Lyrics Insite What?

3 Pages 762 Words

“The most controversial Lyrics in popular music reflect the violence and despair in an artist’s imagination or in society. But, they reflect it—they don’t create it.”- Hilary Rosen, President/CEO of the Recording Industry Assn.
It seems just as sure as tomorrow comes that the walls and boundaries of how freely and artist can express themselves through lyrics will keep getting pushed and shoved farther and farther, until anything goes rules and censors no longer exist. It’s a fact that the things that are accepted and tolerated as far as the music industries censor standards are not what they have been in the past. The things that artists wouldn’t dream about saying for the public to hear a few years ago are all very common now. And you don’t even need the CD; all you need is a radio.
However where is the line drawn now that cannot be crossed? When do we say when…? When music starts to take the blame as the driving force behind murder? Apparently not since that has already been the case in more than one instance, but why? Is music capable of driving someone to kill? Could the lyrics of a rock band or rap group really give a person all the elements needed to step over the edge, past the point of rational thinking and give total disregard for social values and human life…How could words be so powerful?
In a statement by Sen. Joseph Lieberman before the Governmental Affairs Committee, Lieberman made such comments as “lyrics in today’s music numb our youth to the consequences of violent acts, and cheapen the value of human life.”
Such controversial artists as Marilyn Manson and Eminem have come under fire more than once by figures such as Lieberman when their music was said to blame for such violent acts as the shootings at Columbine High School where Manson was reportedly said to be “top of the list” in the music the shooters listened to.
Also the suicide death of Richard Kuntz who was listening to one...