Secular Music

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Two words: **Ban Rap! :hmmm:**Oh wait, that’s not really music anyway… never mind…

Peace.
 
I’m a frustrated industrial, and darkwave fan.😦
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have you heard ‘mortal’ or ‘under midnight’?

mortal is one of my fav bands of all time. VERY hard industrial sound - but some of THE best lyrics i’ve ever read - they’re christian.

not just kinda christian, like creed or u2 (no offense to either group - i LOVE u2). mortal actually retails in christian markets.

they quote people like gerard manly hopkins and frederick buechner. VERY though provoking lyrics.

and some of the best industrial music i’ve ever heard. especially check out their album ‘fathom’. you’ll probably have to order it online - not in many bookstores these days, as it was produced circa 1991.
 
Your first option suggests some kind of restriction on the artists. I assume that your poll is relevent only to what we each choose to listen to - correct?

Music, movies, TV and other entertainment media are like alcohol in that one or two drinks can’t kill you, but if you constantly fill your mind with ungodly sounds, lyrics and images, it can be destructive. On the other hand, filling one’s mind with sounds and images that put one’s mind on Christ, leads to spiritual health. I know that this sounds corny to a lot of people, particularly young people, but it’s true.
 
if you constantly fill your mind with ungodly sounds, lyrics and images, it can be destructive.
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funny you say that. i used to have an employee who was usually a pretty nice guy - good sense of humor, fun to be around.

but when he would go wash dishes, he would listen to lots of heavy metal and death metal - basically, alot of very angry music.

then he’d come up from washing dishes and he’d be in a very agitated, bellicose mood. angry and snappish. it was pretty amazing to see the transformation that just an hour or two could make.
 
I’m in favor of artistic freedom but not all music is suitable for all people.

I certainly wouldn’t let young children listen to something that I listen to – I’m an adult with sound judgement and know what to ignore, what to appreciate even if the content is not so good, and so on. A young child has a very impressionable mind and shouldn’t listen to certain kinds of music until they’re more mature.

But adults should be able to be free to use their own judgement.
 
Great thread, Poisson!
Please boycott these bands: rockforlife.org/html/music_proabortionbands.html

DH and I listen to lots of Christian music. I hate rap and most “boy band” music (NSync, Backstreet Boys). We don’t listen to songs with swear words unless they’re sung by matchbox20 (and we’ll be listening to those a lot less after I birth Baby). We don’t listen to songs that talk about treating women like dirt. I think that it’s helped our faith as a result. Here are my favorite bands:
cora.dashjr.org/favs/secmusic.html
cora.dashjr.org/favs/chrmusic.html

my Mother my Confidence,
Corinne
 
Avoiding this type of music is great! I prefer to listen to classical, broadway and jazz. But what happens when you are forced to listen to this noise (I will not even grace it with the term music, which is a gift of God). My neighbor plays this type of noise so loud that I can hear every swear word clearly a block away not to mention my own home. And what about the supermarkets. 😦 I am doing what I can to get this out of the public part of the neighborhood by becoming involved in my neighborhood association. Writing to my councilman. I would involve the police but there is too much larger crime (drugs rape and robbery and even murder) in this neighborhood to bother about offensive music. Also when I have asked neighbors to turn down the radios they have threatened to beat me up. I really hate walking home from Mass to the sound of the F-word.
 
This thread brings to mind a comment by Thomas Merton. Though living in a Trappist monastery, he sometimes read secular newspapers and magazines. He said he shuddered to think what they must be listening to out there.

I also think of a quote by one of the Beatles, John Lennon, I think: When asked if he thought the Beatles had written great music, he said, “No. We wrote average music. But average music is what people want.”

Popular music has never had a great deep intellectual content–nor does it need to–but it seems to me that much popular music today, whether secular or not, doesn’t even have a lot of heart to it. It is either saccharine or vulgar or both. It does not speak well of the spirit being put into it.

It is like reading the newspapers or the magazines, or watching television. You can only expose yourself to so much of it before you start to feel numbed. You can feel that it doesn’t have staying power… it will all be old hat and almost unendurable in fifteen or twenty years’ time. It makes you wonder if more than a fraction of it will last to become traditional songs of our culture.

Bach thought that music that did not glorify God should not be written. The Greeks thought music had almost magical qualities, that it should stir the soul. Our music, sadly, seems to be designed not to bring us into our own interior silence, but rather to keep us from having to endure it.

So what do I listen to? Something I can hum to suit my mood, preferably with lyrics I wouldn’t be totally embarrassed to find myself mumbling around pure ears. I have terribly bourgeois taste!

As for the artists, if their lives appear to be serving them or their fans poorly, I wouldn’t like to send more money to put any of them deeper in the pit. That’s a consideration. But that refers to what I would buy, not what I would listen to.
 
A person who is spiritually sensitive is vulnerable to music. I don’t have room in my soul for music that I don’t trust, so I don’t entertain those forms; Pop, Country, Rock, even Contemporary Christian which is not very good (musically) most of the time - with some exceptions.

I only listen to sacred choral music, classical, and some forms of folk music. Sometimes I will also indulge in classic rock for the nostalgic value (if it is positive). It can be like visiting an old familiar friend.
 
