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Certainly, there is music that for some people is bad in the sense that it’s hard on their nerves. This isn’t just limited to those with sensitive nervous systems. Within, for example, some maximum security prisons, the use of prolonged exposure to Heavy Metal has been experimented on hardened inmates, as a torturous tactic or interrogative device, in order to get the prisoners either to plead for mercy or to spill their beans. Some of these incorrigible toughies experience so much mental suffering that they want out.
Music styles have certainly changed over the years. Just two or three generations ago much of the music was upbeat no matter what the genre, be it Swing, Jazz, Doo-Wop, Ragtime, etc. There were uptempo hops, hoedowns and hootenannies.
Many senior citizens that I know remember how it used to be back in the “good ol’ days” surrounded by their golden oldies, and consider much of today’s platters unmelodic if not entirely tuneless. They don’t understand free-form dancing and have a difficult time clapping along to Heavy Metal. To them, they wonder how it all went so wrong, downhill, in just a single lifespan. They might not use the term egregious to describe it; content with the word bad, instead. For these seniors, it’s not how fast or how loud an electric guitar is played that determines quality, but how pleasing music is to listen to that counts the most. For them, there may be very little skill in the act of crooning as compared to the technique of playing like a Hendrix but they consider the crooner to be a better musician on account of his truly melodic soul, his “musical simplicity.” One doesn’t require a symphony in order to tap one’s feet; a simple finger-snappin’ a-capella ditty can do the trick, too.
There was a time, a few centuries ago, when practically the only music around were devotionals. These were undoubtedly uplifting songs, sung in the spirit of a church choir. This thought comes to mind whenever I think of today’s “Christian Rock.” There are those who consider this to be an oxymoron. So much for Sunday Best and hymnody. I’ve met a few Evangelicals who are ashamed that “Christian Rock” exists. They regard it as a watered-down form of the Word, worldly in tone, hypocritical in its aggressive and Rock-mimicking stagecraft. Somehow they can’t picture Christ sporting black eyeshadow, dressed in gothic garb, head-banging in a mosh pit, or being giddily passed around by screaming fans.
Many people wan't to know: Why is so much Hard Rock, Punk, Heavy Metal, so dark, downbeat, and grungy? Why perpetually wallow in misery or release rage into a mic when you could be doing something more positive and constructive with your time? The odd dirge and angry vocal is only understandable. Life has both its ups and downs. Even the Bible speaks of lamentations. But to devote every song and your entire life – as most bandsmen of the above-mentioned genres do – around incessant melancholia and/or angst? I remember one guy saying to me, how these guys aren’t deserving of record contracts but therapy.
In my younger days, back in my late teens and into my early twenties, I preferred a lot of New Wave (I still do, somewhat) and even some Hard Rock. Over the years, however (or perhaps, since I’ve matured) my musical tastes have changed, as if I’ve outgrown the childless frivolity and discord of youth and early manhood. Many “New Age” artists and NDE experiencers speak of this inner transition, too – of their having been at one time into aggressive beats and fast tempos but have, over time, mellowed and now prefer to chill.
If by “bad” what is meant is unwholesome or ungodly, there are those who feel that one only has to look at a lot of the cover art of Heavy Metal music to think that the Bible might be onto something. Consider that a lot of this artwork mocks Christian iconography and is nightmarishly twisted if not demonic in appearance. This, a far cry from the harps and cheery birdcalls of seventh heaven.
There is this thing called “backward masking.” It is this belief that some people have that some Heavy Metal songs contain demonic messages when played in reverse. Maybe this is true and maybe it isn’t.
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