Globalizing adolescence: Digital music cultures and music therapy
Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, digital technology has connected adolescents to a global youth culture that subverts and bypasses traditional means of consuming music. In health-related contexts, adolescents can use digital tools to sample, edit, layer, manipulate, and record their own soundscapes, which allows them to have agency over their own narratives and share them with others. Concurrently, therapists acquire empathy for the lived experience of an adolescent by understanding the use of, and attuning to, the digital production components of songs used and created in therapy. Using the author’s first-person experience with digital technology and adolescents in music therapy, this chapter investigates the evolving role of digital music and media for both adolescents and therapists, exploring the ways it can (re)connect youth to a global community and have their voices heard.