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raphaela:
Queen wasn’t all about homosexuality, i think the only song closely related would be Bohemian Rhapsody, which is more of Freddy Mercury’s struggle with his homosexuality. Hotel california is about a brothel, not hell. I think that as long as the song isn’t overtly blashpemous, like having the title of “God is dead” or something like that, than it’s fine as long as you analyze the text of the song. Sometimes an artist will hide the meaning of the song within it’s words so what you think it may mean, it may not be it at all. What you percieve as satanic may be actually a devotion to God. Maybe not that but along those lines.
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I think Hotel California is about drug addiction.

“They stab it with their steely knives but they just can’t kill the beast”

“You can check out any time you like but you can never leave”
 
Little Mary:
I think Hotel California is about drug addiction.

“They stab it with their steely knives but they just can’t kill the beast”

“You can check out any time you like but you can never leave”
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This is true. I saw an interview with Don Henley recently and he seemed to affirm the same.
 
Are we debating morality or talent here!

I will acknowledge that much of the music that I consider very immoral may show a great deal of talent. I also think that a lot of the music that is very moral ( including religious songs) is only ordinary.

I also as an American must defend the right of those who publish, preform and produce such garbage. I also defend the right of those who listen to it. These people are on the top of my prayer list that they rethink their ways and rescue their immortal souls.

Where I draw the line is when this garbage is heaped upon me. As I am posting this my home is being flooded with foul language from my nieghbor’s “boom-box” (May God have mercy on her)

I also object to this kind of music being played in supermarkets. Let’s face it we all have to buy milk at some time. I have left the grocery store with only half my list of groceries because of objectional music. I have also told the clerk why I am leaving but it seems that the majority of people like this garbage.

I also resent being subjected to this at the workplace. In fact, some of the music played in the workplace could be counted as plain harassment.

In short, if you choose to listen or produce this stuff, that is your “free will” whether it is a sin or not is up to God. But please do not subject me to your vice.
 
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Poisson:
I have tried to listen to the one Christian music station and just could not get into it. The music just did not appeal to me. It sounded like Brittany Spears or Christina Aguillera with Christian lyrics. I would not listen to that stuff no matter what they were singing about.
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Absolutely!!
 
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coralewisjr:
Great thread, Poisson!
Please boycott these bands: rockforlife.org/html/music_proabortionbands.html
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A good portion of those bands broke up years ago and some listed are most likely guilty by association from different venuews they’ve played from time to time. I definately won’t boycott the bands that I like that are on the list.

coralewisjr said:
** DH and I listen to lots of Christian music. I hate rap and most “boy band” music (NSync, Backstreet Boys).** We don’t listen to songs with swear words unless they’re sung by matchbox20 (and we’ll be listening to those a lot less after I birth Baby). We don’t listen to songs that talk about treating women like dirt. I think that it’s helped our faith as a result. Here are my favorite bands:
cora.dashjr.org/favs/secmusic.html
cora.dashjr.org/favs/chrmusic.html

my Mother my Confidence,
Corinne
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As to the ones in bold, AMEN!
 
for ppl who like alt rock i would def look into a band called anberlin - theyre christian, and i find them to be very good
 
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yochumjy:
I listen to a lot of secular music, rock/alternative mainly. The lyrics are always of interest to me, because I think it gives us an idea of what is really going on in some people worlds. I find a lot of songs that while the subject is twisted from Gods desire, there is a core meaning that is good and I either focus on that and try to untwist the lyrics or listen once just to hear what the songwriter is trying to say. There are some songs that I just can’t listen to because of the lyrics, either because I find them overtly offensive or I don’t readily see a way to untwist it in my mind. Sometimes I just turn off the radio and pray, but lately I try to listen and pray to a CD reciting the rosary for most of my drive, then listen to a secular CD or the radio for the remainder.

Whether you like the lyrics or not, it does give an indication of what both young adults and adults are thinking/doing these days. I just hope people take a good listen and try to fix some of the harmful things that are being sung about instead of celebrating them…

John
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I, for the most part, agree with this post. I would say that at times its not the worst thing to actually look into the song or the band itself instead of shooting down a song or band just because a lyric or word might seem evil.
For myself, I believe we have to look at most secular music from various aspects. For example, I’m a NIN fan and the song “Hurt” is clearly expressing an addition to heroin. However if you were to listen to the lyrics, I believe the song could have various meanings to the common listerner and I dare to say, give some inspiration about being humble but also finding a solution to your personal trials.
Second, music has always been a form of art and therefore it can possess various interpretations. However even I would question what is going on in the music industry where we are quick to crticsize a band like NIN but I don’t seem to hear too much critizsism about Brittany Spears. Maybe this is because she use to be in the Mouse-Kateers? Seems to me we should all re-evaluate what we find blantently offensive.
 
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Poisson:
I seen an interview on TV with David Cassidy who was saying he and Alice Cooper were at their hight of populatity at the same time he was the clean cut kid and Alice was seen as a monster because of their stage personas but in reality if they had switched stage personas it would have more closely matched their personal lives.
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I’d say a high percentage of “wild” and “dirty” rockers and rappers probably do not live the lifestyle they sing about. I think a lot of it is an act. The downside is that the young impressionable kids who idolize them don’t realize this, and think you can be a punk and have it all.
 
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