The purpose of this study was to discover whether or not the accompaniment of a lyric sheet while listening to rock music would aid a student\u27s correct identification of the message conveyed by that song. Participants included one 7th and one 8th grade class of gifted students (N = 62). Other elements examined involved students\u27 judgment of the messages as negative or positive, as well as the tonality of each song as pleasant or unpleasant and how these judgments related to correct or incorrect identification of the messages. Results indicated that there was no statistically significant difference regarding correct or incorrect identification of the message depending on whether or not students did or did not have a lyric sheet to read while listening to the U2 song, while there was a statistically significant difference concerning the Black Sabbath song. Additional results of this study are discussed, and implications for future research are suggested
