Promoting Violence

When paying close attention to many song lyrics, you can hear the promotion of violent acts. Weather it be a rap song or a country song, the promotion or violence is being spread to music fans. These songs are promoting violence by speaking of killing people, suicide and flashing their gang "signs" in their music videos.

For instance, in a popular song by the hip-hop artist Eminem, he talks about shooting someone using theses lyrics, " I'ma pull you to this bullet, and put it through you." When a fan is listening and singing with these lyrics, do you think they know that he is singing about killing somebody? Yes, they know but they think that it is okay, because he is just singing about it and not acting on his lyrics. Wrong. 2-Pac and Christopher Wallace "Biggie Smalls" were both shot because of the lyrics in their songs and the gang signs that they flashed.

When watching a rap song on a music channel such as MTV or BET, you hardly ever miss a video that doesn't have men and women that are in gangs and doing the hand signals to represent them. After watching videos and learning the lyrics, people, especially young fans, start to dress and act, like their idol singers. Well, when a young singer sees their favorite artists represent a gang using his or her fingers, they too make the signal and flash it. Just with the use of their fingers can start fights and get you into a lot of trouble.

Suicide is another example of violence that is put into songs. "Whiskey Lullaby," a very popular country song by Brad Paisley, is a perfect example. In his song he writes, "He put the bottle to his head, and pulled the trigger," meaning he drank his pain away and then ended up shooting himself. Is this really okay for listeners of any age? In this particular song, the "He" has lost a love one and decides to kill himself because of his loss. Does a man or women in a similar situation need to hear that, they may just think it is a way out of their problems. Music does not need to become an answer to a desperate person in a desperate situation.

With all of these violent lyrics being sung by very popular musicians, how will anybody ever know between the right and the wrong? Killing people, suicide and the use of gang signals are just of few of the violent things that are being said and done in lyrics. It should be stopped to prevent death and other violence.