August | 2010 | Something Like That

Bob Marley said, “My music fights against the system that teaches us to live and die.” For most people, music is something that stimulates the soul. It gives depth and meaning to our lives that ordinary words cannot express. We use music to advocate what we believe, and fight against what we reject. It’s our one place of freedom. It is a combination of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to either accept or reject what we have been taught, and freedom to form our own emotions and opinions. But I think that Bob Marley had it just about right when he said that music was a fight. The question we must ask is: Are we really fighting for what is right or just fighting because we can?

Today my sister and I went to lunch together to enjoy a little sister bonding time before school starts. Laura is one of the few people who I can have a long, in-depth conversation with without holding anything back or regretting anything I say. Music is something that has been on my mind a good bit lately, so we ended up talking about that for quite a while. It was nice because, through that, I was able to organize my thoughts in a way that concluded how I felt about the music I listen to and realize that maybe I need to make some changes.

Music is a tough subject to talk about, particularly with teenagers. Because whether it’s for good or for bad, music controls you in so many aspects. It controls your emotions at any given time, it controls how you perceive the world as a whole, it controls the words that come out of your mouth, and in general it controls your beliefs. Over the last few days I have realized that something with that much control cannot be taken lightly. James 1:17 says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above.” God gave us the gift of music, yet at times we take advantage of it and destroy its beauty. Music is seen all throughout the Bible because it has pretty much been here since the existence of time. However, it has undergone so many changes. Music in its earliest form was simply the blowing of a horn or the strumming of a harp. Yet in Psalms we see David making music unto the Lord through his lips. In somewhat recent times, music has made huge changes. Particularly in the 1960’s, music changed in sound and shifted from entertainment to political and social activism. Today, music is probably at its most diverse time. Part of me appreciates the fact we have the ability to make our music as personal as we want, but another part of me is afraid of the fact that we are able to do anything we want with this gift from God.

I feel that one of the greatest things about music is also its greatest flaw. Through music, we realize that we are not alone in the way we feel and there are always other people going through the exact things we go through. While this is great, I think at times it does nothing more than bring us down. We form our own groups and societies based on “what we have been through” or “how we feel”. But it gets to the point that all we do is feed off one another’s emotions. We isolate ourselves into depression until we refuse to see that there actually is happiness left in the world. If all you listen to is music that talks about how people are crap and the world sucks, then that is eventually what you believe. And as a Christian that goes against everything that I should believe. God created the world in seven days and at the end of it he said “it was good”. So to develop the mindset that the world is crap is no better than cursing God’s creation or cursing his name.

Aside from that, there are the obvious downfalls incorporated into music such as profanity, degrading of women, sexual immorality, drunkenness, and even murder. Proverbs 4:24 says, “Put away from you crooked speech and put devious talk far from you.” As much as you may claim that the things you hear do not affect the things you say or your actions, it is simply not true. The more you hear the “F-word” coming through your headphones, the more you will be tempted to say it. The more you hear about having sex with a prostitute or talking about a woman’s body inappropriately, the more you will begin looking or acting lustfully. The more you hear about how good it feels to be high or drunk, the more curious you will become. When you hear about angry murder all the time, chances are it is not going to help you in controlling you anger. And even if it didn’t affect the way you act, the verse it Proverbs tells us to get it completely out of our lives anyway. God doesn’t want us hearing bad things as much as he doesn’t want us saying bad things. More support for this is also found in 1 Peter 2:1 and James 1:21.

Although the way I think and what I believe has changed a good bit over the years, I don’t want to forget my basic morals. Romans 16:17 says “Watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them.” If the music you listen to goes against what the Bible teaches us, then we shouldn’t even listen to it in the first place. I hate the fact that something as wonderful and beautiful as music can be so easily destroyed and misused. It is said that we are in the world, not of it. We are supposed to live on earth, yet focused on Heavenly things (Col 2:20-22, 3:5, Mt. 6:20).

I think what really got me one this whole rant about music (aside from the fact that I argue with my boyfriend about it all the time) is that a couple of weeks ago I was listening to one of my favorite bands, A Day to Remember. There’s a song that I really like, but I guess I never paid attention to how awful the ending was until recently. The last main stanza of the song says,

“I walked into your house this morning
I brought the gun from our end table
Your blood was strewn across the walls
They’ll find you on your bathroom floor when I’m done”

So maybe I was a little disgusted with myself for listening to this song for so long before I realized how awful it was. This guy is mad at his girlfriend for cheating on him or something so he’s going to kill her? And by listening to this I support it. Another song that really made me re-evaluate had lyrics stating,

“And I’ll burn the building if I knew you’d die
And I’ll pray you’re a failure
And that you won’t make it out alive”

It’s not that I feel this is going to make me want to kill someone, but if I’m really connecting with this music then it’s only igniting anger within me. I don’t want that. I want my music to make me a better person, rather than bringing me down. “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever, Amen.” Romans 11:36 We have to ask if the music we listen to and the lyrics we sing along to are bringing glory to him or really just disowning him. And that’s not to say that we should only listen to Christian music. In fact, I don’t even really like “Christian music” outside of church for reasons that would take a whole other post to explain, but we can’t let ourselves become desensitized by the things we hear or see. There is a popular saying “you are what you eat”. It basically means that just as the food you eat becomes a part of your body, the things you associate with become part of your lifestyle. In that case, I want to associate with goodness and holiness rather than malice and anger.

As I stated in the beginning, music is like a fight for us. We connect with it because it expresses what we believe in ways we don’t know how to express ourselves. But if we are fighting against those who broke our hearts, or the leaders of our country, or even those who attempt to destroy us in vulgar and un-Christ like ways then it isn’t a worthy cause. Know what you believe, know what you feel, and know what you think. Stay away from everything else because it will destroy you, and you won’t even know it.

Something Like That

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Monthly Archives: August 2010

Another Rant Much Longer Than I Intended