Agree with the above quotation ? Do you think the music industry has an moral obligation towards customers as young as 8 years ?
S6 pupil, Tabitha Stevens, has submitted the following article outlining a growing trend. Feel free to comment.
S6 pupil, Tabitha Stevens, has submitted the following article outlining a growing trend. Feel free to comment.
“Music is a Moral Law”
Explicit behaviour isn’t just on the screen. It’s everywhere, in some form or another. It’s in adverts, top shelf magazines, Facebook, for all to access when they like. But now it’s in the latest purchase your daughter made on iTunes and the song your Granny just listened to on the radio. It’s in Music – conveyed through sneakily explicit lyrics and sung by the young talents of the 21st Century.
Songs of such sort are played in public areas for everyone to hear and are exploiting the idea that extreme behaviour is socially acceptable. For some people it is, but not for the majority of the artists’ fans who are in fact between the delicate and innocent ages of 8 and 14 years old. Each of whom will be going through a time of change and self discovery while under a lot of pressure from our society to be ‘cool’. It’s a time when they need someone to look up to; someone who inspires them; a role model; the people who have the defined cheek bones and jaw line, luscious lips and swish hair and the vivid attitude.
Celebrities are the ones who are providing the music industry with songs promoting casual sex, alcohol, drug use and the greed for money. They are the role models for your child; their influence encourages them to mirror their own behaviour. They look up to singers who’s daily routine supposedly involves ‘brushing their teeth with a bottle of "Jack" (Kesha, pictured right) and others who ‘twerk’ while pulling a face which makes them look as though their tongue is in a constant battle with gravity (Miley pictured top). They preach what all parents will damn.
Explicit behaviour isn’t just on the screen. It’s everywhere, in some form or another. It’s in adverts, top shelf magazines, Facebook, for all to access when they like. But now it’s in the latest purchase your daughter made on iTunes and the song your Granny just listened to on the radio. It’s in Music – conveyed through sneakily explicit lyrics and sung by the young talents of the 21st Century.
Songs of such sort are played in public areas for everyone to hear and are exploiting the idea that extreme behaviour is socially acceptable. For some people it is, but not for the majority of the artists’ fans who are in fact between the delicate and innocent ages of 8 and 14 years old. Each of whom will be going through a time of change and self discovery while under a lot of pressure from our society to be ‘cool’. It’s a time when they need someone to look up to; someone who inspires them; a role model; the people who have the defined cheek bones and jaw line, luscious lips and swish hair and the vivid attitude.
Celebrities are the ones who are providing the music industry with songs promoting casual sex, alcohol, drug use and the greed for money. They are the role models for your child; their influence encourages them to mirror their own behaviour. They look up to singers who’s daily routine supposedly involves ‘brushing their teeth with a bottle of "Jack" (Kesha, pictured right) and others who ‘twerk’ while pulling a face which makes them look as though their tongue is in a constant battle with gravity (Miley pictured top). They preach what all parents will damn.
This rebellion is becoming a fashion, the social ‘norm’ for our generation.
But surely this sort of behaviour has been normal for all teenagers in the past? Did our parents not have fun? It was back in the 1970’s when the phrase ‘sex, drugs and rock and roll’ was brought to light. So what is the difference between them and us? Apart from the fact that our generation’s slogan has stooped to ‘selfies, twerking and really dumb singers’. The only difference is Pop Culture and the amount of pressure it puts on people to believe that the lifestyles of these celebrities is what we should all strive for and if you can't have their exotic life then ‘YOLO’, do what you like, no one but you should care. This isn’t the way to go, especially as these are the children who have the future of this earth in the palm of their hands.
Jimi Hendrix believed that “Music doesn’t lie. If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music”. Recent music isn’t changing us for the better. We are missing out on the bands of the late 20th century who sang about passion and life at its best from their own experiences and with a poetic beauty which wasn’t classed as ‘uncool’ because the listeners appreciated the feeling in the lyrics.
If we were given more of an opportunity to open up to other aspects of our vast musical culture, for example, classical music, and not just listen to their favourite bootified chick or wannabe preppy boy band… they may just find that this variety gives them a bigger insight into who they want to be and in the many ways they can develop themselves as individuals.
There is a great importance in the quality of music, in how it can shape someone’s character, or even change their life. As the Greek philosopher Plato said;
‘Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.’
Dear parents, if you disagree, you may end up with a brain-washed groupie as a mental replacement for your son or daughter.
So switch the radio channel once in a while and forbid your darlings from switching it back to Kiss FM.
Tabitha Stevens, S6
But surely this sort of behaviour has been normal for all teenagers in the past? Did our parents not have fun? It was back in the 1970’s when the phrase ‘sex, drugs and rock and roll’ was brought to light. So what is the difference between them and us? Apart from the fact that our generation’s slogan has stooped to ‘selfies, twerking and really dumb singers’. The only difference is Pop Culture and the amount of pressure it puts on people to believe that the lifestyles of these celebrities is what we should all strive for and if you can't have their exotic life then ‘YOLO’, do what you like, no one but you should care. This isn’t the way to go, especially as these are the children who have the future of this earth in the palm of their hands.
Jimi Hendrix believed that “Music doesn’t lie. If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music”. Recent music isn’t changing us for the better. We are missing out on the bands of the late 20th century who sang about passion and life at its best from their own experiences and with a poetic beauty which wasn’t classed as ‘uncool’ because the listeners appreciated the feeling in the lyrics.
If we were given more of an opportunity to open up to other aspects of our vast musical culture, for example, classical music, and not just listen to their favourite bootified chick or wannabe preppy boy band… they may just find that this variety gives them a bigger insight into who they want to be and in the many ways they can develop themselves as individuals.
There is a great importance in the quality of music, in how it can shape someone’s character, or even change their life. As the Greek philosopher Plato said;
‘Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.’
Dear parents, if you disagree, you may end up with a brain-washed groupie as a mental replacement for your son or daughter.
So switch the radio channel once in a while and forbid your darlings from switching it back to Kiss FM.
Tabitha Stevens, S6