"If you listen to heavy metal music, you're going to Hell!!!"
At least that's what I was told...
As a child of the 80s, I vividly recall the PMRC, American Family Association and the traveling sideshow of preachers who were going to save the youth from the evils of Rock and Roll music..
These groups managed to accomplish two things in my house growing up. They opened Mom and Dad’s eyes to the evil being forced on their children by the record companies and, at the same time, introduced me to some really good music.
OK…”good” might be a stretch, in some cases. “Entertaining” might be more appropriate.
Growing up, I had two uncles whose musical tastes influenced my choice in music. In fact, there were probably very few 7 year olds, other than me, who had KISS “Destroyer” on 8-track and Black Sabbath’s “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” on vinyl. My taste for this type of music continued to develop up until Jr. High when the AMA and PMRC opened America’s eyes to the evil inherent in rock-and-roll music. What did I learn?
1. KISS stood for “Knights in Satan’s Service”
2. RUSH stood for “Rise Under Satan’s Hand”
3. AC/DC stood for “Anti-Christ/Devil’s Children”
4. Led Zepplin’s “Stairway to Heaven”, if played backwards, praised Satan as did “Hotel California” and “2112”
5. Judas Priest and Ozzy Osbourne blatantly put subliminal message in their music which encouraged listeners to get the commit suicide. A couple kids even offed themselves and the parents filed suit.
All of this did not have the desired effect on me as it only strengthened my resolve to buy more AC/DC and Rush albums. Was it because I wanted to learn more about the dark powers of Satan? No. I just thought it would be an entertaining way of pissing off Mom and Dad….teen-aged rebellion and all.
As time has passed, my musical tastes have continued to include the “dark side” of rock and roll. Marilyn Manson and KORN still figure prominently in my CD collection, as do System of a Down, Disturbed, etc.
Considering all of the bands I have in my collection, if the music were as influential as it was always claimed to be, I’d likely be a depressed, drug-addicted, angry, America-hating Satanist. Considering there was even a time that I liked Erasure, Anything Box, etc., I may have also turned out gay.
Instead, I’m a good old Christian Republican boy who has a southern accent, loves his whiskey and NASCAR and owns a pick-up truck (not my daily driver, but still…). Never once have I listened to an entire Country album from start to finish…much to my wife’s chagrin.
And then there’s this little butt nugget whose taste for Christian music has obviously had zero influence on him (please note that hitting the little “Next Blog” box in the upper right-hand corner may well direct you to crap like that. Do so at your own peril.)
Does music have the ability to calm the savage beast and influence behavior? Sure as hell works on my kid. Works on me too. The day I’ve had often influences what CD I’ll listen to on the drive home. And if it was a bad day and I was just listening to Slipknot, I start beating my wife as soon as I walk through the door. JUST KIDDING!
Can lyrics in hard-rock music (which often times are unintelligible unless you have the liner notes with you) completely change your personality, mental state-of-mind, morals, values and belief system, while also causing you to do harm to yourselves and/or others? Perhaps, but only if you were really weak-minded in the first place. As callous as this seems, I’ve always thought that Ozzy and Judas Priest did the parents who sued them a favor. From a mental and intellectual standpoint, those kids had obviously already peaked.
Think I’ll listen to a little KORN on the drive home.
As a child of the 80s, I vividly recall the PMRC, American Family Association and the traveling sideshow of preachers who were going to save the youth from the evils of Rock and Roll music..
These groups managed to accomplish two things in my house growing up. They opened Mom and Dad’s eyes to the evil being forced on their children by the record companies and, at the same time, introduced me to some really good music.
OK…”good” might be a stretch, in some cases. “Entertaining” might be more appropriate.
Growing up, I had two uncles whose musical tastes influenced my choice in music. In fact, there were probably very few 7 year olds, other than me, who had KISS “Destroyer” on 8-track and Black Sabbath’s “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” on vinyl. My taste for this type of music continued to develop up until Jr. High when the AMA and PMRC opened America’s eyes to the evil inherent in rock-and-roll music. What did I learn?
1. KISS stood for “Knights in Satan’s Service”
2. RUSH stood for “Rise Under Satan’s Hand”
3. AC/DC stood for “Anti-Christ/Devil’s Children”
4. Led Zepplin’s “Stairway to Heaven”, if played backwards, praised Satan as did “Hotel California” and “2112”
5. Judas Priest and Ozzy Osbourne blatantly put subliminal message in their music which encouraged listeners to get the commit suicide. A couple kids even offed themselves and the parents filed suit.
All of this did not have the desired effect on me as it only strengthened my resolve to buy more AC/DC and Rush albums. Was it because I wanted to learn more about the dark powers of Satan? No. I just thought it would be an entertaining way of pissing off Mom and Dad….teen-aged rebellion and all.
As time has passed, my musical tastes have continued to include the “dark side” of rock and roll. Marilyn Manson and KORN still figure prominently in my CD collection, as do System of a Down, Disturbed, etc.
Considering all of the bands I have in my collection, if the music were as influential as it was always claimed to be, I’d likely be a depressed, drug-addicted, angry, America-hating Satanist. Considering there was even a time that I liked Erasure, Anything Box, etc., I may have also turned out gay.
Instead, I’m a good old Christian Republican boy who has a southern accent, loves his whiskey and NASCAR and owns a pick-up truck (not my daily driver, but still…). Never once have I listened to an entire Country album from start to finish…much to my wife’s chagrin.
And then there’s this little butt nugget whose taste for Christian music has obviously had zero influence on him (please note that hitting the little “Next Blog” box in the upper right-hand corner may well direct you to crap like that. Do so at your own peril.)
Does music have the ability to calm the savage beast and influence behavior? Sure as hell works on my kid. Works on me too. The day I’ve had often influences what CD I’ll listen to on the drive home. And if it was a bad day and I was just listening to Slipknot, I start beating my wife as soon as I walk through the door. JUST KIDDING!
Can lyrics in hard-rock music (which often times are unintelligible unless you have the liner notes with you) completely change your personality, mental state-of-mind, morals, values and belief system, while also causing you to do harm to yourselves and/or others? Perhaps, but only if you were really weak-minded in the first place. As callous as this seems, I’ve always thought that Ozzy and Judas Priest did the parents who sued them a favor. From a mental and intellectual standpoint, those kids had obviously already peaked.
Think I’ll listen to a little KORN on the drive home.
posted by Big Bad Dad at 4:06 PM
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