Shallow Persecutions :: essays research papers

In April of 1999, two students shot 15 buster students and a teacher in Columbine High School. A few years before that, a teenage boy committed felo-de-se in his bedroom. What do these two have in common? In both instances, their choice of music was to blame. ersatz music has been the center of a lot of controversy as well as a scapegoat for many adolescent tragedies. This type of music is meant to be different and it is beingness persecuted because artisans do not f completely into the categories of R&B and pop rock. practice of medicine is the artists livelihood and religion. Condemning the music is breaching both an artists freedom of expression and religion. Millions of teenagers listen to alternative rock groups much(prenominal) as Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails any day. These same teenagers walk into their schools every morning and dont blow their classmates heads off. These same teenagers dont go home and blow their own brains off. However when these things do ha ppen, parents all over the country start protesting against the entire genre of alternative rock. Alternative rock has become a national scapegoat for adolescent violence. alone is it really to blame? The parents that protest are probably the same ones that forswear that the teens lashed out because of bad parenting. Of course it cant be that because parents much(prenominal) as themselves are all perfect. This sort of attitude is precisely wherefore teenagers respond to their environment so violently. Parents refuse to get help because theyre afraid of how they as parents would be perceived. Some parents even refuse to demand that there is a problem in the first place. With this view, parents often es guess for something else that might have caused such violent behavior. That is where alternative rock comes in. Parents say that it breaches hate, violence, and anti-Christianity. However, are they really protesting these issues or the way the artists look? Ricky Martins Livin La Vida Loca glorifies a prostitute but there wasnt a great uprising over it. He even makes a music picture that is near pornographic. Ricky Martin is off the hook because he has a pretty face. He can do anything and sing anything he wants as long as it is legal. On the other hand, if Marilyn Manson calls their CD Anti-Christ Superstar, the whole country erupts in disbelief. This shallow hypocrisy is enough to make anyone sick.