My kids get some fairly weird, off-the-wall music. When difficult child 1 got into Rammstein and I heard it was also associated with the Columbine tragedy, I worried a bit because difficult child 1 and his best friend at the time (who put him onto this music) wore long black coats, black bandannas etc looking like something out of Matrix.
So I listened to it a bit - very dark-sounding, very gutteral (because the vast bulk of it is in German). But because I understand a bit of German I also recognised some of the lyrics - the lead singer has a very clear diction, Like Freddie Mercury (Queen) was famed for.
So I looked up the lyrics, plus translation, and found some interesting stuff.
First, the group was horrified at what happened at Columbine but there really is nothing in their lyrics to connect. It's just that some kids whose minds are dark, will be attracted to things that sound dark and different. Chicken or the egg.
And the lyrics are very clever. Bilingual puns, in some cases. One song called "Du Hast" (you have) is deliberately sounding like "Du Hasst" (you hate) and the delivery sounds hateful. But the words are:
du hast
du hast
du hast mich (which COULD mean "you hate me")
du hast mich gefragt (you have asked me a question...)
und ich habe gesagt (and I have said to you...)
Suddenly the song's meaning has changed to something far simpler.
With Eminem's more recent works, I agree with the above assessment - there is honour, truth, consideration and social conscience in it. I don't necessarily like it all that much but I value the power and truth in it. For more instruction, look up the lyrics to "Toy Soldiers". It does have profanity in it, but it needs to be there (unfortunately). It's not gratuitous, that is the language of the streets the song is about.
My kids can take it or leave it.
Like with Rammstein, while I can value the expertise and skill in it, I really can't listen to more than one track before the steady head-banging "dooff dooff" gets to me and I ask the kids to shut it off. If I'm driving the car, I get veto rights on what music is broadcast. If they want to broadcast from their iPod, I have the right to ask them to skip a track. If they still insist on listening to it, they have to listen on their headphones. Mind you, I will return the favour and not force them to listen to Barney the Dinosaur.
However, I do find it's a good thing to at least have some level of tolerance for your kids' choice of music. This has a number of uses:
1) You know what they're listening to (and they'll listen to it when you're not around, so banning it will only make it more attractive)
2) YOU become an authority on the kids' favourite performers. This can really creep the kids out, especially when you know more of the latest gossip than the kids do (which comes from keeping your ears open and watching the Countdown video clip shows)
3) It gives you a meeting place for open discussion with your kids, of the social issues raised by the songs.
Some modern rap is absolutely disgusting. It is cheap, it is nasty, it is demeaning, it is pointless. So-called "Gangsta Rap" appears to have little of value, as if it is deliberately presenting itself as derogatory, demeaning and depressing, while trying to appear upbeat. The performers are generally decked out in "bling" to the ultimate extent of bad taste; various beautiful girls in various stages of undress draped over the (generally African-American) singer, perhaps to make a reverse-racist point (remember, this is from a non-US point of view, just what it seems). A lot of it seems to be using trappings of wealth as a deliberately vulgar show of testosterone - hinting "I'm tough, I break the law (must do, or I wouldn't be able to afford all this junk and wouldn't attract women like this) so don't mess with me or I'll break you." Clear images echoing Al Capone from the Prohibition era - white fur coat, lots of trashy flashy rings, broad-brimmed hat with big cigar - the gangster imagery is clearly deliberate and can only perpetuate some nasty stereotypes. To me it seems to be glamorising criminality and gang attitudes. Of course, along the way it is sexist and incredibly shallow.
Sad, really. Because when I listen closely, I can hear the talent in these performers, which they are burying under an avalanche of bad taste and their own brand of boring conformity. Some of these guys can really sing - when they drop their guard a little.
Not all rap fits into this category. Some is really good. At worst, you can always find some rap that is light-hearted & fun, as well as some that has a moral lesson in it (such as most of Eminem's recent stuff). Our senior high school English students these days are expected to look for "supplementary material" on the set topic of the year. I remember when difficult child 1 was doing his final year English, his set topic was "the institution". Set film was "Shawshank Redemption" and he found for himself "Sleepers" (book and film) as well as the lyrics of a rap song about feeling trapped by circumstances beyond the singer's control. By making the schoolwork relevant and also making the kids look around and find their own extra material, it's also making the kids really think about what they listen to.
About 20 years ago there was a pop group in Australia called "Midnight Oil". They were VERY environmentalist, using their music (which had a great sound, if somewhat heavy metal) to sell kids on environmental issues, and to protest the government's lack of action. There were songs such as "Blue Sky Mine" (nice double meaning) which referred to how some companies will try to pillage and market anything, even the blue sky we value. One song still played a lot has the line, "How can we sleep while our beds are burning?" I think they sang it for the Closing Ceremony for the Sydney 2000 Olympics. They were the ones wearing black shirts saying "Sorry" - a big potshot at our current Fearless Leader.
The lead singer of Midnight Oil, Peter Garrett, formed his own political party 20 years ago called the Nuclear Disarmament Party. It eventually faded into the background, handing its banner on to the Greens who now seem to be the third main political party in Australian politics. Peter Garrett recently joined the Labor Party (like your Democrats) and is their spokesman on environment. A big, bald, gangly white guy with an angular grooved face, like a clean-shaven, t-shirt-wearing Abe Lincoln. And he can't dance for nuts.
So letting your kids listen to what they want, and you listening to it with them, as much as you can stand, opens up doors for discussion on the very issues kids tend to avoid with their parents. It's a different phase of parenting, when you continue to lead them by encouraging them to think, especially about moral issues. It's also good to get to know what THEY feel, it can give you advance warning of any problems.
Marg
