Alternative Music Preference and Youth Engagement in Risky Behaviors (Romania)

The current paper addresses the population of youngsters that listen to music labeled as “alternative”, analyzing a possible link between them and specific risk behaviors such as: drug consumption and self-harm, also taking into consideration aspects of their social life. Even if we assumed that there should be a correlation between our respondents and some risk behaviors, we suspect that this connection is in fact a consequence of the lifestyle they already have, rather than the music they are listening to. In support to our hypothesis, a quantitative study was conducted that addresses 171 respondents, all of them identified as “alternative music” listeners. As expected, the results show that there is indeed a correlation between some of the musical genres analyzed and specific risk behaviors, but we also discover various problems in their social life, suggesting that music is not the only factor behind their behavior.