Blaming Music

bellamurte:

frank iero!:

It's really very counterproductive for a band to promote suicide in their fans anyway. I mean, who's gonna buy your records if your fans are dead?

That really made me

haha me too; pwnage!

ClaireBear016:

I know parents who don't let there kids have their own computer...but i think the not letting them have a computer is a bit extreme. I think if you let the kid know about music and warn them about it, they less likely to listen to that music.

Yeah, or, you know, some people just can't afford to buy more than one computer. I don't think that "warning" a kid about lyrics is going to do anything, except possibly make the song more attractive to them because it annoys you.

True Deb, classic example is Relax by Frankie Goes to Hollywood. It was banned by the BBC here in the UK. The following week it went straight number 1. As soon as you tell people they shouldnt listen to something it becomes much more important to them to listen to it.

i agree with this entirely. music is constantly blamed for people's behaviour and/or actions, when it is something entirely different. people are drawn to a type of music that suits the kind of person they already are. it does not "create" a different type of person.

I feel bad for Manson, even though he isn't exactly my favorite person anymore. I know he's going to be raked over the coals for this latest incident in Louisiana. I know a lot of older people don't understand this, but kids actually seek solace in music. A kid who is ultimately going to commit homicide or suicide was attempting to heal through the music of their choice; they were identifying with it in a positive way - it just wasn't able to prevent the tragedy, that's all. It's backwards.

There've always been, and there always will be, suicides and murders. Logic states that a good chunk of these people over the course of history have listened to something, and that whatever they listened to was listened to by the masses as well. So, shall we go ahead and condemn all forms of music, because that would be fairer? And then why am I and 20,000 other people able to listen to Manson and avoid going on a killing spree or hanging myself, yet not this one kid?

The sad reality is that these people have troubled kids for whom they were unable (or unwilling) to seek adequate help. I can understand the need to blame somebody, but it's fueling ignorance. The human need to label everything is what creates this mess. We look at something that's different and that we don't understand and we condemn it. Manson's lyrics have always been misunderstood, and so have My Chem's.

What I dont get is that people are happy to say music influenced them to save themselves, but then why cant it influence someone the other way?

i don't think music can influence someone like that without there being some other factor effecting that persons state of mind, but I dont think people can go into uproar once a band is blamed for influencing a person into suicide , when there more than happy to claim said band has influenced them to save there life.

I think bands attract people that can identify with their music. So, using My Chem as an example, a suicidal person could be attracted to My Chem because that is what they talk about in some of their songs, and they relate. Now, from there, it could go either way. The person could a) realize that someone understands them, and choose not to take their life or b) be reminded of their problems and sink deeper into the whole. There are other possibilities, but I think that explains how music can influence and is blamed.

John and Questionable, you missed my point entirely! I stated that a suffering person tends to seek out solace in music, but that sometimes it's just not enough. In order to correctly blame an artist for a fan's actions, we would have to do extensive research on the artistic preferences of every single person who has ever committed suicide or homicide, then take action against the estates of all involved parties. To single out one artist over another is discriminatory.

No I know, I was just making a seperate point.

I agree with you for the most part.

I'm with John on that. I know what you're saying, and I think that even saying music in general is to blame is not right either. I was stating why I think music is seen as a culprit, even if it is not the cause for the events it is blamed for.

Ah, I gotcha both now. Just once, I'd like to see someone blame Frank Sinatra or Glenn Miller (or hell, Beethoven even) for someone's downfall, just sayin...I say this with my whole heart: the loss of any child is a fucking tragedy, but to pin someone's death on an innocent artist is just plain mean.

I agree.
It's just the topics the bands talk about. It's like even depicting the negative side will get said band blamed for whatever happened because suicide (for example) is not as talked about a subject in music as, say, heartbreak.
If it were more talked about, I don't think anyone could blame any one band for contributing to suicide as anyone blames a band for contributing to heartbreak.

I think it can be blamed to a certain extent, depending on the individual, because music seems to give off a psychological thing with moods. Many songs are pretty carthartic. I guess that people come to conclusions about differnt stuff when they are influenced by music. SOme songs make you think about stuff deeper. I guess some people try to relate the music by doing stuff that they hear about in music.

Although, parents should always consider flaws in their own parenting and their own ways before blaming the music. Everything starts out at home. The parents can set the very first feelings in children about things through what they say and how they do things. There are sme things that parents might unknowingly drive their children to do. Everything starts out at home, and everything else is left to play out from that, like how a kid judges. If parents parent their children so that the kids grow up with wise minds, the kids should avoid certain negative things, even any kind of bad influence from music.
Some parents don't really understand how their kids think, so the kids don't talk to or trust them, making the parents at fault when the kids blow.

SOmetimes parents blame an outside factor for tragedies that have happened to their children, when it was a different outside factor that the kid got involved with or had.

It's not the music. People listen to music to find comfort, or to listen to someone who understands them. Music doesn't create the ideas. Parents, experiences, and schools are what shape people. The music goes along with the person you are shaped into.

The blame is because parents refuse to see their little angel in a bad light, and cannot blame themselves. So obviously they blame what is different about the child, be it the music, video games or whatever.

Not all the time. If the listeners are foolish enough to believe music is approving the use of drugs, suicide, etc, then that's just them being ignorant.
Like with the Black Parade thing, how kids were commiting suicide to "join the black parade." Bullshit. I love that album like a child, but when it comes to people killing themselves over it, I can't help but wonder what was going through their heads.
Parents need to accept that maybe their child isn't crazy and maybe to actually LISTEN to what they have to say.

I agree 100% My mother tried to tell me that if I wanted to kill myself over the music, like what happend in england with MCR, then she would no longer let me have any music cept for Christian music.

Parents need to understnad that every time a band comes out with an album that has any thing to do with Killing, Drugs ECT. that we are not going to go on a killing spree, shoot up drugs in the school bathroom, and kill our selfs! we not that impresionalbe....

I agree^ my mom suppoets my "obsession" (what she calls it) with Mcr. But she told me that if she finds cuts or something on me she is making me listen to christen music for the rest of my exsistince.
What I think is that we cant blame music for suiside and stuff like hose british people did with poor MCR

If you ask me blaming music for anything really is stupid.I do agree that music is a powerful thing but you can't blame music for a person's death or the use of drugs. People never take the blame for anything, all they ever do is point fingers until someone blames something like music, clothing, books, the internet, ect. until people that listen to that type of music, that wear that type of clothing, that read that types of books, that are on those sites on the internet, are all labeled. Labeled, grouped, put in a file in a physiotherapist's office, and given over the counter drugs to help solve these "problems" that everyone thinks they have.

It isn't the music's fault, it is how the person interprets it.

Music doesent kill people, people do that all by themselves. Music is a big influnce but i beileve that music is seeked to help a person when they have a problem it doesnt make them have that problem. When i stopped listening to country and started listning to punk/rock/screamo/alternative it waz becuz i waz looking for something to relate to my parents said the music waz influencing me (i dyed my hair bright red and started wearing dark clothes and eye liner and had my mp3 playe attatched to me) (i still do this) but really i just found out that there waz music out their that made me feel better it is helping me through a hard time it didnt put me in a hard time.

a touch of anarchy.:

It isn't the music's fault, it is how the person interprets it.

^ THIS.
You can't blame music. A lot of cases where kids have killed themselves over music have been when the parents just blame the music like it's easier to deal with than actually talking to their child.