Social Identities

Music and the Construction of Personal/Social Identities Introduction Music is seen an essential communication channel. It offers a means through which individuals and groups can share their aims, values and emotions even though the spoken languages might be mutually incomprehensible. Music further provides dynamic links for human interactions, particularly individuals whose distinctive wants make other communication means rather difficult or demanding.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Music and the Construction of Personal/Social Identities specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Nowadays, music plays a more significant role in shaping individuals lives as compared to any other historical period. This can be attributed to the rapid technological advancements and increasing economic influence of the music industry. Despite the relative difference between the current and the past music experience, it is clear that music has increasingly been used in the construction of the youthsâ €™ identities. This paper presents an overview of the studies that have supported the increasing knowledge and appreciation of the role of music in constructing the youth identities. The process does not simply involve aspects of personal identity, but equally includes the essential social aspects relating to ethnicity and race, family such as peers versus parents, school, status and gender. Structural cultural context Youth encounter a series of indulgence desires and essential social world thoughts in their development. The orientation spheres shape the way young people use media, particularly music (Eyerman and Jamison 466). Four dimensions that have been identified to be of a great essence in shaping youth identities include ethnicity and race, family (peers versus parents), school and status as well as gender and sexuality. Ethnicity and race While music such as Blues and Jazz have been associated with the black musicians for quite some time, the connection between ethnicit y and audience of the popular music which was common in the U.S. did not emerge in Europe till 1970s. Besides, Ska and soul music emerged in the 1960s and 1970s yet they did not construct the youths’ identity so much. However, the triumph of reggae music in the 1970s showed that there were ethnically non-European subcultures that used music to reinforce their identities. Reggae music was deeply immersed with Rastafarian inspirations since it was a remonstration music intended to draw attention of the youthful blacks who came from the remote cities.Advertising Looking for essay on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Even though Rasta was commonly found in some European cities, the Rastafarian movement unveiled its most noticeable existence in Britain. It was the most undisputed socially significant development in Britain because it served its purpose as an important source of identity for the margi nalized youthful blacks (Danesi 67). Thus, youthful blacks use reggae music to identify and distinguish themselves from any kind of the whites’ racialism. However, few exceptions have been noted regarding the use of music by the marginalized youth. For instance, youths have used music to set the ethnic and race boundaries. A clear illustration is in Western Europe where it is very complicated to question the cultural and ideological youths’ association in different ethnicities. The use of music by the marginalized ethnic groups is absolutely too patchy. It is only obvious that mediated popular cultures and media discourses play considerable roles in modeling the manner in which the ethnically based groups observe each other. While music might assist in dissolving ethnic boundaries, it may occasionally strengthen and even help in shaping them (Eyerman and Jamison 452). Youths from different ethnic environments, thus, resort to music to create their own ethnic and cultur al identities. Family: Peers versus parents Social recognition in peer groups is an interesting concern during youth (Von Feilitzen and Roe 227). Social organizations including school and family put much emphasis on the importance of being successful. In such institutions, welcomed group participation, acceptance or membership might refer to school groups, peers, family, ethnic subcultures or to the wider social class world. Achievement might also take place within one of such social grounds. Unfortunately, most of the visible forms of validating social achievements including success at schools, perhaps, have petite potential to generate the peers’ popularity as compared to music. In fact, the impact of music on peer group relationships significantly affects various aspects of youthful life. Imitation of speech, consumption tastes, leisure forms and dressing codes of the music idols by the youth has generated peer influence and resulted in frictions with parents. Furthermore, as peer orientation, school failures and poor familial adjustment increase, peer group attachments increases. Early and considerable movements away from parental orientations towards peer group orientations seem to have a strong connection with musical preferences, interests and identification with particular music centered subgroups.