“Music”, Oxford dictionary commonly defines music as “the art of combining vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion.” On average, American youth listen to music and watch music videos four to five hours a day, which is more time than they spend with their friends outside of school or watching television. Music becomes a vital part of a teenagers life. Music has been pushing the envelope for years, Elvis, Madonna, Marilyn Manson, Eminem, Sex Pistols, and the Ramones, just to name a few of the more well known artists that have pushed the envelope. People get offended because these artists talk about sex or violence. They’re just people speaking their mind, if you don’t want to promote them or hear them, then don’t purchase their music.

In the Twisted Sister video, “We’re Not Gonna Take It”, a teen, angry because he can’t listen to rock music, hurls his father out of a window. Later that same year a teen in New Mexico murders his father in the same fashion. In the late 80’s, Aerosmith released their music video for their single “Janie’s Got a Gun, it depicted a teenage girl shooting her father

It isn’t music, or the videos that cause these violent acts but the environment the teen grows up in. Whether it’s school or parenting, something happened to the teen along the way that just screwed their head up. Just look at the cases I gave above, like when the girl shoots her father dead because of the Aerosmith song. She wouldn’t have shot him if she hadn’t been sexually abused, and thus the song would have no effect on her. It is obvious that she was sexually abused; otherwise an entire country of teenage girls would shoot their fathers dead because of the song. The two Columbine killers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, were constantly taunted in school from an early age, just try to imagine the effects that must’ve had on their minds. Even then it is highly improbable that music is the sole factor in these violent crimes. Def Press’ Pollack had this to say: “There is no scientific proof that what you listen to on a record album is going to cause any kind of specific behavior. If so, you better go ban all the Wagner albums right now, because that was Hitler’s favorite musician”. I don’t see all of the teens (many of them probably peaceful) who still listen to Wagner going out and declaring mass genocide. As a matter of fact, Hitler is a perfect example, since many know that his childhood was far from perfect. Listening to music didn’t make him declare war against the entire Jewish religion, but it’s very likely that the environment he was raised in helped him out along the line. “High television is correlated with careless parenting; aggressive behavior in children is also correlated

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