Lyrics Essay, Research Paper

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.” Work Cited 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