Saturday, April 19, 2008
"Frank Sinatra Said Rock Was 'Phony,' But I Still Think He's All Right"
The Legacy of Fear is an idea that states when a form of media becomes new, it is only a matter of time before parents become concerned about its social implications, and how it will affect children. It seems like even though society evolves, and new things become acceptable, one thread remains the same: the idea that a new form of entertainment can threaten the livelihood of our culture, including our attitudes, behaviors, and values. Pop music is no exception, but as we can see, the same fears in respect to rock 'n' roll's hitting the mainstream also came into the light with the Goth and dark wave movements, the punk scene, metal, then rap, and now more than ever, hip-hop.
One of the most fascinating ideas to me about this phenomenon, being new music, societal change, and society's reaction, is how complex it truly is. Music is a product of our culture, and our culture is a product of its influences. Even that is an oversimplification, because though some things remain the same, and themes regarding traditionalist thinking versus progressive go back and forth, things do go forward.
An interesting change that has taken place is the shift from adults having their own music, and having more influence over their children, to a consumer-culture where children are marketed music. Artists want to stay young, keep their audiences young, and keep making money, while parents just want to stay hip for as long as they can. And above all, music is fun for everybody. It eases drives in traffic after an eight-hour workday for adults. It makes bus rides more bearable for kids who would be completely bored without their ipods, and on weekends it gives everybody something to do: dance.
Also noteworthy is the idea of racial and other cultural tensions among audiences and critics of music. The Chicago Defender noted that Asa Carter, head of the North Alabama White Citizens Council said in the early stages of rock 'n' roll that it was "nothing but a plot by the NAACP to lower American youth's morals."
Critics also tried to marginalize members of the Gothic counterculture after the Columbine shootings, because the shooters had been wearing trench coats and were said to have listened to Marilyn Manson. A 17-year-old student at Berkeley High School observed this when she said, "It's always society's solution to blame something other than itself. They just want a scapegoat."
As a side-note, the story of the Goths dodging blame for the Columbine shootings sounded familiar, because in another class, we also explored the possibility of violence in video games being responsible, since the assailants were recorded to have been fans of Doom, a popular first-person shooter game from the time.
I believe parents fear the influence that music has on their children as much as they fear the impact of so many other countless things their children will be exposed to, and the idea that it is outside of their control. Studies have shown that even putting ratings on games and TV shows and movies isn't enough to stop kids from consuming them; in fact, it is thought by communication theorists that these ratings prohibiting children from viewing certain films have an alluring effect.
Then again, maybe parents are as much afraid of growing up as they are of allowing their children to grow up. They want to listen to the same music, and not change the radio station when things that might be inappropriate for children are being said, such as women being called derogatory names, or people singing about committing violence, they should understand that the world is not the same as it used to be, if only in the sense that the lyrics tend to be much more explicit, and children do pick up on their meaning.
Also, we're in an age we're people tend to consume multiple kinds of media simultaneously. If a child is watching MTV, they might see racy images. At the same time, they are digesting words I know I didn't hear in music twenty years ago.
And so, there is this ongoing notion that is constantly debated, on Oprah, on the Internet, and on the radio, that someone has to take responsibility for this. But it is a complex issue that I believe would involve education, more than just censorship or placing blame on artists, record labels, or parents.
My parents and I never fought about music in my life. I don't recall any conflicts taking place between them and my sisters, either. This is for several reasons. First, I grew up listening to music, and my mother was a musician, so it was always accepted. Second, we had rules, which had more to do with not playing anything super loud and disturbing everyone else, rather than what you were actually listening to. And third, my parents are young. I remember riding in a car when I was a kid, and my mom was single and in her 20s, and she was listening to pop music, like The Police, Hall and Oates, Eurythmics, Tina Turner, and Phil Collins. On second thought, maybe my influence in choosing music when I became older was also pretty tame.
As for my dad, he's a little younger than my mother, and he still loves to rock out. He will turn a Green Day song up in his truck and drum his thumbs on the steering wheel. He'll buy the new Disturbed album and turn it up so you can hear it in the whole house and it'll leak out while he's playing in his garden in the backyard. But the bottom line, though, is they gave me the space to make choices concerning what music I would listen to, and there was some kind of trust there in the sense that my sisters and I would know what was real and what was not, regardless of what our stereo was playing.