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Music and the Construction of Personal/Social Identities specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Youths who are parent oriented are less likely to develop musical interests and might less often listen to it. However, peer oriented youths tend to display greater musical interests and would extensively listen to it. This kind of music listened by these groups differ significantly (Eyerman and Jamison 459). Peer oriented youths prefer listening to more socially disvalued and hard rock music whereas parent oriented youths give much preference to classical, jazz an d blues. Finally, research evidence clearly indicates that family problems might provoke youths to make even greater music and peer-group investments than normal at this particular life-stage. This could make youths get indulged into music movements founded by youth cultures that are blatantly anti-adults. As regard to this, it is apparent that the chosen youth subcultures and their preferred music offer marginalized identity sources to those tendered by home contexts. School and status Von Feilitzen and Roe claim that youths sharing same statuses and education level have their own musical subcultures and cultural orientation developments (p. 227). Youth cultures that identify themselves and are strongly attached to certain types of music including heavy metal rock tend to negatively perform in school. Such youths are low achievers and are very discontented male youth who come from low working class and powerless families. However, certain musical preferences including blues, jazz a nd classical music are linked to higher academic success. In contrast to them, rock music is essential to youths who have rejected their class background cultures as it provides them with social markers which differentiate from their parental expectations and culture. This is because the intergenerational power and mobility status which occur within the larger inequality status context are normally upheld with distinctive shifts in individuals’ lifestyles, self-esteem and identity.Advertising Looking for essay on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More To youths, music also defines various types of social mobility including education, occupation, downwards and upward status mobility. The class mobility is linked with some kinds of musical preferences which differ with respect to cultural legitimacy. The music audience divisions result from individual and group trajectories within various social status hierarchical dimensions. For example, strong inclination to disco music is linked to upward professional mobility; strong classical music liking is associated with higher education and upward mobility, but those who give much preference to heavy metals are identified by downward educational mobility (Eyerman and Jamison 461). Therefore, youths identifying themselves with heavy metal music are perceived to be dynamic sensational seekers expressing their schooling displeasures since they find the regulation and structure of such institutions very hard to take. Gender and sexuality Youthful males are greatly preoccupied with musical pre ferences and tastes as compared to females. Often, youths in puberty are more anxious about the popular music that crops up during this period (Danesi 98) and would always wish to take an equal amount of time to listen to the preferred music. However, since females mature two years faster than males, they usually start listening to music at around nine and ten years while males identify and begin giving preference to music at twelve and thirteen years. Both sexes always listen to popular music having their central themes focused on dating and love. The youthful girls, nonetheless, have special strings attached to pop music whereas youthful males are exclusively linked to assertive masculinity and rock music (Danesi 98). The relationship amid sexuality and music has been significant. Male youths have been identified with dominant musical subcultures and more visible social mechanisms than females who majorly focus on less visible social mechanisms and less dominant musical subculture s. It is true that with respect to music and identity, both sexes are more inclined to romantic and sexually expressive music. Conclusion Music has played an important role in the construction of youths’ identities. Youth gender schemas including their self-definitions as either feminine or masculine emerge from the core musical constructs they draw on when defining themselves. Moreover, countless new musical information being received by the youths concerning individuals and their behaviors are primarily coded and thereafter inferred to with respect to gender norms and class. This makes youths identify themselves with certain musical subcultures. Besides, youths usually utilize music as a technique to develop and negotiate their interpersonal relations as depicted in the class and status dimensions. An individual’s musical preference clearly defines the social group a person belongs to or is not willing to be associated with. Thus, when youths develop specific musical preferences and taste patterns, it must be clear that the patterns are linked to a particular social circumstance or subcultural identification. Danesi, Marcel. Geeks, Goths and Gangstas: Youth Culture and the Evolution of Modern Society, Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press Inc., 2010. Print. Eyerman, Ron and Jamison Andrew. â€Å"Social Movements and Cultural Transformation: Popular Music in the 1960a†. Media, Culture and Society 17.3(1995): 449-468. Print. Von Feilitzen, Cecilia and Roe Keith. Eavesdropping on Adolescence: An Exploratory Study of Music Listening Among Children†. The European Journal of Communication 17.2 (1992): 225-244. Print.

