Rap/CrunkCore

[Naamah D.]

What's everyone's opinion on Rap and CrunkCore music? I don't mind it and actually like some of it. I don't mind music like Flo Rida, Dot Dot Curve, Hollywood Undead (not with the new singer), the old singer for Hollywood Undead's solo project and that one song I didn't understand when I was a 6th grader. I'm a huge snob when it comes to that kind of music. All because I listen to Rap and CrunkCore doesn't mean I have to listen to it in front of my mom. That would be awkward.

 

So do you think that Rap and CrunkCore influences people to use cuss words and do unsafe and illegal activities?

[Emily]

I actually like Hollywood Undead, but I'm more into the R&B style rap (Common, Mos Def, Lupe Fiasco, etc) and a lot of the stuff that was bigger in the 90s (Ja Rule, DMX, Nelly's first few albums, etc).

 

Saying a type of music makes you do anything annoys me so much. Maybe it's because I've been stigmatized most of my life for loving heavy metal. I don't think listening to a certain type of music inherently makes people behave a certain way. I've seen tweens who listen to bubblepop cuss just as much as kids who listen to gangster rap. I've seen straight-edge, church-going kids get into more trouble than most of my "troublemaking" metalhead friends. It doesn't matter what you listen to, but how you discern what is appropriate sociological behaviour from inappropriate. Just because someone listens to a rap album, doesn't mean they're going to go cuss out grandma, just like someone who watches a horror movie isn't going to go chop someone's head off with a chainsaw. Obviously, you're not going to give a two-year-old who's just learning how to talk an Eminem album, but as far as kids who are old enough to know what the things talked about in these songs are, I don't see it as a problem.

 

When people can't tell the difference between what's appropriate and what's not, it's not the music you need to worry about. There are clearly other psychological or social problems at work. A large issue is context. Give a kid who's never learned about the issues discussed in these songs, about sex, or drugs, or violence, or race relations, a rap album and yes, they won't know what to do with it. They've never been exposed to the issues, so they don't know of the consequences, about what is appropriate and what is not or in what context. They could very well emulate the behaviour in the songs because they don't know they're not supposed to. If you're going to let your kid listen to that kind of music, you have a responsibility to help them make sense of it.

 

I think the issue of thinking that games/music/culture in general is "responsible" for bad behaviour is just another way for people to pass off responsibility onto someone (or something) else. It's easy to say "This song made little Billy do this," but harder to take the time to teach your kids what to do with the bombardment of cultural influences they're subjected to on a daily basis. If hundreds of thousands of other people can listen to the same songs, play the same games, read the same books without any issues, I think it's safe to say that it's not the medium that's affecting behaviour, it's the specific person manifesting behaviour of their own volition.

[Kittyn]

I had never heard of the term crunkcore before now... and of all the "notable artists" on Wikipedia, the only one I've ever listened to is Hollywood Undead. to be honest, I don't pay much attention to genres. if I hear a song that I like, I download all the music from that artist and decide if I like the rest of it or not. people tend to jaw-drop when I decide to play music at work (I'm a bartender). I range from The Temptations (I grew up listening to 50's/60's music), to Bullet For My Valentine, to Britney Spears, to FireHouse, to Insane Clown Posse, to Green Day, to DMX.. honestly, I just love music in general! the one genre that I've never really be into is country. I've listened to so much of it at work that I don't mind it, but it's definitely not my go-to.

 

and as for being influenced to do things because of music.. pfft. we are responsible for our own actions, whether we want to admit it or not! I say this all the time! anyway, I listen to ICP, Tech N9ne and Brotha Lynch Hung a lot--and if you know their music, you know their lyrics are often disgusting, violent, and/or degrading toward women. can't honestly say I've ever had the impulse to actually run out and murder someone because I've been listening to their music. the same goes for violence in movies and tv shows. almost anyone using these as an excuse for their actions is just looking for someone to blame.

[blueberrykiwi141]

I would fully agree with Kittyn on music and our actions for sure.

It is our responsibility to control ourselves, people need to stop blaming music.

 

I love all types of music some more than others, but I have a wide variety that I have listed to and still listen to.

[Naamah D.]

What really makes me mad is the whole "Rap degrades women". If a woman wants to be in a music video it's her choice. I feel the same way about Playboy.

 

While I don't approve of women being called those words casually by men it's music!