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So the other day I was watching Heavy: The Story of Metal, on VH1. A very good show especially if you are into bands like Black Sabbath, Led Zepplin, Judas Priest, Maiden, Motley Crue, Van Halen, Def Leppard, Twisted Sister, Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Anthrax, Marilyn Manson, or any other bands that were inspired by these bands.

Anyway. They were talking about the whole PMRC deal and how metal was the one who came out on top. For those of you who don't know, this case resulted in the "Parental Advisory" sticker being placed on certian albums. If your really curious, or bored:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PMRC
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parental_Advisory

So back when this was going on: objectionable, profane, violent, sexual, "satanic"/"demonic", etc music was being produced, it was such a big deal; however, today, these things don't seem to be as big of a problem. Why is that? Is it more acceptable? Has it becomed engrained in society? One thing that comes to my mind is that the late 70s early 80's generation, like my parents, knew the troubles they had with their parents when it came to music preference and now they don't want to do the same to their kids?

Travis,
I think that music has ALWAYS had it's fringe element, no matter what generation you are talking about. There has always been an exceptable form of music (or pretty much any art form) that societies have made mainstream, which of course then threw the "bad elements" out to the lower class.

You can go back to any generation, around the world and see this. In the early 50's, rock and roll was deamed profain. Earlier, Blues was the "evil" music that made people wild and uncrontrollable. Before that, it was blasfamous to produce an opera in anything but Italian, yet such strong headed composer's as Mozart did just that, to the great chastising of many conformists.

I grew up with the 70's and 80's heavy metal and punk movements, and believe me back then the music was considered "outrageous." Now, that same music is heard in elevators. Same as rock and roll of the 50's, same as blues, same as it ever was. Wild music of today will be the tame music of tomorrow.

Anyway, back to your question. I do think there is music today that is considered fringe, outrageous, and it's going to destroy the minds of youth everywhere. You may not see it so much from your parents because maybe you listen to music that conforms more to what they consider tolerable. I think the fringe music of today is gangster rap. Periodically it gets quite abit of media attention of how it is denigrading the black youth of america. It's leading them down the road of violence and crime. It will destroy everything good and just. How can we let this go on!! (insert sarcasm)

I guess I could sum it all up by saying that it is incrementalism. What was unacceptable yesterday is now acceptable, with a new unacceptable thing to take it's place. I could go on and on about how I try to slow down this societal degeneration as much as I can in my own way, but there is no stopping it. It has repeated itself way too many times throughout history, with the resulting fall of ALL great empires.

Very insightful. So what would happen if the "bad elements" were never thrown to the lower class? The world wouldn't function? Complete collapse of all humanity?

Another interesting thing that I got from that show was how all through the, "evolving years" of metal, the next decade didn't pay much attention to the previous decade's music. Basically, it was what ever was the "extreme" thing was. However this cycle has been broken, or completed depending on your perspective, since Ozzfest started. As the current decade/generation is getting exposed to all of the previous decade's music (Sabbath, Zeppelin, Priest, etc) and thinking, "Wow this stuff is GREAT!" Which has revived many older bands into releasing albums and doing tours.

Man if that extreme hardcore death metal is going to be acceptable in the next decade... I can't imagine what the extreme stuff will be then!