Music And Censorship
In our society today, some musicians and their
music drain and plague the moral
and spiritual well-being of the people;
therefore, censorship offers a necessary
action that we must take to keep the
world from becoming a land of decadence.
The musicians lives are not
examples for the children or the adults. The lyrics
of many songs are not
suitable for anyone. All types of music need some kind of
censorship.
Censorship makes a person realize that music is good for the
heart.
Censorship totally makes people act better, and when thinking
better, this
sustains a better society. The lives of some musicians contain
types of anarchy
and self-gratification. Once the musicians realize that
people want not just
their music but them as well, they act as gods, which no
one can touch. For
example, think of it like a secret dictatorship, and we
breathe as a fascist
society, which puts fun and feelings above the Lord,
above all. Many of the
musicians consist of non-religious people who live
only for fun and only for
themselves. Why then would we, especially as
Christians, put our total devotion
in them? It exists like wanting to ride
with a blind driver rather than one with
perfect vision. In addition many of
the musicians use drugs and stimulants to
satisfy their hunger for themselves
and for pure fun. The musicians tend to use
drugs massively, to get out of
the very real world that they consist so much a
part of. Popularity seems
pleasing but when one has the affections and total
devotion of a mass of
people, that person can not handle it because that person
does not have
Jesus' personality and only He could truly control that much
fidelity. One
person who truly could not handle the excitement was
Jimi
Hendrix(Appendix A). Instead of performing as himself and using his
talent for
good, he used rebellion and used many drugs. On stage, Jimi
Hendrix would put
hits of acid in his headband. When he perspired, the sweat,
containing acid
would run down into his eyes and make him "higher than a
kite." Most
people never actually saw Jimi Hendrix the person, but a blurred
vision of him.
When Jimi performed on stage at Woodstock(Appendix B and
C), a man from the
crowd asked him, "Jimi are you high?" He simply replied
back to the
man, "Thanks man I got mine," causing the crowd to act wild
almost as
if he had saved someone's life, but ironically he unintentionally
destroyed
their lives. In addition Bob Dylan(Appendix D and E) also talked
about getting
stoned in some of his music. The song "Rainy Day Woman #12 and
#13,"
blatantly says that "everybody must get stoned." That tells people
to
disobey the law and tells people to mangle the temple of God, our bodies
by
perverting it with drugs and stimulants. Many musicians make a mockery of
their
fans. The lead singers subsist to do this the most because of the
vocal
opportunities they have to express their discontent with life and
thrust their
ideas upon those who hypnotize with the musician's power
position, thus, makes
the listeners obey their thoughts without fully
knowing. The lead singer Billie
Jo, for Green Day, says to his fans, "
I'm not going to say anything
f****** intelligent, I'm just going too swear a
whole d*** lot." The Bible
tells us that we should let everything that comes
out of our mouth praise Him,
and swearing for any reason doesn't really
praise Him at all and is degrading
for us as well. Almost like if he did not
swear than we wouldn't like him or
understand him. In addition the lead
singer for Kiss would spit on his fans. He
would get the crowd to spit in a
spittoon-type container, and by the end of the
concert, he would drink the
saliva and then he would use what dwelled left in
the spittoon to spit on the
crowd. This creates a bad influence on anybody and
makes a person believe
that it justifies him to do these actions because he
dwells on stage, which
totally in fact creates wrong, and not right. The band
would also wear face
paint and look like demons of some sort. This displays a
mockery of what God
has given us, and it hides their true identities and make
them something they
are not. They are only human, trying to be a type of some
sort of god, not
the God. The lyrics of some songs openly and/or subliminally
put rebellious
messages in the heads of people. Repetition makes someone think
about things
constantly and then act upon that thought which usually creates an
illegal
action. Outward messages make people do bad things knowingly, but they
aren't
in the correct state of mind and therefore have no idea what they do at
all.
Adrenaline comes forth from within the soul and people tend to go wild
and
have no care about anything. Rage Against The Machine says that no one
can tell
each other what to do in their song, "Killing in the Name." This
song
promotes anarchy and rebellion of all rules and makes peoples discontent
with
society come forth. Metallica tells people to "Exit light,
Enter
night" in their song "Enter Sandman." This song does not talk
about
sleeping but taking the dark side of life into life. Subliminal
messages
bring evils from within a person, which the person previously did
not have.
