To Rate or Not to... Protect

In response to the question of whether or not record companies should post parental advisory warning labels on the music they distribute, I think that record labels should post warning labels and even intensify the extent to which they protect the listener. Music seems to be the only mass media marketed that does not take extensive lengths to protect the listener/viewer from objectionable content. The movie industry has the MPAA rating system. Television also has a rating system. The music industry, however, only has “parental advisory” stickers. These stickers are, in my opinion, largely ineffective. A better system of rating music and protecting the listener is needed.

To purchase tickets for an R rated movie, one must be at least 17 years of age and possess proof of that age at the time of purchase. This effectively prohibits immature audiences from seeing and hearing things that they ought not to observe. This does not mean that there is nothing objectionable in movies possessing something lower than an R rating, but simply that most objectionable content is unattainable without the assistance of someone older. I have two comments about this in relation to the music industry. The first is that the music industry needs a more effective rating system than simply “parental advisory.” This offers very little guidance except to say that there is something objectionable on this album. The movie industry, however, has no less than 4 rating which are given to movies for varying degrees of objectionable content. The type of objectionable content in the film is then listen below the rating so that they viewer knows what is contained in that movie to give it that rating. The music industry has nothing comparable to this. A several tiered rating system similar to the movie industry with an explanation of the type of content contained in the music would be a helpful guide for both listeners and parents. That way parents could gauge what type of content is contained in their kid’s music.

My second thought relating the movie industry’s rating system to the music industry’s lack of rating system is that even the movie industry’s rating system is somewhat ineffective because measures that need to be taken to enforce the system, such as checking IDs before selling tickets to an R rated movie, are not taken. Not only does this need to be remedied in the movie industry, but effective measures need to be taken to make sure music with objectionable content is not distributed to those that should not be listening to it. I would propose a 3-4 tiered music rating system in which content is rated based on very similar criteria to which movies are rated. This would, hopefully, significantly reduce the amount of music containing foul content that is being distributed today. If this content really does have an affect on the behavior of our youth, which I am of the opinion that it, along with other media, does, then this would curtail a lot of the violence stemming from the music that our youth are listening to. I cannot see anything negative coming from increasing the rating system by which our music is evaluated. An outcry might arise from the record industry if a change of this nature were to be implemented, but that is only because it would hurt them in their wallets.

Response to Bloom

In his essay in Music and Culture, Mr. Bloom argues the point that young people today are so engrossed with their music that they are unable to truly experience passion and intellect in anything other than their rock and roll.

I would partially agree with Mr. Bloom. He makes the point that rock music “ruins the imagination of young people and makes it difficult for them to have a passionate relationship to the art and thought that are the substance of liberal education.” I would disagree with his statement that it is just rock music that does this. I would submit that an overindulgence of popular media, of which rock music is part, causes this atrocity to come about.

In our day and age there is very little that goes on in peace and quiet. When we are home, our stereos and televisions blare throughout our dwellings. When we drive in the car, we listen to the radio. When we go into a restaurant or a store, there is music playing or a television in the corner. There are very few places in life where we are not constantly being entertained. This overload of the senses, I believe, has a similar effect to what Mr. Bloom has mentioned in his essay. There is no time for thinking anymore. There is no time to contemplate art, literature, and faith. What this has led to is a generation disinterested in using their brains. We consume media in such large quantities that there is hardly any room left to have what Mr. Bloom calls “a passionate relationship to the art and thought that are the substance of liberal education.”

This overindulgence of popular media has left us ignorant of the great minds and artists of the past. I believe this is what Mr. Bloom is trying to say when he says that this generation finds that “they are deaf.” Now I understand that by saying “we” I am making a gross generalization of this generation. I am agreeing with Mr. Blooms points understanding that his essay was written during the Reagan administration and that many of the youth he was speaking of when he penned this essay are now well into their 30s and 40s. However, I believe that his critique of the youth in the 80s is even truer of us today.

I really enjoy rock music, but I find that the point of rock music has precisely the effect upon the mind and soul that Mr. Bloom describes. However, I believe this effect is not exclusively brought about by rock music. It is the product of many forms of mindless entertainment. A glaring example of this is the laxity and uncaring attitude I see in students today, including myself. There are many times when I would rather watch a movie or listen to music instead of building my mind through my homework. It was quoted to me once by a fellow student that “education is the only commodity with which consumers are satisfied to pay more and receive less.” I see this principle creeping into my thinking quite often. I also see it in many of those around me. If we are to not be a generation that is “deaf” to those that have come before, it would do us well to lessen our intake of popular media and increase our intake of things that cause us to exercise our minds and thus cause us to grow.