Realistic Ratings

6 Pages 1379 Words

Tanylle Casper
Realistic Ratings
After a long day at work, Tom’s mother walks in the door and down the hall to Toms room to let him know that she is home. As she approached his door she hears a streaming flow of foul language blaring out from under Toms door. She quickly opes her 12 year old’s door to find Tom, pants sagging with a bandana on his head, screaming out the lyrics of Eminem’s latest
album. She quickly turns off the thumping sound and asks Tom where he got the CD. He said
that he bought in on his way home from school with the money he earning mowing the lawn.
Music! What’s the big deal? Why should anyone care what an individual listens too?
Music can create a mood. When someone wants to relax he might listen to calm soothing music.
When someone is in a good mood, she could listen to upbeat top 40's music. When someone has
had a rough day where nothing thing goes right, she may crank up the heavy metal. Or when
someone is mad at the world he might throw in a rap cd. There is nothing wrong with just listening to music, but more often then not, that is not the case. Listening is not enough. People,especially young teens and pre-teens, want to look, act, sing, and dress like their favorite music star. Or, sometimes worse, they want to be the kind of people their idols are singing about.
The government has made the music industry put warning labels on cd’s with explicit lyrics, but they are vague, limited to explicit material, and still anyone may buy the cd. Cd’s should be rated like movies, and those rated “R” should not be sold to teens younger then 17 without adult supervision, because parents need an easily recognizable rating system to decide if the cd’s lyrics might adversely influence their teen.
Parents often throw up their hands and say ‘I can't always turn off the radio or monitor
what they're listening too,’ and they’re absolute...