By Robert Davidson, AFA Journal News Editor
January 1997 – Attics, closets, and storage rooms around the country are clogged with turntables with styluses worn to a nub by the countless times “zeeep” blared through the speakers as teens dragged hapless tone arms back and forth across a record. Tape decks with rewind mechanisms that have seen one too many stop, reverse, and play, sit perched amid the high school annuals chronicling the antics of the Classes of ’74 and ’81. The cause of such abuse – the tantalizing lure of sifting through an entire album collection listening intently for that one group that would dare tempt conventional wisdom and put “dirty words” in a song.
Oh, what a difference a decade makes. Now compact discs are the industry standard and “dirty words” – well, they have launched an entire genre of music known as rap. Now as the ’90s slowly slip into the history books, music is heading into a new arena – one that is dark and desperate, one that deals with shaping the mindset of the listener rather than merely causing a rosy hued blush by slipping in an occasional four-letter word.
Give praise to Satan, he has won
Dynical existence, crucifixion
You will give praise to Satan
Lord of lords, king of kings.
Crucifixation by the group Deicide.
That’s just a sampling of the volumes of blasphemous songs Deicide has performed. This particular group has not reached a mass commercial audience but they are sitting on the cusp of breaking into the mainstream. Some will scoff and say there’s no way a group whose name Deicide roughly translates into “the killing of a deity” can make an impact commercially or socially. For that crowd two words come to mind – Marilyn Manson.
Marilyn Manson is the breakthrough band for the Satanic set. The group and its namesake leader staked the claim to commercial success with Antichrist Superstar. The album debuted at #3 on the Billboard music chart and sold 300,000 copies in its first week of release. On the heels of the Manson album came the release of Blackacidevil by Danzig. That’s two albums in a three-week period from groups who make no effort to hide their genuine love for Satan and evil.
Al Menconi, one of the premier Christian experts on music, shudders at this development. “Just to show you how mainstream has changed and shifted to the left, if we could call this (Marilyn Manson) pop, can you imagine what the extreme is?” wondered Menconi.
Anti-choice, anti-girl
I am the anti-flag unfurled
Anti-white and anti-law
I got the anti-future plan
1996 from the album Antichrist Superstar by the band Marilyn Manson
Satanism is the buzz word that makes parents recoil in horror but the fascination with evil is just a minuscule part of the world of popular music. A theme of death, despair, and hopelessness mixed with a call for “me first at any cost” is rapidly becoming more than just fodder for a song. It’s becoming a constant companion among musicians and a worldview that many teens are adopting.
“You see, TV programs and rock videos are just like commercials. They are teaching their values to us,” said Menconi. “Just like a commercial sells a product – motion pictures, videos and music teach their values.”
Mike Dirnt of the group Green Day illustrates those values: “I think drinking and doing drugs are very important.”
“Here I am, going along in life, I’m suicidal, I’m completely depressed, I hate myself, I hate my band,” declared Billy Corgan of the Grammy Award-winning group Smashing Pumpkins.
You can’t fire me. I quit.
Scentless Apprentice from the group Nirvana whose lead singer
Kurt Cobain committed suicide.
Art does imitate life – and death. The words from the Nirvana song above were also the same ones found on the suicide note of a 16-year-old who, along with his 15-year-old girlfriend, jumped to their deaths off a California cliff. Those deaths were just two of a series of suicides authorities feel mimicked the death of the popular Cobain.
Another band, Slayer, is being sued because the parents of a 15-year-old murder victim allege that three teenage boys killed their daughter because of suggestions planted by the band’s lyrics.
Catch a slug or two, bill collector
Click, click, fall to the ground
Catching two to the head
Pop, pop, now you’re dead
Mr. Bill Collector by the rap group Bones, Thugs-N-Harmony.
Rap artists, specifically those that fall under the sub group “gangsta rap,” may be the biggest offenders of decency in music. They can also make an argument that they are the most successful. The Billboard charts of November 30 show three of the top 10 albums are from rap groups. Lyrics routinely advocate violence, drug use, and the degradation of women.
Violence is not only a recurring theme in the music but also in the lives of the performers. Rapper Tupac Shakur was gunned down recently in a Las Vegas hotel. Two members of the group Da Lench Mob were charged with murder with one being convicted and going to jail. The band N.W.A. launched the whole rap music scene and raised (or lowered, depending on your perspective) the standard for rap music content. Their album Niggaz4Life contained nearly 700 crude, defamatory or obscene words and no single selection was clean enough to receive mainstream radio airplay. Even though N.W.A. is defunct, former members like Ice Cube, Dr. Dre and the now deceased Eazy-E remained among the most influential rappers around.
Power is shifting rapidly in the $12 billion record business, with MCA Music emerging as one of the industry’s most potent players
“Changing Its Tune,” Los Angeles Times, 11/15/96
“No one will buy this kind of stuff, so I don’t need to worry about it” is a popular way for parents to dismiss any concern about the direction of popular music.
MCA Music has climbed to the top of the recording industry in the past few months with its current slate of new releases claiming 20% of the market. MCA is the parent company of Interscope records. Interscope is the distribution arm for the Trauma, Nothing, Death Row and Aftermath labels. Among the artists that fueled MCA’s rise to the pinnacle of the profession are Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails, Tupac Shakur and Snoop Doggy Dog. The most glaring example that perversion equals profit is that the top three albums in the country on the November 30 Billboard chart are all MCA clients.
Hey, Mr. Fallen Star
Don’t you know I worship you?
Hey, Mr. big rock star
I wanna grow up just like you
Mr. Superstar from the album Antichrist Superstar
by the band Marilyn Manson.
“My kids would never listen to something like that” is another popular dodge the Christian parent can call upon to ignore the sweeping, sinister bent of today’s tunes. It’s that attitude that artists like Marilyn Manson can bank on in their assault on Christianity and decency. Ironically, Marilyn Manson the man provides the best argument for parents to get more involved in what their kids are listening to.
Marilyn Manson is a stage name for Brian Warner, the same Brian Warner whose name dotted the rolls of Christian schools in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and surrounding areas. Researcher George Barna points out that four out of 10 teenagers believe in a deity other than that described in the Bible.
Menconi hammered home the fact that the teen from the Christian home is just as susceptible to the allure of secular music when he said, “The sad thing is that I only go to Christian organizations...and it’s the Christian kid that knows these groups very well.”
Mythology describes the death upon the rocks that met the ancient mariners when they listened to the Siren’s song. Now an even more seductive siren is wooing our teens into the trap of rock and rap. Are we going to show them the only Rock that really matters? 
Author’s note: Much of the information in this article comes from the book It’s All Rock-N-Roll to Me by David S. Hart. Hart is Managing Editor of Media Update published bi-monthly by Al Menconi Ministries. Al and David are among the foremost experts on popular music and its impact on the church in the United States. To contact Al Menconi Ministries, call 1- 800-78MUSIC.