The Legacy of Fear is an idea that states when a form of media becomes new, it is only a matter of time before parents become concerned about its social implications, and how it will affect children. It seems like even though society evolves, and new things become acceptable, one thread remains the same: the idea that a new form of entertainment can threaten the livelihood of our culture, including our attitudes, behaviors, and values. Pop music is no exception, but as we can see, the same fears in respect to rock 'n' roll's hitting the mainstream also came into the light with the Goth and dark wave movements, the punk scene, metal, then rap, and now more than ever, hip-hop.
One of the most fascinating ideas to me about this phenomenon, being new music, societal change, and society's reaction, is how complex it truly is. Music is a product of our culture, and our culture is a product of its influences. Even that is an oversimplification, because though some things remain the same, and themes regarding traditionalist thinking versus progressive go back and forth, things do go forward.
An interesting change that has taken place is the shift from adults having their own music, and having more influence over their children, to a consumer-culture where children are marketed music. Artists want to stay young, keep their audiences young, and keep making money, while parents just want to stay hip for as long as they can. And above all, music is fun for everybody. It eases drives in traffic after an eight-hour workday for adults. It makes bus rides more bearable for kids who would be completely bored without their ipods, and on weekends it gives everybody something to do: dance.
Also noteworthy is the idea of racial and other cultural tensions among audiences and critics of music. The Chicago Defender noted that Asa Carter, head of the North Alabama White Citizens Council said in the early stages of rock 'n' roll that it was "nothing but a plot by the NAACP to lower American youth's morals."
Critics also tried to marginalize members of the Gothic counterculture after the Columbine shootings, because the shooters had been wearing trench coats and were said to have listened to Marilyn Manson. A 17-year-old student at Berkeley High School observed this when she said, "It's always society's solution to blame something other than itself. They just want a scapegoat."
As a side-note, the story of the Goths dodging blame for the Columbine shootings sounded familiar, because in another class, we also explored the possibility of violence in video games being responsible, since the assailants were recorded to have been fans of Doom, a popular first-person shooter game from the time.
I believe parents fear the influence that music has on their children as much as they fear the impact of so many other countless things their children will be exposed to, and the idea that it is outside of their control. Studies have shown that even putting ratings on games and TV shows and movies isn't enough to stop kids from consuming them; in fact, it is thought by communication theorists that these ratings prohibiting children from viewing certain films have an alluring effect.
Then again, maybe parents are as much afraid of growing up as they are of allowing their children to grow up. They want to listen to the same music, and not change the radio station when things that might be inappropriate for children are being said, such as women being called derogatory names, or people singing about committing violence, they should understand that the world is not the same as it used to be, if only in the sense that the lyrics tend to be much more explicit, and children do pick up on their meaning.
Also, we're in an age we're people tend to consume multiple kinds of media simultaneously. If a child is watching MTV, they might see racy images. At the same time, they are digesting words I know I didn't hear in music twenty years ago.
And so, there is this ongoing notion that is constantly debated, on Oprah, on the Internet, and on the radio, that someone has to take responsibility for this. But it is a complex issue that I believe would involve education, more than just censorship or placing blame on artists, record labels, or parents.
My parents and I never fought about music in my life. I don't recall any conflicts taking place between them and my sisters, either. This is for several reasons. First, I grew up listening to music, and my mother was a musician, so it was always accepted. Second, we had rules, which had more to do with not playing anything super loud and disturbing everyone else, rather than what you were actually listening to. And third, my parents are young. I remember riding in a car when I was a kid, and my mom was single and in her 20s, and she was listening to pop music, like The Police, Hall and Oates, Eurythmics, Tina Turner, and Phil Collins. On second thought, maybe my influence in choosing music when I became older was also pretty tame.
As for my dad, he's a little younger than my mother, and he still loves to rock out. He will turn a Green Day song up in his truck and drum his thumbs on the steering wheel. He'll buy the new Disturbed album and turn it up so you can hear it in the whole house and it'll leak out while he's playing in his garden in the backyard. But the bottom line, though, is they gave me the space to make choices concerning what music I would listen to, and there was some kind of trust there in the sense that my sisters and I would know what was real and what was not, regardless of what our stereo was playing.
Labels: College, Music, Sociology
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