Why do priests (especially Catholic) think Rock music and Heavy Metal is "evil", but they never mention Pop as being "evil"? Pop generally has worse l

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Why do priests (especially Catholic) think rock music is “evil”, but they never mention Pop as being “evil”? Pop generally has worse lyrics than Rock does, and there are Christian rock bands.
Also, if you look at most lyrics to popular Pop music, most of it is just about love and sex. Whereas with rock, a lot of it is about meaningful things in life.
I don’t get why they condemn Rock music, which is a lot better than Pop.
My theory is that they listen to it once, and it sounds scary to them, so they say it’s “of the devil”. A lot of people who don’t listen to Heavy Metal or Rock think it sounds scary at first and thinks people who listen to it are devil worshippers or something. But that’s the farthest thing from the truth and it’s just ignorance on their part.
Is there some reason I’m not aware of that priests think Rock is evil? I’ve heard many say not to listen to it and it’s “evil” but I have never heard one give a reason as to why they beleive this.
 
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I don’t think that we blanket condemn either popular music or rock and roll music.

I don’t like either, but that’s a preference.

Impure lyrics are an issue for both.
 
I agree, with both having impure lyrics, but so long as you don’t listen to the ones with bad lyrics, I don’t see why one should be worse than the other.
I’ve just heard so many Catholic priests say that Rock music is evil and “of the devil” and I don’t understand why they would say this.
 
Normally, I hear people condemning rap or modern music in general.

Perhaps the priests you hear condemning rock or metal associate it with rebellion or certain subcultures they don’t like whereas pop is as mainstream as you can get.

I also agree that rock has generally more meaningful themes. I don’t know much about metal, though.
 
If it happens it would be because they are unfamiliar with the genre and don’t think of examining it further so in the end they just repeat a popular stereotype.
 
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I have never heard one of my priests and believe me, have had the pleasure of dealing with priests from at least 3 continents through my life, blanket condemn a music genre. Though there have been instances where a particular band did attract their attention and was in the negative sense.
I won’t mention names but they are probably “famous” for their contempt of Christianity in general or try to peddle a bland Jesus that would allow immorality and sin. Any how just my worthless 2 cents.
Peace!
 
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AdriBlak20 said:
Why do priests (especially Catholic) think rock music is “evil”, but they never mention Pop as being “evil”?
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I’ve never heard any Catholic priest call rock, metal or pop music “evil”, ever. I also know priests who will talk about being fans of some band or other when they were younger.

Where do you meet all these priests with issues about music?

As someone else said, when a clergyman calls rock music “evil” and “of the devil” then it’s generally some Protestant fundamentalist or evangelical minister doing it. Not a Catholic priest.
 
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AdriBlak20 said:
Why do priests (especially Catholic) think rock music is “evil”, but they never mention Pop as being “evil”?
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This is an overgeneralization.

There are many priests that do not think rock music is “evil”. In fact I know priests who listen to rock music.

Any genre can have music and lyrics that are offensive. Some artists my be particularly offensive. But we can’t paint all music with the same brush.

Those I hear preaching against rock music as “evil” aren’t Catholic at all, but rather certain evangelical preachers.
 
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I would actually think that a lot of people, priests included, especially older, just really wouldn’t know the difference between rock and pop and would be using that word for either, thinking that it was all the same. They might have grown up using the term rock, or rock’n’roll, the name when it first started, and just haven’t moved on from there.
 
Many articles that I read about rock writers from catholics they told about the souls state from what kind music the people read. Although rock start from a movement that incited rebellion to young people, today there is many lyrics that aren’t bad at all, like King Nothing from Metallica, Full Moon from Sonata Artica, etc. It’s not evil, but is not anti christian, too.

Although Metallica had a music called “Follow the God that failed” because the vocalist in his childhood had a extremely religous fundamentalist mother (I don’t if was catholic, probably protestant, since this more predominant in America) that beaten him everyday and forced him to forget the class from school like science and math because they aren’t from de Devil, and then when she get cancer and deny the treatament because she told that God will cure her and then she die, this make him really anger about religious (and many rockstars have problems with their parents or childhood traumas) and make this music. I know that after that he accept Jesus, but I cannot confirm if is the same vocalist from Metallica.
 
When I was in High School, one of our Priest teachers took a day off to go see The Rolling Stones in concert.
 
At least one exorcist has spoken about certain heavy metal. That’s all I am aware of.

Some genres of heavy metal - particularly something like “black metal” - are really awful. The imagery, which includes pentagrams; horned goats; and other diabolic imagery; certainly leads to the conclusion that some of this junk (and it is junk) is diabolical.
That said, I too find it impossible to condemn all rock or pop, although much pop these days is pretty junky and pushes anti Christian behavior.
 
Every genre of music has examples of sinful behavior. Rap has misogyny and violence, Prog rock with drug references. A lot of jazz and country with themes of adultery.

You can’t condemn a genre.
You have to take the songs on case by case basis.
 
Pop by definition is trying to sound more innocuous than rock (by having memorable melodies and catchy if anodyne lyrics) and in that way reach a broader audience in order to be more commercially successful therefore it ‘waters down’ the most provocative elements of rock. Therefore it’s understandable that pop draws less scorn than rock from strictly religious people (in some timeless zone at least).
 
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One of the Deacons in one of the local parishes said that he thought Beyoncé looked like she was tormented by demons when she was on stage.
I don’t remember exactty what he said but it wasn’t too positive.
I think one of the reason for Catholics talking about rock music is the fact that many groups sing about satan in a way that is very bad. Many rock groups don’t.
I know a guy who like death metal and simmilar music and most of the lyrics and music is pretty scary. He is a very good guy himself but he likes music that I will avoid.
 
AdriBlak20 said:
Why do priests (especially Catholic) think rock music is “evil”
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AdriBlak20 said:
A lot of people who don’t listen to Heavy Metal or Rock think it sounds scary at first and thinks people who listen to it are devil worshippers or something. But that’s the farthest thing from the truth and it’s just ignorance on their part.
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Is this based on your personal experience or have you conducted a far reaching study of Priests and their musical preferences?

The reason I ask is that I know Priests who not only enjoy various genres of music, I know priests who play bluegrass, jazz, heavy metal, hard rock, etc themselves.

There is a wonderful group of Catholic musicians in the Catholic Metal genre.

I’m the grey haired parish secretary who left work yesterday with the windows down blasting “Strapping Young Lad”.

For some people, metal may be a sin because it takes them to a dark place or arouses sinful images. One size does not fit all.
 
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