"Today I looked at the top five rap songs versus the top five country songs, according to the Billboard singles charts. I was looking for what they had to say about love, sex, marriage, and children...."
Head on over to Gruntled Center for a thought-provoking review of themes in two very different genres of popular music.
I have to issue a bit of a disclaimer here: My tastes in music are eclectic, but they tend more to 60's and 70's rock and classical music. The closest thing to rap that I listen to are the "patter" songs in Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, and the closest I generally get to country is Creedence Clearwater Revival and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Beau Weston's take on the differences he noted was that this is "telling us more about the audience than the performers." Both audiences are mostly white (a fact that I did not know).
Go on over and read the whole posting. You may not agree with all his points, but you will certainly have something to think about.
2 comments:
I have gotten more comments on this one, and faster, than any other subject I have written on. I think students, especially, feel drawn to pop culture topics as they do to no other.
I noticed that as well. It also brought back memories of when I was that age and quite skeptical of any suggestion that music could either reflect or affect my world view.
I am certainly not in the "rock is the devil's music" camp, but there IS a message, and when it is delivered in an appealing way it can be a powerful influence for good or evil.
I with I knew how to teach discernment, but I suspect that it has to come with maturity.
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