Electron Transport Chain and Energy Production

Electron Transport Chain and Energy Production In cellular biology, the electron transport chain is one of the steps in your cells processes that make energy from the foods you eat.   It is the third step of aerobic cellular respiration. Cellular respiration is the term for how your bodys cells make energy from food consumed. The electron transport chain is where most of the energy cells need to operate is generated. This chain is actually a series of protein complexes and electron carrier molecules within the inner membrane of cell mitochondria, also known as the cells powerhouse. Oxygen is required for  aerobic respiration  as the chain terminates with the donation of electrons to oxygen.   Key Takeaways: Electron Transport Chain The electron transport chain is a series of protein complexes and electron carrier molecules within the inner membrane of mitochondria that generate ATP for energy.Electrons are passed along the chain from protein complex to protein complex until they are donated to oxygen. During the passage of electrons, protons are pumped out of the mitochondrial matrix across the inner membrane and into the intermembrane space.The accumulation of protons in the intermembrane space creates an electrochemical gradient that causes protons to flow down the gradient and back into the matrix through ATP synthase. This movement of protons provides the energy for the production of ATP.The electron  transport chain is the third step of aerobic cellular respiration. Glycolysis and the Krebs cycle are the first two steps of cellular respiration. How Energy Is Made As electrons move along a chain, the movement or momentum is used to create  adenosine triphosphate (ATP). ATP is the main source of energy for many cellular processes including muscle contraction and cell division. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is a organic chemical that provides energy for cell. ttsz / iStock / Getty Images Plus Energy is released during cell metabolism when ATP is hydrolyzed. This happens when electrons are passed along the chain from protein complex to protein complex until they are donated to oxygen forming water.  ATP chemically decomposes to adenosine diphosphate (ADP) by reacting with water. ADP is in turn used to synthesize ATP. In more detail, as electrons are passed along a chain from protein complex to protein complex, energy is released and hydrogen ions (H) are pumped out of the mitochondrial matrix (compartment within the inner  membrane) and into the intermembrane space (compartment between the inner and outer membranes). All this activity creates both a chemical gradient (difference in solution concentration) and an electrical gradient (difference in charge) across the inner membrane. As more H  ions are pumped into the intermembrane space, the higher concentration of  hydrogen atoms  will build up and flow back to the matrix simultaneously powering the production of ATP by the protein complex ATP synthase. ATP synthase uses the energy generated from the movement of H  ions into the matrix for the conversion of ADP to ATP. This process of oxidizing molecules to generate energy for the production of ATP is called oxidative phosphorylation. The First Steps of Cellular Respiration Cellular respiration is a set of metabolic reactions and processes that take place in the cells of organisms to convert biochemical energy from nutrients into adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and then release waste products. normaals / iStock / Getty Images Plus The first step of cellular respiration is glycolysis. Glycolysis occurs in the cytoplasm and involves the splitting of one molecule of glucose into two molecules of the chemical compound pyruvate. In all, two molecules of ATP and two molecules of NADH (high energy, electron carrying molecule) are generated. The second step, called the citric acid cycle or Krebs cycle, is when pyruvate is transported across the outer and inner mitochondrial membranes into the mitochondrial matrix. Pyruvate is further oxidized in the Krebs cycle producing two more molecules of ATP, as well as NADH and FADH 2 molecules. Electrons from NADH and FADH2 are transferred to the third step of cellular respiration, the electron transport chain. Protein Complexes in the Chain There are four protein complexes  that are part of the electron transport chain that functions to pass electrons down the chain. A fifth protein complex serves to transport hydrogen ions back into the matrix. These complexes are embedded within the inner mitochondrial membrane.   Illustration of electron transport chain with oxidative phosphorylation. extender01 / iStock / Getty Images Plus Complex I NADH transfers two electrons to Complex I resulting in four H ions being pumped across the inner membrane. NADH is oxidized to NAD, which is recycled back into the Krebs cycle. Electrons are transferred from Complex I to a carrier molecule ubiquinone (Q), which is reduced to ubiquinol (QH2). Ubiquinol carries the electrons to Complex III. Complex II FADH2 transfers electrons to Complex II and the electrons are passed along to ubiquinone (Q). Q is reduced to ubiquinol (QH2), which carries the electrons to Complex III. No H ions are transported to the intermembrane space in this process. Complex III The passage of electrons to Complex III drives the transport of four more H ions across the inner membrane. QH2 is oxidized and electrons are passed to another electron carrier protein cytochrome C. Complex IV Cytochrome C passes electrons to the final protein complex in the chain, Complex IV. Two H ions are pumped across the inner membrane. The electrons are then passed from Complex IV to an oxygen (O2) molecule, causing the molecule to split. The resulting oxygen atoms quickly grab H ions to form two molecules of water. ATP Synthase ATP synthase moves H ions that were pumped out of the matrix by the electron transport chain back into the matrix. The energy from the influx of protons into the matrix is used to generate ATP by the phosphorylation (addition of a phosphate) of ADP. The movement of ions across the selectively permeable mitochondrial membrane and down their electrochemical gradient is called chemiosmosis. NADH generates more ATP than FADH2. For every NADH molecule that is oxidized, 10 H ions are pumped into the intermembrane space. This yields about three ATP molecules. Because FADH2 enters the chain at a later stage (Complex II), only six H ions are transferred to the intermembrane space. This accounts for about two ATP molecules. A total of 32 ATP molecules are generated in electron transport and oxidative phosphorylation. Sources Electron Transport in the Energy Cycle of the Cell. HyperPhysics, hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Biology/etrans.html.Lodish, Harvey, et al. Electron Transport and Oxidative Phosphorylation. Molecular Cell Biology. 4th Edition., U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2000, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK21528/.