Saturday, June 5, 2010

demons, hell, evil, rock n' roll

I'm watching "Iron Maiden: Flight 666" (http://www.ironmaiden.com/) and it brought up very bad memories of the PMRC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parents_Music_Resource_Center) and ignorance. There are idiots out there who think that rock n' roll is the devil's music. These people don't seem to understand that rockers and well as geeks have a weird sense of humor. Sometimes references to demons, hell or evil are to tell a story. In the case of this Maiden documentary that I'm referring to, dark themes only tell stories and are not an excuse to worship the devil as many idiots think. This is the same band that has poetry and quotes of the Bible in the lyrics of many songs.

Most people have short term memory especially with something so trivial as music. In the late 1980's, the PMRC was an excuse for bored wives of politicians to criticize music and feed clueless parents and society that the music their children listened to was diabolical and simply bad for children. This was a political stand that damaged many young Americans back then. Isn't it too much of a coincidence that the wife of a then-senator was the head of the PMRC and that senator later became vice-president of the US? If curious, do a Google search on the PMRC and its political ties.

I know that there are some bands that have satanic material, but we shouldn't allow one bad apple rot the whole bunch. Yes, I love rock n' roll as Joan Jett (http://www.joanjett.com/) says in her song. I worked in the music industry for almost a decade. Yes, there's a lot of corruption and sin, but at the same time there are a lot of true artists who love their art (music) and want to create a better world.