Long time no see blogworld...it has been a while. I was writing this paper for Speech and I was asked the question "Should musicians have the right to create songs that are misogynous, racist, homophobic, and anti-sematic?" I thought my paper was good enough to be posted on my blog. So here it is....
Musicians
should have the right to create songs saying whatever they want to say. Under the first Amendment rights, it gives all people, freedom of speech. The first amendment does not exclude musicians. Next, people need to take in consideration how others might perceive these lyrics. What may be someone’s trash might be another’s treasure. Finally, when the question “should musicians have the right to create songs that are misogynous, racist, homophobic, and anti-semantic?” is presented are people really talking about all musicians or just rappers because if this is not the case why is it that rappers are the only ones brought to the forefront in the media? I ask people who disagree to think.
Everyone is so quick to resort to the first amendment rights, when debating about topics such as this. This is because they are right to. People have the right to state their opinions in the United States of America, and people have the choice to listen to it or not. Some may express well I cannot protect my children from the media. Famous psychologist Erik Erikson and other psychologist agree that in human life we have eight stages of development. In the beginning, stages a parent is suppose to instill what is right and wrong in a child. So when a child reaches stage three, which is purpose, initiative vs. guilt they will think twice about doing something that their parents have taught them earlier in life is wrong. They say most children do as they are told and some choose to do what they want to do. If you did instill in your child that to listen to this music is wrong then most likely they will turn it off according to Erikson. If the child chooses to listen, the parent does not need to blame the media but themselves because it was their job to teach the child morals. If a song is playing, on the radio, saying something that someone does not want to hear, they can turn the radio off. If a music video comes on television with sexually explicit images and lyrics turn the television off. Simple, just turn it off. By the time, it takes a person to go rally and rant about the media and its content, that same person could have turned off millions of radios and millions of televisions. However, they didn’t. This is because this is not an opinion they want to keep to themselves, they want to push their views on the world. There is a high probability that’s other felt the same way as they did and they could have turned it off as well. However, these people want to take away something someone else might enjoy, when they can simply just turn it off, because they do not agree with it. Sounds a little bit selfish, doesn’t it? This leads into the next point.
According to dictionary.com perception is the act or faculty of apprehending by means of the senses or of the mind. Psychologist believe that how people perceive things can be influenced by many things like a person background. Therefore, how you view something may not be how others view it. So, why would a person, who can simply ignore something, want to totally terminate another’s enjoyment? There are many people in this world who enjoy all music, you can tell this by record sells. There was a time in the world where many homosexuals and their supporters disagreed with what rapper Eminem was saying in his lyrics about homosexuals. However, you cannot tell this grown man what he can say. Even though they disagreed with his music obviously someone like it because his music sales are still thriving to this day, in fact he just came out with a new album that is doing very well. So, if people want to terminate things maybe they should not protest the musicians but their supporters. If the music was not in such popular demand, the artist would stop making it because they would be losing money. They make this music because people want to hear it and buy it and people buying their music supports their livelihood and as long as this remains this way these lyrics will keep coming.
But, Eminem is not the only musician to get receive bad reviews about the content of his music. Many others just like him as well. Which makes me question do other musicians that are not rappers have offensive music? If so, why does the media only expose rappers? Rappers are always being bashed about their content of their lyrics whether it is blatant or not. A song like “Laffy Taffy” by D4L uses candy as metaphors for sex , which gets the point across without being graphic, but they still caught heat for it. But, Warrant has a song called “Cherry Pie” using cherry pie as
a metaphor for a vagina but it is one of the greatest rock songs of all time. So, now I pull out the race card. Is it because African-American’s dominate the rap game, that rap is offensive? Some say “no, of course not” but I disagree. Some people are so bias when it comes to rappers. They focus so much on the negative but not the positive. Rapper Nelly was trying to do a bone marrow drive at Spelman College in Atlanta, to look for donors to help people who need those transplants. One of those people was his sister who at the time was suffering from leukemia. But, because of his video to “Tipdrill” that had women doing all sorts of sexually explicit things, he was denied. He wasn’t their to promote his music, nor that video, he was there to find donors. But, he didn’t get that chance because people are so focused on words, I guess more than human lives. His sister eventually died from her disease. Who knows, if they would have let him have his bone marrow drive it could have saved his sister and many other lives. The KKK has been saying hateful things since they started in 1865 and even they have not been prosecuted as much as rappers have. People just rather accept them, like it’s a way of life. The KKK say all types of things, but Jennifer Lopez slips and says nigga in a non offensive way and she is prosecuted about it for about a month. We need to rethink what are focus is in this world. In Greensboro, NC , a college town, Klan-Nazi’s
were allowed to come for a convention, even though their last visit resulted in deaths because of their views in 1979. It was fine for Klan-Nazi’s, people hate anybody that is not white, to come into a city which includes two HBCU’s and party Downtown, which is located less than a mile away from both HBCU’s. And no one cared to stop them from coming. But, rapper Gucci Mane is scheduled to perform at NCATSU’s homecoming concert and because he has a criminal record he is not allowed to perform a couple of songs. I ask, “Does no one see anything wrong with that?” If anything both should have been cancelled. I ask, “Has Gucci Mane did anything to the people of Greensboro? No. Now, I ask, “Has Klan-Nazi done anything to the people of Greensboro?” Yes.
The musicians’ lyrics are not the problem. The problem lies within the people who disagree with it. It is up to the people that disagree with it to simply turn it off. Whether it is for them or their children. People don’t have to listen to it. America is very capable of ignoring a negative force because they have been ignoring the Klan for decades. If everyone agreed that this music was offensive, this music would not thrive. But, yet it does so it shows that everyone is not in agreement, when it comes to this topic. America needs to stop being so focused on words and images because there are so many more things in this world to worry about.
This is a on going debate and I would love to here feedback if you disagree or agree...so hit me up!
Pictures courtesy of Flickr.
has been working on the album since November 2008. He is channeling Prince and Michael for this album and hopes to change it up just enough to keep us interested. Brown has also been busy on the movie "Takers", which in includes actors Matt Dillon, Idris Elba, Paul Walker,Hayden Christensen, and the always sexy T.I. A movie with T.I. and Chris Brown is a definite go see! The film is scheduled to drop Feb 26, 2010. Don't forget to cop his album in December. Look for him in the next issue of the resurrected Vibe Magazine and in a city near you for his Fan Appreciation concert tour. 
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