Mamamontezz's Mental Rumpus Room

Does Music Contribute?

Remember the outrage when young white teen males were committing acts of violence against each other and themselves, driven by the anger and nihilism of heavy metal music?

Activists like Tipper Gore vilified record companies for representing such bands as Metalica, Black Sabbath, and Judas Priest. Artists were prosecuted in court as contributors to the mental state of depressed and suicidal boys, and in some cases were found liable and forced to pay substantial monetary awards to their surviving families. Frank Zappa and many other writers, producers, and band members were compelled to testify before a congressional committee.

The world was being destroyed by mind-numbed suicidal white teen-aged boys, and it was all because of Rock and Roll!

We look back now and see that era redefined by the Conventional Wisdom and the media at large as a "tempest in a teapot." I remember the platitudes and the fear mongering Mothers and Ministers, and I wonder as I look at the news every day, why isn't the same level of fear and hysteria being directed at the edgy, violent, misogynistic, racist, and hate-filled music of today?

We hear of one isolated minister or another speaking from their pulpits about the violence of Gangsta Rap, or the overt sexual or drug references of Hip Hop music. And every day we hear the increasing death toll in teen-aged males decried by the press and by the greater community.

Every day we hear of another drive-by, another knife or gun in a studednt's backpack, another victim of the mindset promoted by these recording artists. But instead of any cry against the huge cultural machine which manufactures these cookie-cutter Thug-o-licious CD's and promotes them to ever younger and more impressionable children, the social activists and "Moral Leaders" of the community do worse than not speaking out. They do worse than remaining silent as these kids continue to die and kill each other. These "Leaders" embrace these promotors, producers and artists and hold them up as good examples and role models for all of our children.

This phenom is not isolated to one ethnicity or economic group or social level. It does not pick and choose based on education, experience, or upbringing. Yet as 8 and 9 year old girls dress to excude their impending sexuality, and as boys of the same age begin to engage in more aggressive and territorial ways, it becomes more and more compelling for parents to direct their children away from the messages which bombard them daily and toward persuits which expose them to values and behaviors which will serve as paterns toward productive and successful futures.

Is it simplistic to blame it on the music? Perhaps it is, but at the very least the music is a representative sample of the cultural implosion we see all around us. The music, and it's parallel video universe, not only expose people to a mindset framed in criminal and hedonistic behaviors, but do so in a way which glamorizes the mindset and the culture which espouses it.

Tipper Gore and the rest of the indignant and angry mothers of the 80's? Where are you and your counterparts now?

Posted by Mamamontezz at April 6, 2004 09:56 PM