Should I feel guilty about my musical tastes?

[Joe_5859]

Well, that’s probably more because Metallica is terrible, if people are going to listen to metal it should be good metal.

Exactly. You can like metal or not. You can even think it’s evil or not. But you cannot deny that there are many metal bands that do display “virtuosity.” Take this for example:

Rhapsody (of Fire) - Lord of the Thunder (ignoring the 15 second intro added by the poster)

Particularly of note is the instrumental interlude from about 2:40 through 4:40. Say what you want, but it takes a lot of talent to be able to compose and play music like this. (Just the fact that they have a one minute musical intro and two minute music break in the middle of a song that is five and a half minutes long should be an indicator )

 

[jas54]

HTML Rulez d00d!

I’m a new member to this forum and I realize the discussion ended a while ago, but I’d like to add my own views.

First off, I’m a philosophy major as well that likes a decent amount of heavy metal, death metal, thrash, etc. It’s pretty cool stuff.

I’m not the most musically inclined or musically caring person, but this type of music seems pretty cool to me. When I say music, I mean the instrumentals. I just can’t always hack “happy” music. I don’t find any fault with the instrumentals. They’re just their own thing that do not necessarily entail “evil.”

When it comes to certain lyrics, I’m a little unsure. The lyrics can be catchy (when I’m able to follow along to the words) and the lyrics aren’t always the most Catholic-friendly works. This creates a problem, but I don’t believe guilt ought to be involved.

The Most Reverend Fulton Sheen explains in a tv episode I happened to catch that one must take in an understanding of the opposing side that brings rejection to the Catholic faith. In order to formulate a good argument, one must immerse oneself within the other’s ideas, argue from the other’s stand point, and then finally use their ideas and position against them in order to refute their opposition. This is endorsed in all the philosophy classes that I have taken as well.

So don’t feel guilty. Obviously with just the instrumentals, but even when it comes to not so friendly lyrics. Merely staying clear from opposition will never make one fully strong in their faith. One must fight opposition face-to-face as many times as necessary to gain true faith.

I do not condone becoming obsessed with the lyrics in order to formulate a stronger faith. A well formed understanding will provide the necessity needed to formulate one’s faith.

I am most positive you’ve come to your own views about this topic already. I just felt like contributing something to this topic since I found it interesting.

May God be with you all.

 

[goofyjim]

Why should anyone feel guilty about their musical tastes? You can like rap for all I care.

 

[Jade_Tiger]

I dunno, OP… Those lyrics you posted gave me a REALLY bad feeling. And that one about Christ- I don’t care what people say about art. That was evil.

 

[CTA1967]

Why should anyone feel guilty about their musical tastes? You can like rap for all I care.

On a side note, I think we should get everyone on CAF to send a recording of them rapping Bible verses so we can overdub all the tracks and make some sort of a “Catholic rap choir”. Yes, I think I do need more sleep.

 

[matt1985]

I like some rob zombie songs are good, but I don’t like satanic rock. I try not to listen to them because I feel they are a bad influence. Try to aviod them

 

[Hobble]

I don’t think music can have a bad influence. You find what you’re looking for in music, so if you find something bad than you must have been looking for it to begin with.

I love death metal, black metal, hardcore. I also play in a death metal band. It hasn’t had a bad effect on me. I’m pro-life, I’m very close with God and in touch with my spirituality.

A lot of metal has actually helped me find myself and become more spiritual. Because some of the raw energy that I find in some metal is almost on a primal level, that it allows me to forget about social stigmas and vanity and reach into my deepest spiritual corners in a very raw way. It’s hard to explain, but I find myself using it in a sort of meditative way.

I don’t listen exclusively to metal of course. my tastes are balanced, my life revolves around music so I tend to need as wide of a variety as possible. But I find metal to also be the most calming for me at times, I know that’s strange, but I can just put on some Blood Red Throne as loud as it will go and I’ll relax and sometimes fall asleep.