Outlaw the music
Claiming that music, and musical tastes, are subjective matters, it should follow that nobody has any say over what one listens to, be that ’somebody’ individuals, religious authorities, or the law.
With the music scene bursting with new performers, some of whom are alleged singers, it gets more challenging to get what one wants from one’s potential CD collection. It’s a world of choices, a gala of trials-and-errors, and with those CDs not selling cheap, making the decision is all the more tantalizing.
Music affects lives. It could make you cry on a lonely night, send your hips swaying, or calm your senses. In some cases, it could inspire you to kill your school buddies at Columbine High School and shout ‘Marilyn Manson Rules’. Music could preach violence, suicide, and hatred. It could even market drugs and crime, and glorify thugs. That’s Trick Trick Ft. Eminem’s new ‘Welcome to Detroit’; Quick come pick me up, bring them guns , Come to the club, meet me out front.
But then again, what you put in your ears is your own business, is it not?
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
January 5th, 2006 at 3:36 pm
I was a punk rocker as a kid so I listened to all types. Music may enhance feelings in people, but it doesnt make them.
January 5th, 2006 at 5:06 pm
Sure it is, as long as it’s out of my ears ;-)
Really, there should be some restrictions on music. I mean, you can’t just let music marketing drugs and crime be sold just like any other type of music; it will just bring chaos to the community. Imagine an 8 year old listening to this kind of music, what kinda of a man he would grow to be!! Even “Parent Advisory” on the CD cover won’t prevent him from listening to (or let’s say “hearing”) it. He could easily hear it from TV, Radio, or even a car passing in the street.
January 5th, 2006 at 7:39 pm
I differ with Abu Sinan on this one. As a teen, I was listening to Bad Company, Rolling Stones, Led Zep, Grateful Dead, and it all formed my value system and propelled me into the sex-drugs and rock-n-roll lifestyle before I even had the maturity to reason well.
Garbage in, garbage out. Lyrics memorized to music become a part of the thought process it’s not neutral. If the lyrics are against your personal value system, don’t listen. whhoops, guess you can tell that is a hot button for me! end of lecture :)
January 5th, 2006 at 8:06 pm
Are we talking about songs or music???
I LOVE Arabic songs, not the new songs no, the real Arabic ones. I listen to songs composed by Mohammad Abdelwahhab and Kathem Essaer.
But if we are talking about music, I like Johann Strauss Jr.
Whatever, I think that you are totally right about what you said about music and songs effects…
January 5th, 2006 at 9:35 pm
I think it’s ultimately a matter of personal tastes, therefore censorship just won’t do. You cannot control the music, let alone control what people listen to even if it wasn’t music in the strict sense of the word.
Some music promotes “debatable” values, but having masses listening to it means it says something.
January 6th, 2006 at 4:08 am
but after all, the guy didnt lie…. marilyn manson RulEz :D
his songs are deep and cool, but honestly i find it odd that i see marilyn manson on your favorite music list…. well, u seem a little religious! :S
marilyn manson is a real satanist after all!
January 6th, 2006 at 10:29 am
Devil’s Mind,
No Labels, remember?
January 6th, 2006 at 2:03 pm
Have a good time
January 6th, 2006 at 9:40 pm
[quote]Devil’s Mind,
No Labels, remember?[/quote]
a diplomatic answer :S i am not sure what you are objecting about, because i dont see myself violating the “no labels” policy. but u know, not all people listen to marilyn manson because they like his philosophy, thats what i am trying to figure out.
January 6th, 2006 at 10:13 pm
Not objecting to anything but I don’t subscribe to the “u seem a little religious” bit. I like Manson’s music, and I like his attitude, not to mention his visual art! I should add that I listen to him almost on a daily basis. Go figure, label stickers, eh?
January 7th, 2006 at 12:05 am
i think there is some misunderstanding of my point. allow me to go off-topic, in the defence of labelling, although i am not an advocate for that.
how do you know what something is without a label?!
i think labelling is good in idealized contexts, but abused (and abusive) in practice…
sorry again for going off-topic!
finally, i said “u seem a little religious” because, i saw “the holy quran” in ur favorite books. i understand that liking any book, song, or otherwise doesnt qualify to make such conclusions, thats why i was asking….
January 7th, 2006 at 9:22 pm
… censorship just won’t do
Indeed. Glancing through my music collection, I see things that most other people would not even consider “music” as such (and I am not exaggerating). Why should it be left to someone else — in the case of censorship, some dull, grey bureaucrat — to decide what’s appropriate for me?
After all, what I put in my own ears should be my own business, should it not? :)
January 8th, 2006 at 4:37 pm
I dont like Manson? Why? Because he likes to bill himself as something new. As an “old school” punker, I know he is about 15 years too late! All of the things he does have been done long before he came into the scene.
Check out a lot of bands out there in the death punk and gothic scene, Bauhaus, Alien Sex Fiend, and most especially Christian Death.
The lead singer was a guy name Rozz Williams. I got into them in the early 80s. I remember seeing Christian Death play in Tempe Arizona about 14 years ago. Rozz Williams showed up on stage in a leather teddy, leather knee high stilletos, and full make up, with hair dyed black. He is(or was before he committed suicide) a man.
The songs deal with subject material that Manson now uses, although the music and the lyrics are much better than anything Manson has done.
He is pretty much riding on the coat skirts of other people. He did the things he did in America when it was okay, even cool, to do so. Compare this to people like Rozz Williams who did these things in the USA when they were completely unacceptable, marked you out as a freak, and a target for violence.
The best Christian Death album is “Only Theatre of Pain.” I suggest you try it out and see that people were doing what Manson was doing, but 2o years ago, and MUCH better.
January 8th, 2006 at 11:23 pm
One could make the argument that none of the early goth-ish groups that you mention were really doing anything particularly original either. They copped the “glam” look, made it a little darker, and sang lyrics about stuff that Throbbing Gristle’d been going over for years, not to mention the Velvet Underground the Stooges or Suicide.
Andrew Eldritch from The Sisters of Mercy, for instance, has made very explicit his band’s early debt to the Stooges. And heck, Bauhaus even covered “Ziggy Stardust” and Eno’s “Third Uncle,” so it’s not like they’re making their influences any kind of a secret.
Just like Marilyn Manson, the early 1980’s goth scene did not arise ex nihilo. They borrowed from what came before and expanded their sonic palette from there, which is essentially what Marilyn Manson has done.