By Courtney Reiss, Editor
Senior Bradley Filerman is one of the many teenagers today that gets judged, labeled and targeted for being “violent” because of the type of music that he listens to.
“I listen to everything, classic rock, alternative metal and death metal. I get judged for it all the time,” Filerman said.
“At my old school, people thought I would kill anybody because of the music I listen to, when I’m really not a mean person. Just because I listen to metal and stuff that is heavy doesn’t make me ‘evil’ – it’s just music,” he said.
In all reality, he is not a violent person, and lyrics are most definitely not causing him to be a violent person. He listens to that type of music because “it has a good beat” and he “can connect to it.”
Ever since the dawn of rap music and “dark” lyrics, crazed parents and even lawyers have used it as an excuse for outrageous behavior in today’s youth. It seems like the media is the immediate answer to almost every act of violence committed by teens.
In 1994, two teenagers, Curtis Lee Walker and Denziss Jackson, shot and killed a Milwaukee police officer for “the fun of it.” In court, they claimed to be influenced by the lyrics of Tupac’s song “2 Pacalypse Now,” in which he embraces the killing of a policeman. In 1999, the infamous shooting occurred at Columbine High School, in which two seniors, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, killed 12 students and one teacher, then continued to commit suicide. The blame of the shooting was directed towards Marilyn Manson for his dark lyrics.
What the media seemed to leave out, for the most part, was that Walker had a six-year history of drug, burglary and weapons offenses. According to USA Today, Harris and Klebold had “serious psychological problems,” and psychologists say that Harris was a “cold-blooded, predatory psychopath.”
“I don’t believe music causes violence. Music is a good outlet for feelings. When you’re depressed, you listen to sad songs; when you’re angry, you listen to violent songs. The violence is already there; the music isn’t causing it,” School Resource Officer Keith Gardner said.
People need to take a step back, stop putting the blame on the lyrics their children are listening to, and start realizing that there is a much more serious problem at hand. As a society, we need to wake up and look for the real cause of teen violence instead of finding the easiest thing to blame it on. What needs to be looked at for the blame is mental status, criminal history and family life. These are the factors that would cause someone to commit murder – not music.
“People that use music as an excuse for violence already have a mental illness that causes it. I listen to Tupac and I don’t want to go shoot a cop,” Gardner said.
To those who believe that it is music causing violence in teens, ask yourselves this – does reading a suspense novel cause the reader to go out and commit murder? Does watching the news cause the viewer to go out and commit that same crime? No. And this is just as ridiculous, and almost laughable, as the concept of lyrics leading to violence. A teen who grows up in a healthy environment with a supporting and loving family doesn’t just wake up one day and say “Hey, murdering someone for fun sounds like a good idea because this song mentions it.”
It’s a question of whether it’s violent music that causes such people to behave aggressively, or is it just the mere fact that aggressive people simply prefer more violent music. The latter, to me, seems like a much more reasonable statement. The connection between the two does not mean one causes the other.
Senior Steven Krafft does not think music has any connection to violence.
“I listen to all types of music like hip-hop and jazz, and none of it makes me violent. If you’re going to be violent, it’s on your own, not from music,” Krafft said.
It is this mentality that leads to accusations and even false convictions of teenagers based off the simple fact that they listen to music our society considers “different.” Case in point: the West Memphis Three. Three teenage boys, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, were convicted of the murder of three eight-year-old boys, who were found mutilated and murdered in West Memphis, Ark.
Law enforcement officials and the media claimed that these boys were killed in an act of a Satanic cult ritual. Shortly after they were found, the newspapers stated that the murderers had been caught, and the police, so confident in their arrest, assured the community that the three teenage boys in custody were the ones definitely responsible for the heinous crime.
Evidence? The question I’m sure most are wondering at this point. Well, the answer – none. There was absolutely no physical evidence, motive, murder weapon, or connection to the victims found. So how did these boys get blamed for this crime in the first place? Black hair and clothing, music taste in heavy metal and Stephen King novels. This was the proof that the prosecution pitifully presented to prove that these boys committed a “Satanic murder.”
Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley were all wrongfully convicted of murder, a crime they did not commit, based largely on their clothing style and the music that they listened to. Echols was sentenced to death, Baldwin received life without parole and Misskelley got life plus 40. They fought for their freedom for 18 years, and for all that time these innocent men were imprisoned, all because of a rush to judgment.
On Aug. 19, Echols, Baldwin and Misskelley proclaimed their innocence and were set free. Despite their innocence and newfound freedom, prosecutors are threatening a second trial in 2012.
So what everyone needs to realize is that it is not music that causes violence in today’s youth, there is a much deeper meaning. Society needs to stop making assumptions and judging teenagers based off of black clothing and their taste in music. Music is an escape from real life and a way for teens to express how they feel. It’s something that can always be relied on and way to cope with feelings – not something that causes murder. If media does cause violence, the toxic reality-based TV shows today are more likely to be the cause than Marilyn Manson.
