7 million believers during the same timeframe.Īs previously discussed, it is my belief that one of the main reasons for this pattern is Religious Trauma Syndrome (also referred to as “post-traumatic church syndrome”).
The number of people who affiliate themselves with “no religion” has nearly doubled from 1990 to 2008. Religious Identification Survey, the following statistics are reported:Īmericans by the millions are making an exodus from their faith. The past couple of decades, the number of people turning away from the church,Įspecially youth, is significantly increasing. The final part provides insight into what needs to be done in the future to help victims suffering through religious trauma. This second part explains the connection between music and religious trauma by exploring music as a form of catharsis as well as the connection between religious trauma and PTSD. The first part provided the reader with background information about Religious Trauma Syndrome, a term only recently coined by a psychologist by the name of Marlene Winell. Through the exploration of the connection of Religious Trauma Syndrome to PTSD, the idea is that music can be therapeutic to victims of traumatic religious experiences, just as music is a therapeutic technique used for individuals coping with PTSD. This is the second installment of a three-part essay that explores the way in which rock musicians are using their music as a way of working through religious trauma.
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