The Corruption of Music - Part 2

Research material for this post includes “Chart Watch”, published by Focus on the Family.

In my last two posts, I talked about the Creation and Corruption of Music. We saw first that music is not just something we listen to but something that wields great control in our lives. It is used effectively by advertisers to sell products and services, and to promote just about anything you can think of. We saw that the human mind has the ability to store, retain and recall an incredible amount of musically driven messages.

The reason, we learned, is because that's the way God fashioned us. God created music before the foundation of the world and He made it to glorify himself. Job 38:7 tells us that while God was creating the world, before the creation of man, "the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?"

Finally we saw in Ezek. 28, that Lucifer, the Guardian Cherub, who was created to dwell in the presence of God and direct praise to God, who abandoned that appointment because he wanted to be God, who was expelled from heaven and became Satan, the prince of darkness, was created a musical being. It appears from the text in Ezek. 28 that Lucifer had musical instruments that were actually a part of his created make up, "tambourines, and flutes". And when he lost his heavenly position and was cast to the earth, he maintained that created make up and music is still a part of his nature, and that the corruption of music began at that point. Therefore, as believers, we must be very careful about the music we allow to enter our hearing.

In this post I want to address the issue of exactly what the music industry is selling. What are you hearing when you listen to secular music? What messages are being communicated?

I believe one of the most subtle affects that I have seen in secular music is found in the Christian home.

In 25+ years of ministry I've seen many times, Christian homes, out of which have come grown children who are not serving the Lord. They were homes with committed Christian parents who loved the Lord, served the Lord, went to church, took their children to church, tithed, worked, and prayed. Often they were even good disciplinarians and didn't let their children stay out late or go certain places. But their children turned from the truth. What happened? In many of those cases the rebellion or loss of respect for Godliness can be traced to the fact that these families listened to secular music in the home.

Secular music you will remember is music that is worldly rather than godly. The style doesn't matter. It may have been pop, rock n roll, or country. But while these parents didn't allow their kids to get into the world, they allowed the world to get into their kids by listening to worldly music by worldly people that teach worldly values. And the power of music consumed them.

What is the music industry teaching? As I have spent the last 33 years evaluating this phenomenon since I became a Christian, I have found 5 major themes in most secular music. Those themes are:

1. Illicit sex and sexual perversion

2. Drug abuse (including alcohol)

3. Rebellion against authority

4. Violence (including the glorification of death, murder and suicide)

5. Anti-Christian, pro Satanistic philosophies

Now I want to be clear, and I don’t want to be misunderstood here. Much modern secular lyrical music will contain one or more of these themes. But I’m not saying that all music of all times other than Christian music is of the devil or that it is sin for a believer to ever listen to any other music. I’m not saying that at all. Some music such is amoral meaning that it is neither moral nor immoral; spiritually it is neither good nor bad. Some classical music, or other instrumental music, or cultural music is simply for the enjoyment of the art and no judgment can be made about it. Some songs are innocent and simply meant for fun. I may address this more in a later post. But the kind of music I’m going to deal with in this and the next post are popular lyrical music of various styles that dominate western culture and have for decades.

Let me illustrate these five themes. I need to warn you that some of the things you are about to read are somewhat graphic.

I. ILLICIT SEX. This is probably the single most prominent theme in music today. It has been for a number of years and I suppose that's why Christians have become so desensitized to it. My first embarrassing encounter with music came when I was only 3 or 4 years old. I was in some sort of Christmas play or some other program in the Methodist Church that my mom occasionally attended.

I was on the stage with a bunch of other kids and we were supposed to be singing Christmas carols or something. But when all the other kids finished and stopped, there was one lone voice still singing. Mine. And do you know what I was singing? The 1957 Buddy Knox song, Party Doll, with such spiritually uplifting lyrics as “Come along and be my party doll, I want to make love to you.”

Now you may laugh at that? But the question that must be asked is, is that really funny? Where did I hear that? My family had a collection of secular music on records, (Remember singles on 45 rpm vinyl records?) and it was playing in our house all the time. I HEARD IT AT HOME.

The primary message of secular music has not changed over the last 50 years except for the worse. And for the last 3 or 4 decades the sexual message of music has not only been that of just "natural" heterosexual sex, but that of all manner of sexual perversion, such as Homosexuality, Bestiality, Necrophilia, and Sado-masochism, which is sexual pleasure derived by inflicting pain.

Now when I first started teaching this material I used the music of the sixties and seventies as illustrations. Then of course as time marched on I used the music of each succeeding decade. And what I became obvious through those years was that the music evolves in style and there are new songs and new lyrics, but really the content doesn’t change except as I mentioned, it gets worse. So in the last 7 or 8 years I haven’t updated my illustrations, because it is unnecessary. I hope you won’t use that as an excuse to disregard the truths that I present.

