MUSIC: What Happened to Good Music?

THE DECLINE OF MEANINGFUL MUSIC

(From an African American Perspective)

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(The Temptations – 1969)

Music - rhythm that soothes the savage beast, brings strong men to their knees, and causes females to faint in romantic bliss. Where did it go? What happened to my music? Yes, I am "old-school" - with old-fashioned ideas. I am sixty-four years old and I have lived through six decades of music. I have enjoyed the "Big Band and Swing" era; the "Be-Bop" era; the "Rock and Roll" era - up to and including the "British Explosion" era; the never-ending era of "Gospel," "Blues," and "Jazz"; the early gyrating "Soul" era; the "Rhytm and Blues (R & B)" era with its smooth, soft ballads and the emergence of "Motown" recording studio; and many other new artists.. I've even enjoyed the early stages of "Rap" music - when "Rap" offered hope. All these different forms of music had one thing in common... they made us realize that life is worth living.

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Now, the American youth, through their "Rap" and "Gansta Rap" music, have almost destroyed this medium. Their musical vocal expression of the unjust and violent society in which we live is of vital interest, but the explicit language used to relay their messages demeans, demoralizes, and alienates the morally conscious listener. Is "Rap" music a trend that has never been witnessed in America before? No, "Rap" music ia a continuing line of African American expressions including: "Spirituals," "Blues,"and "Soul," all of which were inspired during trying times in our society. However, because of "Rap" music's much more violent and explicit content, it cannot be viewed in the same sense of its predecessors nor can it be taken in the same serious manner.

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There are a number of "Rap" styles. "Lite-Action Rap" is entertaining and not burdened with a deep or heavy message ( Fresh Prince). "Hardcore Rap" has a macho, aggressive tone; its lyrics are usually obscene, profane, sexually explicit, and violent. "Gansta Rap" is the most extreme. It promotes and glorifies violence, illicit sex, drugs, and felonious criminal activity. All are part of the new "Hip-Hop" regime.

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The nation is divided over "Rap" music and its influence on our youth. Some feel it is just a form of expression, while others feel that it leads to increased deviant juvenile behavior and therefore should be banned. Many debates, Congressional and others, have ensued over this vital controversy. Many editorials have been written on this subject.

Jamilah Evelyn, the author of the article, "To the Academy with Love, from a Hip-Hop Fan" published in the December 7th, 2001 issue of the magazine Black Issues in Higher Education, had an idiotic and asinine idea. Her main objective was to influence university educators to develop an "empathetic rapport" with their students by requiring revered professors to listen to the shameful, disgusting, and demoralizing lyrics of hatemongers, women debasers, violent-crime advocators, and drug worshipers.

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In that article, Ms. Evelyn had the audacity to say, "Who else, besides a professor conscious of the thoughtful and intellectual side of kids otherwise cast as degenerates, should we expect to give a ringing endorsement of 'Hip-hops' prolific proteges." Is she really expecting these highly honored, respected, and educated teachers to actually approve of this music and have the college institutions they represent add it in their course curriculum? In one breath she readily admits that by celebrating these degenerates, we demoralize our youth, and in the next breath she promotes the same degenerating, violent lyrics by claiming the reason it sells "...is indicative more of American pop culture in general than of this one particular facet." She wants her readers to believe that our culture is responsible for the acceptance of this degrading music, but, in fact, it is the music which is generating the negative behavior in our culture. In her opinion, failure to adopt her philosophy would lead to the educational deterioration of future African-American minds and the extinction of potential African-American professionals. Her radical ideas and assumptions are as ridiculious as those idiots in California who want to add "Ebonics" as another language for African American students.

The article, "Rock of Ages," written by Richard Layaco and published February 26, 2001, in Time magazine, advises parents to listen to this music with their children and hold discussion groups. He advises parents to schedule trips with their kids to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, and the Experience Music Project in Seattle, Washington. He further claims the Experience Music Project, “…aims to be a place where parents can explain to their kids that James Brown is the old guy who sounds like Mystical, and kids can tell their parents that Mystical is the young guy who sounds like James Brown.” What a croak! Mystical sounds more like a perverted version of James Brown.

