Explicit Music

Music has always had the power to strike emotions good and bad, which is why it is so attractive to people. This has not changed since the days when the Beatles shocked the world. What has changed is that popular music lyrics and videos have become much more explicit.

The question is to censor or not to censor? I say not to censor. Explicit music is merely a way for musicians to freely express their feelings and experiences and if we eliminated it, we would be violating freedom of expression, alienating many musicians, being oblivious to audiences appreciation for explicit music and utterly wiping out good music.

Why? I ask, should explicit music be censored if it can positively make listeners feel comfortable in relating to the music? And why should it be censored when there are people around that appreciate it as good music and nothing more?

If we eliminated explicit music we would be eliminating a huge percentage of the music industry. Could you imagine an RnB collection without 50 cent, Snoop Dog or Beyonce? Or a punk rock collection without Greenday, Slipknot or the Sex Pistols?

All of these musicians have either used explicit lyrics or explicit video clip images in their music. I am a big fan of punk rock music and I’m not a violent person and I sincerely doubt any rock fans in this room are violent people, either. Yet we still enjoy listening to the music.

Musicians such as Christina Aguilera have made music with explicit lyrics and have appeared in video clips wearing little clothing, however, Christina Aguilera has also made some truly meaningful songs such as ‘Beautiful’ and ‘the Voice Within’ which have reached out to people trapped in burdens and made them feel comfortable, if not uplifted by Aguilera’s lyrics and video clips.

So we should eliminate not the explicit areas of music, whether it be lyrics or images, but our prejudice. Why should we judge musicians if they dress or are accompanied by people who are dressed with very revealing clothes, When at the same time they are making listeners feel enlightened?

Violent music lyrics and videos can cause violence but never on it's own, as it is a huge amount of factors that make someone commit a violent act. If a teenager feels rejected, hatred, and unloved by his family and then listens to a band which freely expresses the exact same emotions he or she is feeling inside, their music will support the teenager and will make he or she feel better in knowing that someone else has experienced what they are going through at the time and that they are not alone.

At the other end of the spectrum RnB video clips are rarely seen without women dancing