Subliminal messages brings our deepest thoughts out, without
even thinking. When
we hear something but, not aware of it, it makes our
minds think about it and
that is dangerous. Madonna's "Justify My Love" song
played backwards,
blatantly says, "I love Satan." Thousands of people heard
this on 98.1
WKQQ in Lexington, KY.; but still continue to listen to it
anyway. This pumps
into our heads and we like it because, "men will choose
darkness instead of
light." Heavy Metal and Hard Rock do not only break the
moral character,
but there exist others as well. Those who are softly padded
with the broken
hearts of people who have power over others and who, in fact,
make the rules.
Country music also has many songs which are not
acceptable, but they have
shields because of their soft tone and wholesome
looking artist. People still
have in their heads things that look good and
sound pleasant live approvable,
but Satan, a very smart guy will strike at
the most unexpected places. Garth
Brooks, who takes one of the leading
country singers right now, talks about an
affair and how it was approbated in
his song " The Thunder Rolls." And
people hear this and see a star doing that
and believe it's acceptable for them
as well. For example, watching parents
as a child, and everything they do, you
do. In addition Sammy Cershaw talks
about an affair in " Third Rate
Rendezvous." He doesn't care that he's
cheating on his wife and is actually
excited when he knows what he's doing to
his marriage and life. New Age music
offers innner-self as a substitute to
God. This means that the meditation of the
biblical times cannot be achieved
today and we tend to lose our respect for God
by trying it, because we
meditate on ourselves and not on Him. Meditation of the
new age music also
allows Satan to plant seeds in our heads that lead us further
and further
away from the truth. The new age music of harps and tiny nature like
sounds
of whales and dolphins and rain leads one to believe that they are alone
in
this world. It makes people think that they control their environment,
when
in fact only God does, not them. Indian and Monk chants actually make a
person
seemingly high through deep meditation. Meditation was originally
intended for
the pure thought of God, but with new age thoughts, we are
perverting it.
Censorship puts a cap on ungodly music and makes music a
good experience that is
productive and positive, rather than a negative one.
Music can be a tool in
which we may learn examples of life, just look at the
book of Psalms. In chapter
23 the whole chapter is called the Shepherds
Song and it is a song that we can
learn from. Stopping the flow of profanity
will make a person less inclined to
think about an action and furthermore,
less likely to act upon one. If a person
doesn't think about something, then
usually that person won't do it. When masses
of people are saying that it is
all right to do things that are wrong over a
period of time, people become
prone to the wrong doing and it suddenly becomes
part of the norm to them.
Even though it is still wrong, we don't even realize
it. Repetition makes a
mind think. To study for a test a person must read things
over and over again
to learn it. When we hear music we like, we listen to it
over and over again
to memorize and subconsciencously think about the words of
the song that
we're listening to. When people hear ungodly lyrics over and over,
they tend
to think like their surroundings and music is a part of that. After
hearing
and memorizing words people form their own ideals and make new religions
and
leave God forever. Also, people hear music far more than they read
the
Bible, and if the music is damaging to us then negative thoughts will
cloud out
the Biblical ones. Just like one negative number will make a
positive number
come down. Censorship offers a better society in general, in
which we can all
live in harmony and learn to respect music power. People
would respect the laws
more because there would be a definite decline of
ungodly things, acts and
thoughts with censorship we won't think on ungodly
things as much, therefore
have a better society. Fewer crimes would be
committed because there would be no
musicians telling the public to break
them or kill cops. People make musicians
their idols and want to do what
their idols say. With censorship we would learn
to meditate on the right
things. We would see the essence of music and learn to
see the total spectrum
of life rather than just our life. Good thoughts with
productive meaning
would flow through our heads. We would hear positive things
and make us think
about positive things in general. Christian music is a great
example of what
we should listen. People would learn to answer things with their
minds and
not their fists. People would think about positive ideas and
positive
outcomes to quarrels, that usually involved fighting or
"backstabbings."
Bibliography
Cole, Richard and Richard Trubo.
Stairway to Heaven, Led Zeppelin Uncensored.
1st ed. NY: Littletown,
1992. "James Hetfield." Rolling Stone 15th
April 1993: 56H. Landy,
Elliot. Woodstock Vision: The Spirit of a Generation.
NY: Seabury, 1991.
Milward, John. "Field of Dreams." Rolling Stone 11
August 1994: 36.
"Music"- America Online 1995. Comptons Encyclopedia.
Savage, Jon.
England's Dreaming: anarchy, Sex Pistols, punk rocks, and beyond.
New
York: Copper books, 1991. Young, Neil, The Rolling Stone Files: The
Ultimate
Compendium of Interviews, Articles, Facts and Opinions From the
Files of Rolling
Stone. NY. 1994. Censorship: The Music That Plagues
Us