Music is a huge part of American culture today. New industries and products have been created to bring the delightful sounds to our eardrums. First it was the record, then 8-tracks and CDs. Nowadays, the popular way to get music to your ears is listening to iPods and other MP3 players. Ever since its release in 2001, the iPod has taken over the way people listen to music and has created many different models, which consumers have snatched up as soon as they came out. But, perhaps the number one consumer of this industry is the modern teenager. One such teen is senior Moriah Harris. “[Listening to music] is relaxing,” Harris said. Music can certainly help deal with emotions. But can it make people feel a certain way? Many new studies have recently found a link between listening to music and depression. It found that more teens that listen to music have a higher chance of being depressed, though it is still unclear if listening to music leads to depression, or if more teens who are depressed listen to music as a means of escape. Most teens, like Harris, listen to music simply because they like it. Harris, for example, likes country music because the songs “convey stories rather than random lyrics.” Like everything teenagers do, however, the music teens listen to is subject to the scrutiny of their peers.“Sometimes if I’m in the car and I think [my friends] won’t like the radio station I’m listening to I’ll change it,”said Harris. Teen’s music choices are also under a different, and not always welcome, type of scrutiny, that of their parents. The main concern adults have with their children’s music choice is the lyrics. In some pop and rap songs the lyrics express glamorization of drugs and alcohol and other content parents view as too mature for their children. Though the music teens listen to might not agree with everyone, the importance of it can not be ignored. Without music the world would be quiet, and frankly, we wouldn’t be the same without it. “I think it would be a boring place devoid of human emotion and people couldn’t connect as well,” said Harris.