Extreme music? | Graham Sayer

Extreme music is here and is growing fast. Driven by energy reminiscent of punk, expressed in lots of decibels and often the language of the gutter, or is it the
language of today's secular world?

Popularity is what sets it apart from previous genres which bear similar hallmarks. It comes in the guises of hardcore gangster rap, rock rap, death rock, nu metal and more. Acts such as 'Eminem', 'Limp Bizkit' and 'Papa Roach' regularly pour out their angst on the airwaves. The Top 10 chart now embraces the gangster rap of 'Dr. Dre' as readily as the sentimental pop of Britney Spears. CDs with parental advisory 'Explicit language' stickers are common and readily snapped up. Why? Because people - young people - want it.

How are Christians to respond to this phenomenon?

It would be very easy to condemn extreme music with an immediate swipe - an understandable reaction to explicit content and general unsavoury nature. Or, do we try and think biblically about this voice of our culture. That is my intention in this article.

Basis of action?

Much thinking seems to be conditioned by the 'in your face' factor - that the lyrics are so aggressive, so explicit, so unavoidable.

If that is the case then a very inconsistent approach to listening to one of the major voices of our culture is being modelled. We are effectively saying: 'Shout your agendas loud enough and we, the parents/youth leaders will listen and respond'.

Extreme music is one facet of secular music. It uses the boldest means of expression to convey its agendas, but they are the same agendas: Write your own script to life! Have casual sex! Get drunk! Always take revenge! and so on. It is often only this difference in expression that tips the balance from tolerance to intolerance in our thinking - and that is wrong, a double standard!

If we say 'No!' to Eminem, Slipknot and Marilyn Manson, we must think why we say 'Yes!' to S Club 7 and Britney Spears.

Beyond 'No'!

The stage is set for those whose stance on 'popular music' is 'No!' across the board.

That position holds difficulties. It does not preclude you and yours from exposure to popular music. History also testifies that the 'contemporary sounds' of any era often, initially, attract violent opposition. Then, with the passage of time, they are firstly accepted, then 'good', and then 'classics', having been superseded by the next 'more evil' manifestation of music. Even classical music and organ music have attracted that sort of attention.

'Popular music' is popular. Any intervention by parents or youth workers won't change that fact. It will still be held up as 'the sound to be listening to' by culture and peer group alike. Also 'extreme' often has at its heart a certain mischief. It says what it wants, 'sticks two fingers up' at authority! Consequently, intervention, as authority, may often attract similar treatment... albeit behind turned backs!

That is not to say don't intervene. A fatalistic 'Well what can I do?' mindset operates at the other end of the spectrum: 'Just make sure I don't hear it!'. That doesn't seem to be appropriate either.

When we look at God's 'fatherly' interventions in the Bible the pattern we see is an explanation of why or why not! It is not a 'No!' or even a 'Yes!' standing alone (Deuteronomy 28, 30).

We have opportunities to engage with our culture and expose it. To be wise to what it's saying.

Many justifiable things could be said about extreme music, so justify them! When we try to justify our position, we suddenly find ourselves starting to think harder about music as a whole.

Opportunities . . .
This thinking produces opportunities. Modelling an approach to this 'mouth-piece' of popular culture; instilling of helpful thought processes; opportunities for young people to see for themselves the concerns of parents and youth leaders and to talk about them, to work them through.

If a young person wants to listen to music they will always find a way. How much better then, when an opportunity presents itself, to talk about what particular songs are saying? What is the message? What is the songwriter trying to communicate? We need to be ready to identify what that message is and bring it in to sharp comparison with what God says.

Take the song 'Heaven is a half-pipe' (by OPM, Summer 01). An anti-Christian tirade extolling the incomparable riches of 'skateboarding' against the 'poverty and slavery' of Christianity. Lots of stereotypes in there waiting to be blown up - and perhaps the best people who could do that are Christian children and young people (those who skateboard anyway!).

Many songwriters are very realistic, and speak in powerful terms about the pains they have experienced or what their dreams are. So when Papa Roach sings 'Broken Home', is it not moving to hear a singer express what most of us might imagine (and some of us might know) that situation to be like? The emptiness, betrayal and the anger. It is reality for many people - reality without hope - opportunities.

The Christian

If our intervention as concerned parents/youth leaders can contain the appeal to a Christian we really do have a great opportunity to teach and train them. The young Christian fighting the battle in the same world as you and me.

Christian young people must seek to live by the clear teaching of God's word. 'Honour your father and mother' (Exodus 20.12), for example. Christian young people take note.

NT teaching largely follows this pattern: 'Call yourself a Christian? - then live like it!'. It instructs us in the attitudes and behaviour of a true Christian. It also warns against destructive attitudes and behaviour.

There are conscience issues to be worked through (1 Corinthians 8). The teaching is clear - if you go against your conscience you sin. But we should ensure that our conscience is informed by truth and can therefore change over time as personal understanding grows in the light of biblical teaching. Personal conscience can't, therefore, be used for judgmental condemnation of other positions, and yet there must be sensitivity towards a weaker brother or sister - these are issues of maturity.

But here is the backbone for the approach I am commending to Christians. Surprisingly it comes from the part of the Bible I would expect most criticism to be rooted in. Philippians 4.8 often finds itself in the fray on issues such as music. Here it is: 'Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy... - think about such things' (NIV). Such a statement seems to exclude any possibility of thinking proactively about extreme music?

Accidental exposure?

You might be 'accidentally' exposed to extreme music. What about the soap on TV? Or the 'evolution-focussed' nature documentary, or book? Or the increasingly shocking daily 'news' that we see on TV, or in papers?

Have we blown it? Do you see? Our world is fallen. Any rules we make for ourselves cannot protect us from exposure to it, not least because we are part of its very fallen-ness! So is this letter to the Philippians written to people in a different world?

Think

However our world's agendas come to us, whether it be through extreme music, any music, books, TV, living our lives - we must see it through the lens of God's word.

* Decipher the messages in the music.

* 'Double listening' is a helpful term - 'What does it say?' should always drive us to 'What God says'.

* Teach yourself and others to think. Be prepared to grow! Be prepared for opportunities. But beware of non-thinking. Getting too into one act - assuming the dress and image of that act. If you are finding that, why not broaden your listening. Buy more music!

* Don't forget that we may need to take some action. Are we listening? What are the lyrics saying? Think it through with an open Bible and act accordingly.

* Web sites such as Lyrics.com are very helpful in checking out lyrics. Also, individual groups tend to have sites where you can find out more about them.

There is a real opportunity to enjoy music, to build our own understanding of God's word, and experience the thrill of setting the gospel message against what our peers are listening to.

Be prepared to be thinking how true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable and utterly excellent and praiseworthy is our loving Father and his immeasurable grace to us in Christ, and the incomparable riches which we, as Christians, possess and benefit from through the work of the Holy Spirit.

Happy thinking.

For more info / questions: grapes@waitrose.com

This feature is based on a longer article: 'Extreme music - a biblical response for parents and youth leaders'.