So when people are talking about Eminem or whoever the latest hooligan to get parents worried is, the usual liberal argument (or one of them anyway) is this one, it's just a cd, it's just music, it can't do any damage. Seems sensible.
However the same people are the ones who'll talk about a cd they like in terms of its' life changing genius, and how affecting it was. etc.
So what's the truth. can cds affect people only in a positive way, or is it true that music is just music and these people are talking through their arse about "life changing" cds.
― Ronan, Tuesday, 18 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)
Well there is that Cenobite in Hellraiser 3 who has a CD player in
his head and fires out CD's as an offensive weapon, decapitating
someone somewhere along the line. So CD's can kill...
― Pete, Tuesday, 18 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)
Two different things being talked about here surely - the power of
art to affect our lives, and the capacity of art to alter our
behaviour in specific and - crucial this - predictable ways (which is
what's implied by a CD "causing" something).
My life was changed by The Smiths, for instance, and for a year or so
I semi-consciously took Morrissey as a role model. I can completely
see kids doing the same with 'bad' role models like Eminem - so no,
it's not "just a CD".
(But in a sense even taking bad role models is neccessary, because
it's part of the kids' becoming an individual, becoming an adult,
learning that acting like Eminem doesn't actually get you much but
grief (just as I learned that acting like Moz doesn't make you deep,
witty and poetic, it more often than not makes you a sad wallflower).)
The point is though that nobody could have predicted with any
certainty that that CD would have affected that kid in that way.
Also there is a crucial distinction between speaking for yourself -
"Eminem made me a thug" - and presuming to speak for other people's
experiences of art - "Eminem made him a thug".
It's worth remembering that a lot of the people who argue for
censorship or art or literature or music are highly religious - they
know experientially that human lives can be changed and guided by a
book. Which is why the only-a-CD argument so often falls on deaf ears.
― Tom, Tuesday, 18 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)
Vinyl can be just as sharp though, if not sharper - leading to more
likelyhood to be used by crazed denizen of hell as its amusing
murderous gimmick.
― Pete, Tuesday, 18 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)
Tapes, now they'd hurt if thrown. minidiscs however are just silly.
did that hellraiser have the pinhead guy who looks like the muse
singer in the new video?
― Ronan, Tuesday, 18 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)
I dunno. I got some Black Metal on vinyl and they played Satanic
messages when listened to forward. When I played them backwards I got
messages to put my trust in Jaheseus Christ.
― Kodanshi, Tuesday, 18 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)