No matter where anyone turns, they hear music. And there is such a wide variety of it that there is almost definitely something available that will catch almost anyone’s ear. But music is much more than the guitar melodies and the beating of the drum set. Besides it’s unique sound, a song is set apart from all others by its lyrics. The lyrics give a song its meaning and usually portray a message. The message that every song contains has deeper and different meaning than some people get out of it. Often times people react to a song’s lyrics because

Ozzy Osbourne is one of the other musicians surrounded by controversy concerning his music. Back in 1985 Osbourne was sued for the “aiding, or advising, or encouraging” (Nuzum, Eric - the 1980’s 17) of the suicide of John McCullom through his song “Suicide Solution”. The song that is the topic of this controversy contained lyrics such as “Make your bed, rest your head. But you lie there and moan. Where to hide, suicide is the only way out. Don’t you know what it’s all about” (Veinotte, Barry 2). Osbourne responded to these accusations by stating, “Parents have called me and said, ‘When my son died of a drug over-dose, your record was on the turntable.’ I can’t help that. These people are freaking out anyway, and they need a vehicle for the freak outs” (Veinotte, Barry 3). The judge in this case decided there wasn’t enough evidence and dismissed the case.

they feel the song helps express feelings that they have been feeling. But there are also those times when a person has supposedly reacted to a song in such a way that has sparked huge controversy and attention. Most often, the hype and attention is based around the fact the music that society listens to is accused of being a connection to the violence seen today. The argument is that musicians are writing songs that portray a message that “promotes” or “suggests” not only violent acts but also drugs, sex, and vulgar language. The main group that these messages are influencing is today’s young people, prominently teenagers. Thomas Jipping, Director of the Free Congress Foundation’s Center for Law & Democracy, made an argument that expresses this one view on this matter by stating, “Popular music is the single most influential factor for many young people, and intuition, experience and research show this is an issue of potential harm, not just an issue of taste” (Popular Music’s Deadly Influence 3).

In recent times, music has made a huge step that has had a definite impact on the way society listens and responds to music. With the advancement of technology and computers has come the creation of the MP3. An MP3 is a compressed digital music file. In simpler terms, it is a song file that has CD quality sound yet is small in size that can be played on your computer. Because of its small size, an MP3 is easily downloadable and uploadable making it possible to trade songs over the Internet. And that is exactly what has happened. Because of the advancement of the Internet and the creation of the MP3, a program has evolved that has forever changed how society listens to music. Several years ago, a teenager named Shawn Fanning, created a program that made the sharing of MP3’s possible and a lot easier. Through his program, called Napster, people are able to search for basically any song and download that song from another Napster user onto his or her own computer. This concept gained huge recognition and support mainly through college students because of the chance to get the music they want for free instead of going out and buying a whole CD sometimes just for one particular song. But this concept wasn’t supported by everyone. Music groups such as Metalica and Dr. Dre have sued Napster for aiding in the illegal distribution of pirated songs. This lawsuit has drawn the media’s attention but hasn’t stopped people from continuing to download songs at will. Thirty-eight million people still use Napster despite these claims (Eliscu, Jenny 1). Still other groups and musicians side with Napster because they

Some topics in this essay:
Parental Advisory, , Deadly Influence, Music/Violence Connection, Veinotte Barry, Internet Napster, Shawn Fanning, MP3 MP3, Advisory Label, School April, parental advisory, society listens, sound song, stop violence, marilyn manson, music’s deadly influence, doesn’t play, people react, blame musicians, creation mp3, bailey william, music doesn’t play, popular music’s deadly,