Essay, Research Paper: Violence In Music

In today s society music plays a big role. Whether you are in your car driving home, at work in the office, or even on the telephone on hold waiting for someone to pick up, you will probably be listening to music. The problem is not how much music we listen to but how much of the violent or obscene lyrics the children are hearing. Many children are influenced by those lyrics just like they are influenced by violence on television. Especially nowadays with MTV and VH1, they can hear as well as see the violence in the music. For example, a well-known concert in New York called Woodstock was set fire as a result of crazy music fans. This was shown on national television to anyone capable of watching. And not only does the music effect children, it also has an effect on unstable teenagers who try to mirror their lives after their favorite singer or group.
The purpose of this survey is to find out if radio and music videos should be censored. I polled twelve people ranging in age from sixteen to forty-five and I made four different categories: male, female, have children, or do not have children. Six people have kids and six people do not have kids.
Some people think that the Columbine shooting in Colorado was related to the crazy antics of Marylyn Manson but only a forth of the people I polled thought that he had an impact on the two students who did the shooting. Every one of these people is a student themselves. I then asked why they thought that. One girl said, His lyrics are inappropriate and the way he acts on stage is an outrage. A twenty-year-old who thought Marylyn Manson had no effect whatsoever said, He is only a singer and I think people know that. So the question is, should music on the radio and on TV be censored the same way as TV shows are? Well, half of the people polled said yes, it should be censored. These were the people who have children themselves. They think the obscene language in today s music is violating their children. They also think that if listened to too long it will have an effect on their child. A mother of two said, The music videos I ve seen are very upsetting to me. If my children see this they will want to be like that person and try to mimic what they do. The other half of the people said that music has absolutely no bad impact on children or teenagers.
I then wanted to find out which of the types of music people think is the most violent. I broke the types of music into five categories: rap, r & b, rock, alternative, and country. Eight people said they think rap is the most violent type of music. A forty-three-year-old man said, Rap is just a way of convicts telling their story and making money off it. Its crazy! Two people polled think that rock is the worst and another two people think alternative is the most violent. No one, however, thinks r & b or country is the most violent, which I can agree with. I do think some country songs are violent they just don t sound as bad because the instrumental part of country songs seem very clean and innocent.
Violence effects everyone but is the worst when it effects children and teenagers. At early stages in life people tend to mimic what they see and hear the most. Violence is the last thing we would want our children to copy but is available in abundance. We wouldn t have to worry as much about issues such as these if people would stop killing and stealing. Music and violence will always go together so our society will just have to learn to accept it.