Taking off the Mask: Music as a Specific Vehicle for Arts-Based Mental Health Engagement in Men.

Abstract

O'Donnell et al.'s (2023) qualitative study of 41 men with low socioeconomic status engaged with the arts in Northern Ireland documents four themes through which arts engagement supports men's mental health: facilitating friendship and collective identity, enhancing self-expression, providing catharsis, and creating a socially acceptable reason to participate. This Viewpoint argues that music occupies a specific and particularly powerful position within arts-based mental health engagement for men, grounded in its cultural significance in masculine identity and its neurobiological capacity for producing emotional openness and interpersonal attunement through musical synchrony. Drawing on the gateway mechanism hypothesis, veteran music therapy evidence, and qualitative evidence from rap music therapy with Black men, the paper proposes specific design principles for community music programs as men's mental health infrastructure, particularly in low SES communities where arts engagement is underresourced and mental health burden is elevated.