Bad words in songs?

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nar48

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Hi There!

Is it okay to listen to music that has a few bad words (or negative words) and/or a bit more detailed description of love?

The songs I am directly referring to are:

The Other Side from The Greatest Showman “Oh! D*** can’t you see I’m doing fine?”

I’m Yours (Jason Mraz), “I tried to be chill, but you’re so hot that I melted…Open up your plans and d*** you’re free…scooch on closser…nibble your ear.”

Thinking Out Loud (Ed Sheeran), “Will your mouth still remember the taste of my love…Kiss me under the light of a thousand stars”

Escape My Mind (Grace Vanderwaal.) “I hate you 'cause I’ve always…”

The only cuss word in two of these songs is d***, which I feel like in the realm of bad words is one of the least bad ones. Although, I would never use it while speaking or singing.

These are the ones I’m referring to, but if I come across any songs that have a similar issue, it would be nice to know how to judge if I should listen to it.

Thank you!

God Bless,
Noah
 
Man, you really named some sinful things. Though not for the reason you think. Sheeran? Grace? that is grave matter.

My kids love the greatest showman soundtrack we listen often as we home school.

That being said I was raised on Tupac, NWA, Snoop, etc…

What bothers me in music is the Lord’s name in vain. Other words don’t bother me. If a troublesome word or subject comes up I either substitute something not so bad in my head or I simply move on to the next song on the playlist.

Ed Sheeran… I’,m not even sure a priest can absolve that… But you could try confessing it like this…
“Father I was an accomplice in murder” I stood by and listened while my buddy ed completely murdered music. I did nothing, I only listened in horror. "

But be prepared for some serious penance. Like listening to T swizzel for an hour…
 
in our house. “Alexa play clean music”
or “alexa Play clean version” or “Alexa play buble” are acceptable filters.
 
Yeah, probably some scrupulosity. 😁
Thank you for saying, so, though. It helps a lot. 😁

Lol. Okay. Although I don’t completely agree with everything you said Hoosier-Daddy, I do see your point. Thank you.
 
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Bad words are always bad words. It doesn’t matter if you’re a kid or an adult.
 
Try listening to Medieval / Renaissance secular music. The King’s Noyse ensemble has some “interesting” stuff in their repertoire. “If ever I have a man, blew(blue) cap for me” comes to mind. I won’t describe, but anyone with any familiarity with certain aspects of life will recognize what is being referenced in various ways.

Way back in the day during undergraduate school, I went to a concert with Paul O’Dette (lute) and Ellen Hargis (soprano) performing early music. The graphic nature of the lyrics put modern hip-hop/rap/etc. to shame, instead of just repeating one word again and again, they get quite creative. I’m sure that the Southern Baptist crowd would have shown up waiving their Bibles frantically in the air if they realized what the college had sponsored.

See also: Pentangle. Not exactly “authentic” early music, but they have some rather risque parts of their repertoire.

Don’t forget “The Song of Songs” found in the Bible itself. Teasing apart some of the lines in there leads to some “interesting” content.

If that’s the worst stuff you listen to, sheesh …
 
nar48 said:
The Other Side from The Greatest Showman “Oh! D*** can’t you see I’m doing fine?”
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I LOVE this song. When I first heard it I was just listening to something that was talking about Jesus calling Peter and reflecting on my own calling to follow Christ. I thought about how he was calling me “to the other side” and wanted to “cut me free”. Of course not all of the song works on that point, but it makes me smile.

As for the language…I once heard that a Hebrew swear work exists in one of the OT prophetic books when God is describing the terrible sins of Israel and his righteous anger at them. The word is translated in modern Bibles as “dung” but the context was much more severe than that translation suggests. Forgive me for not being able to be more precise. I heard this in Bible college over 10 years ago. Swears can be a POWERFUL literary device, and in music it can emphasize thoughts. My biggest beef with the overuse of certain swears in our culture is the loss of what can be poetic language for emphasis. In this case, it’s emphasizing the severity of the statements “oh, d***, suddenly you’re free to fly!” And “can’t you see I’m doing fine.” In order to communicate the point without throwing off the flow of the song. It’s not directed at a person, it’s not insulting, and is used for emphasis. Now, I would argue this isn’t a good way to speak in day to day life because swears have a habit of breaking out when we don’t want them to…but no I don’t see anything wrong at all with it’s use in an artistic sense. I’d argue that although the word isn’t strictly speaking “polite”, it’s not in the strictest sense a “profanity”. It doesn’t refer to anything overtly sexual, crude, and in this song it is not spoken to curse another person.

Just my two cents. But I also love the song…so I admit my bias.
 
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is it okay to listen to them? Well, you have ears. I have ears. Thus, you are going to listen to something anyways. Invited or not to your eardrums. But, do you court with these words in your heart everyday? Or is it simply you like the song, but the lyrics can sometimes be offensive. Do you take pleasure in the bad words?

If you take pleasure with them, then you apply no differently to yourself that as those who continuously place nicotine into their body as a smoker would. I’m not putting down tobacco smoking. I’m illustrating the consequence of nicotine that comes with it.

Thus, as long as you welcome bad words, you invite it. And if you take delight and pleasure in those words, then you delight something bad. A strange illusion indeed. To make something bad feel good.

But suppose you do not like these offensive words. Yet, enjoy the rest of the music. It is a hard world.

You can ignore the words, rebuff them. And not take any importance or attention to them. Or if you are sensitive of them, then I’d stop listening to the song.

Might be worth looking this Lent into your own soul. How you habituate and house into your heart. If you give words comfort into your heart, then it’s going to play on your perception. Suppose you enjoy really bad words in a song. Or just simply accept them. But, you are with a friend who you enjoy more than the song. But suddenly he or she says a really bad word. Maybe the B-Word. Like many songs. And he or she calls you that. Playing or not. You suddenly take offense. But then you let it side for friendship’s sake. But as time progresses, your friend becomes friendlier to other swear words. It then suddenly turns into a bar fight.

I’d advise against adopting songs with those words. Since they will play a large part into your soul. Becoming hospital to them.
 
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nar48 said:
The Other Side from The Greatest Showman “Oh! D*** can’t you see I’m doing fine?”
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My pre-teen daughter and niece had this conversation about this song. They decided that they can either just skip the word when singing along with it, or substitute “darn” or “dang”. 🙂

But, yeah, I think you’re being a bit scrupulous.
 
Joe_5859 said:
My pre-teen daughter and niece had this conversation about this song. They decided that they can either just skip the word when singing along with it, or substitute “darn” or “dang”. 🙂
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Growing up, my parents forbade “by words” like darn or heck or shoot in their home. They said “you might as well just say the other word”.
 
So said the devil when painting the picture to eat the fruit which God forbade.
 
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