If you're holding the microphone....

by onintwo 9 Replies latest jw friends

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  onintwo

  Last nite my 20 year old son and I got into a debate about rap music. We were watching a show about Eminem. I stated that it seemed like this guy sings about some pretty destructive things. And that kinda started a good healthy exchange, bit nothing too serious. But he is making the point that these guys are all about their "art". (he's a musician himself)

  So we get into it, and I'm trying to state that if you make racist, sexist, violent comments, you probably have a greater degree of responsibility because you really don't personally know your audience. More so than say, the guy who maybe tells his friends an off color joke. Racist or otherwise. At least the joke teller knows his listeners (presumably) and their sensitivites, and they also know what he's all about, so there's less worry about how someone may take something.

  But an eleven to fourteen year old kind might not know how to handle certain things. I would hate to think some kid commited suicide, or a violent crime, because of anything I may have said.

  Yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theatre is still against the law as far as I know, even though we have free speech in this country. So my point was we have to consider how what we say might be taken by the hearers. Basically, you're holding a microphone and reaching 50 million kids.

  We both agreed to consider the other persons point. But I wouldn't mind hearing from other young persons about this topic.

  Onintwo
• 

  Elsewhere

  I'm of the oppinion that violent lyrics to not cause non-violent people to become violent... I believe that people who enjoy and act out violent lyrics are already predisposed to such behaviors and actually search out music that "speaks" to them.

  Listening to and enjoying violent music is a symptom of a problem that is already there.
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  Badger

  If your kid in influenced to act based on something Eminem has said, You're not doing your job as a parent.

  I've played Grand Theft Auto, listened to NWA and watched Scarface, and I haven't killed anyone (yet)
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  onintwo

  Great comments you guys, but how about this. I agree that emotionally mature persons that have mental health, say, at least 90%, no problem. But let's talk about persons who are borderline.

  Here's an illustration. Say a three year old child is standing on a bridge. You walk up to it and tell it "hey, doesn't that water down there look smooth? Wouldn't it be cool if you jumped into it? Bet that'd cool you off, afterall it's pretty hot today. My friend did, just yesterday, and he said it was the best thing he ever did", blah, blah, blah. You get the point. Sure as kids get older, they'd just tell you to **ck off, but how about a child? Point being, ...any suggestion from an older person can influence some persons. Maybe they're not three years old, but maybe they're unbalanced, depressed, suicidal, etc.

  Don't you believe that entertainers have any responsibilities? (with regard to their message?)

  Badger, it's true, parents should be the most influential and best guide for kids. But guess what, when kids are reaching adolescence, the absolute last person they're hearing is their mom and dad. They're listening to their peers, friends and entertainment figures. That's a natural part of growing up and leaving the nest. Too bad many kids live in disfunctional homes with missing-in-action parents.

  Onintwo
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  blondie

  Sometimes the person holding the microphone can have an influence on people.....Adolph Hitler....but then Winston Churchill....it can be a tool for good or for bad.

  Blondie
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  Euphemism

  There was a time when I frowned on Eminem. That was before I started fully facing up to what I experienced as a child. What I went through was nowhere near as horrible as what many inner-city youths go through, or what a lot of people on this site have gone through. But it was enough to help me understand the need that some people have to express pure, unadulterated rage.

  There are people (e.g. individuals with Asperger's Syndrome) who have extreme sensitivities to touch and to sound. If most of us were as sensitive as they are, the world would be a very different place. But we simply can't design the whole world for the sensitive few. Nor can we restrict all art because of those whom it might affect.
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  got my forty homey?

  I grew up in the Ghetto (Lower East Side NYC). I have been listening to rap music since the age of 12 and I still listen to it, altough it's not the only thing I listen to. And I have found that rap music is just urban poetic fantasy. Just like a poem I read in Junior High School about a "Jabberwocky" a monster that filled someone's head with nightmare's or the Headless Horseman of Tarrytown. Man has always had a evil dark side to him and rap music is that for urban youth. Its an escape from the reality which someone who is does not relate to will never understand.

  Even though I don't live in a Ghettho anymore and would even be considered a "professional" I still love my rap music cause it fulfills a fanstasy for me in my mind that I relate to growing up as a kid in a tough envirement.

  Hip Hop has swept through out the world, you have japanese kids acting like thier from the toughest areas in the US where rap music comes from.
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  seeitallclearlynow

  I am unable to enjoy rap music generally and I hate explicit lyrics.

  However, my son introduced me to Eminem, and of course now I love him. It was very hard to watch his movie 8 Mile when my son brought it home, but I got through most of it.

  I just feel for him in view of his upbringing and he has a specially talented style of rap.
• 

  r51785

  The only thing that I know about M&M is that I enjoy his candy, especially the peanut ones.

  Onintwo, do you play Ping ISI's?
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  Nosferatu

  Eminem sucks. Rap music was a phase I went through in high school. I used to listen to Wreckx-N-Effect, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Cypress Hill, House Of Pain, Maestro Fresh-Wes, etc etc. I still pull out the albums once in a while and recapture the teenage years, but I pretty much stay away from newer stuff.

  Then there's the band Jet...... Kick Ass!!!