Contemporary music leaves negative impression

Q: Can you illustrate your concerns about the lyrics of contemporary teen music, especially as they relate to attitudes toward parents?

A: It might be helpful to see how popular music has changed over the years.

Let’s go back to 1953, when the most popular song in the United States was sung by Eddie Fisher and was titled “Oh, My Papa.” Here’s a portion of the lyrics:

“Oh, my papa, to me he was so wonderful

Oh, my papa, to me he was so good.

No one could be so gentle and so lovable,

Oh, my papa, he always understood.”

That sentimental song accurately reflected the way many people felt about their fathers at that time in our history. Oh sure, there were conflicts and disagreements, but family was family. When it was all said and done, parents were entitled to respect and loyalty.

By the time I had reached college age, things were starting to change. The subject of conflict between parents and teenagers began to appear as a common theme in artistic creations. The movie “Rebel Without a Cause” featured a screen idol named James Dean who seethed with anger at his “old man.” Marlon Brando starred in “The Wild One,” another movie with rebellion as its theme. Rock ‘n’ roll music portrayed it, too.

But what began as engaging drama turned decidedly bitter in the late ’60s. Everyone in those days was talking about the “generation gap” that had erupted between young people and their parents. The Doors released a song in 1967 titled “The End,” in which lead singer Jim Morrison fantasized about killing his father.

In 1984, Twisted Sister released “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” which referred to a father as a “disgusting slob” who was “worthless and weak.” Then he was blasted out the window of a second-story apartment. This theme of killing parents showed up regularly in the decade that followed.

But for sheer depravity, nothing yet produced can match “Momma’s Gotta Die Tonight,” by Ice-T and Body Count. Most of the lyrics are unfit to quote here, but they involved graphic descriptions of the rapper’s mother being burned in her bed, then beaten to death with a baseball bat she had given him as a present, and finally the mutilation of the corpse into “little-bitty pieces.”

My point is that the most popular music of our culture went from the inspiration of “Oh, My Papa” to the horrors of “Momma’s Gotta Die Tonight” in scarcely more than a generation. The younger generation has been bombarded with more anti-family rhetoric than any that preceded it. When added to equally disturbing messages about drug usage, sex and violence against women, the impact has to be considered formidable.

MTV, which promotes the worst stuff available, is telecast into 231 million households in 75 countries, more than any other cable network. I believe many of the problems that plague this generation, from suicide to unwed pregnancy to murder, can be traced to the venom dripped into its veins by the entertainment industry in general.