When do you think music, artists, and lyrics go too far?
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| brown dress with white dots |
Are there certain artists or songs you won't listen to? Why? Are there things that are simply too offensive?
I'm not merely talking about the gratuitously explicit stuff
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How do you feel about songs that talk about suicide or dwell on death?
Songs that have misogynistic undertones?
Songs that speak casually about drugs?
(even my future husband, Ray Lamontagne, mentions cocaine in one of his songs.)
Would there ever be an artist you wouldn't listen to simply based on his or her beliefs/actions, like when people boycotted the Dixie Chicks after they openly criticized Bush?
Or do you consider it all noise?
What are your thoughts? Do the meanings of songs or the actions of their artists ever prompt you to change the station?
No judgement here, just curious!
-bRob
I was pretty much an punk kid in high school, and I now have quiet a bit of punk style music. You realize that songs that are overly sad get awkward to listen to when you put your itunes on shuffle when someone who didn't know you back in those days is in the room.
ReplyDeleteSo songs that make you feel depressed are kinda on my try not to listen to anymore. They have begun to just get me in a bad mood overall.
I think music's just to be enjoyed; it's not instructions on how to live, and if someone takes it as such, then there's a deeper problem than the song lyrics.
ReplyDelete"Ohne dich kann ich nicht sein" - Rammstein
("Without you I cannot be" for you non-germaners)
"Well, to cut a long story short, he got away with my snorkel / But I made a a solemn vow right then and there that I would not rest / I would not sleep for an instant until the one-nostrilled man was brought to justice / But first, I decided to buy some donuts" - Weird Al
"Do you even care if I die bleeding? / Would it be wrong, would it be right? / If I took my life tonight, / Chances are that I might / Mutilation out of sight / and I'm contemplating suicide" - Papa Roach
"In my thoughts and in my dreams / They're always in my mind / These songs of hobbits, dwarves and men / And elves / Come close your eyes / You can see them, too" - Blind Guardian
There's such a variety of stuff in music, you'd have to be nuts to take all of it seriously.
I'm an atheist, but I still listen to/sing along with stuff like Spirit in the Sky (Norman Greenbaum) if it comes on the radio, and I'm going caroling with Garrett and Adam and others around christmas. Music's just for enjoying.
i like some songs because of the music and it makes me sad when they turn out to be about really not cool things - like that foster the people song that sounds good but is about a sort of violent topic.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mollywolly. I always start liking a song based on how it sounds, then later find out it's about losing your passport in a strip club while doing cocaine. I don't generally stop listening to a song if the lyrics are something I don't agree with, but I will if it could cause me to think things I shoudln't (like a song that's overtly sexual).
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of musicians write lyrics as a form of therapy, and it's really interesting to listen to what they have to say, even if it's a bit more melodramatic or violent than I would usually be.