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Romantic musical artists have been replaced by sexual deviates. While admitting this music is connected with promiscuous sex and drugs, Mr. Layaco states, “…it’s a supremely subtle parent who can share all kinds of music with their kids without seeming to endorse the troubling stuff.” Now doesn’t that sound crazy? They are subtle parents – just parents who abstain from their parental responsibilities and delegate their authority to their children. It’s like giving your thirteen-year-old daughter birth control pills or condoms while telling her not to have sexual intercourse.

Lorraine Ali, another female author, dismisses the destructible nature of this music by describing it as a passing fad. In her article, “The Same Old Song,” published in the October 29, 2000, issue of Newsweek, she claims the music is just the kids’ way of rebelling as kids do in each generation. While conceding that this generation has taken their music to a new extreme, she claims, "[that it] …will pass away, either because it collapses under the weight of its own decadence… or because it withers from sheer neglect.” She asks her readers to wait for this music to fade out of existence. She fails to mention the irreparable damage manifested upon our youth while we wait.

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What proponents of the music fail to realize is this sick music’s enormous following and its long-term negative, hypnotic effect. Our inner-city children are reacting to the subliminal messages transmitted through this music by these so-called “Rap” artists. They closely follow the antics of these anti-role models, dressing like them, emulating them, and proudly displaying their obscene lyrical banners as if they were American flags. These lyrics are held in high esteem among our youth and are recited like the Pledge of Allegiance. “Rap” verses are memorized and held in reverent awe like passages of the Holy Bible. Captivated in the music’s hypnotic trance, they revel in their deviant behavior and perform atrocities that were once only attributed to adults with mental problems.

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Mass commercialization of this music, coupled with easy access through the internet, has permitted the demoralization of our youth to rapidly increase. Its contagious, poisonous venom has spread to epidemic proportions. Picture your thirteen-year-old daughter, listening to some adult pervert glorifying oral and anal sex. Your teenage son is learning firsthand on how to become a hardcore felon with murder, rape, and armed robbery as glorious trophies to be collected and treasured. Advocating the use of illegal drugs, promiscuous sex, and felonious criminal activity are standard themes in most “Rap” music. Increases in the number of high school drop-outs, teen pregnancies, adolescent drug use, and juvenile crimes can all be attributed to the infectious influence of this music. The increase in gang and drug-related deaths among our youth are proof of its deadly communicable effect.

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Admittedly, censorship is not the answer. However, some controls must be initiated to minimize the lasting effect this music has upon our youth. Somehow, as caring adults, we must find a cure for this cancer-like disease. Hopelessness, despair, and inevitable destruction will be our fate if we allow this parasite to continue eating at the moral fabric of our youth.

As Leonard Pitts stated in his article, "Value of Life Lost in Gansta Rap's Refrain," that appeared in the November 19, 1999, issue of the Miami Herald, “…rap is largely music of thug values, celebrating that which deserves no celebration.” He continues, “… [why do we] romanticize death [and] reward it with that badge of awful honor… we already know that young Black men are not afraid to die. We must challenge them to prove a more difficult thing: that they are not afraid to live.” We must begin singing a new song with old lyrics and give our youth a sense of hope instead of the hopelessness that is reverberated through “Rap” music.

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The task ahead will not be an easy one. Most habits die hard and old ones seem immortal, but everything must change or be rearranged. Somehow, we must convince our youth that this music of darkness and despair, which is rapidly causing their senseless deaths and the death of our society, must give way to the light of a new beat for an old song, with lyrics that breathe life into our society.

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There is definitely a link between music and memory. Life is full of things loved, lost, found, hoped for, and, of course, there is misery and despair. But in moments of loneliness or solemness of thought, recollection of life’s memories creates a quiet stillness in us – a death-like silence. Music can block out that silence. So, bring back my music and let me live again.