Over the last several years Britney Spears has become the poster child for the dysfunctional pop idol. You probably don’t need me to tell you about the series of crisis situations that her lifestyle has caused her and her family. And today her music and videos are lascivious, lewd and obscene. But even early in her career, as pop sensation, while she professed to be a virgin, with millions of pre-teen, teen, and adult fans, the lyrics to her songs were far from innocent. But what message are Britney and the music industry sending them. Here's an example of the lyrics in her 1999 song "Soda Pop" from her album titled “Baby One More Time.”

"...we might start riding to the music tonight... a wicked time to the end... we'll flex tonight until they break down the door. I bet you we can pop like we've never popped it before. It's cool Britney when we get down on the floor... and we go on and on until the break of dawn".

Backstreet Boys, song Get Down. "If you want it to be good girl, get yourself a bad boy. There's a thing your mamma shouldn't know. There's a thing I really what to show you".

How about Garth Brooks The song "That Ol Wind, implies that intimate relations between strangers can produce genuine love. On the number one country hit She's Every Woman, Garth explained that he has had numerous lovers and fantasized about others.

Billy Ray Cyrus, song "Words by Heart”, recalls adolescent sex (that night on my bed).

Alan Jackson has recollections of a drunken romp with a "naked woman" in the song "Must've had a Ball".

The group KORN rattles off obscenities one after another. Of one of it's albums, Jonathan Davis, of the band said, "I just wanted something violent and full of cuss words". By the way much of contemporary Rock n Roll, is little more than audio pornography, with lyrics and content that I wouldn't dare speak.

Masturbation and sex with strangers is advocated on the KORN song "A.D.I.D. A. S", which stands for All Day I Dream About Sex.

Reba McEntire The song “The heart is a Lonely Hunter” implies that adultery is wrong but casual sex between single adults who meet in a bar is okay.

Spice Girls Sexual propositions and innuendo drive the vast majority of their tracks. Like: "Wanna make love to you baby...Get it on, get it on...If you wanna be my lover... and, slam you body down and wind it all around."

George Strait In "One night at a Time", an uncommitted couple shares "love all night", in a series of rendezvous.

Shania Twain suggests that hanging out in bars and giving in sexually to a sincere man are okay.

II. DRUGS Drugs and secular music are inseparable. Where there is one, eventually and inevitably there will be the other. Several years ago, when I was pastoring in North Missouri, I worked part time as a counselor in a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center. I was amazed to hear residents in the center being allowed to play music that glorified drugs and alcohol. I brought it to the attention of the director but was told that it had no affect. Well you know from what we have already seen that is not true. And these programs wonder why their success rate is so low.

As long as there has been country music, it has glorified booze. The rock culture began in the sixties to promoted drugs. Here are some more recent examples.

While the Beastie Boys song “Get it together”, puts down the use of crack, their album "Ill Communication", pleads for the legalization of Marijuana.

Brooks and Dunn, a country duo, typically have lyrics in which whiskey flows liberally. Their song "Redneck Rhythm and Blues", lives for the work whistle and a trip to the local "waterin hole." If love goes bad they recommend beer and booze to ease the pain in songs like "More than a Margarita", "One Heartache at a Time", and "Tequila Town".

From Vince Gill's, (who I believe professes to be a Christian), "When Love Find's You" Album. The song, "What Cowgirls Do", includes partying where they "chugalug long necks till the money's all gone".

John Michael Montgomery's song "Friday at Five, talks about partying "with a girl on my arm and a beer in my hand."

Smash Mouth a band based in San Jose California advocates the use of marijuana. Their song "Heave Ho" glamorizes pot smoking and alcohol.

Geroge Strait sings of a married man prone to drinking with the boys and "flirting with every woman in town. And alcohol pours freely on his, "I met a friend of your's today".

Goo Goo Dolls, a band out of Buffalo New York. Alcohol is equated with fun times in their song "Eyes Wide Open".

Green Day applauds cocaine and amphetamine use in the song "Geek Stink Death". "Tight Wad Hill" is the story of a thrill seeking drug addict.

311 glorifies pot smoking and hallucinogenic drug trips.

Usher, the Album "My Way", the song "Just like me" advocates the use of cocaine among other things.

Weezer, the song "Undone" opens with beer and blasphemy.

Revelation 21:8 tells us that one of the seven great sins of the last days will be what the KJV calls, "Sorcery". The NIV says, "those who practice magical arts". But the Greek is one Word "pharmakos". It is the word from which we get our English word Pharmacy and it literally means (enchantment with drugs). Today we would say "drug abuse". Satan uses drugs, including alcohol, mingled with music to undermine moral values.

John Lennon of the Beatles was a heroine addict.

David Bowie, who was a 70's rock icon, told Rolling stone magazine, "I was junked out of my mind most of the time.

In my next post I will continue this discussion and present illustrations of the final three themes found in secular music.