Censor Violent Music

Feb 21, 2010 Editorial

The debate on violence in our schools and among our youths in general continues to swirl in our midst. As we pointed out in our editorial “Violence in Schools”, there is no monocausal explanation for the phenomena and as such there will be no silver bullet that will rid us of the problem.
In the meantime, since there is hopefully unanimous agreement that violence is not a socially positive behaviour (excepting maybe for the surviving Fanonists in our midst) we will have to look at the more obvious triggers that set off our youths and take appropriate corrective action.
Over the last few decades in which we have witnessed the steady and seemingly inexorable rise of youth violence, it has been accompanied by forms of music that glorify and encourage the trend. In the US we have Gangsta Rap; from Jamaica, Dancehall morphed through various increasingly violent variations to the current Gaza and Gully nihilism.
And while comparatively innocuous and presently wallowing in self-inflicted violence (mainly rum drinking) Trinidadian Chutney shows definite signs of joining the genre of violence-provoking music. They all end up in Guyana where our youths just lap them up, and it appears, heed the encouragement of the lyrics.
While there might be those that will protest that, “It’s only music”, from the dawn of civilization it has been acknowledged that music is one of the most potent form of communication among humans – and even some animals. The reach of music is universal and appears to reach deep into the human psyche.
While as far back as the 17th century it was asserted that “Musick hath Charms to sooth a savage Beast, To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak”, there has been ample evidence that it can just as effectively accomplish the reverse effect. It is not for naught that there is the genre of “marital music”. There is no disputing that music affects us emotionally and psychologically and can powerfully influence our behaviour.
The genres mentioned above explicitly encourage a wide range of antisocial behaviour, criminality and violence – especially against females. The language deployed encourages the use of weapons and homophobic attacks.
They glorify such behaviour and because the artistes that spew the most outrageous lyrics – such as Kartel and Movado – are able to live in “style”, they become role models for their impressionable, young audiences.
Buju Banton’s arrest in Florida on drug trafficking charges is not atypical of the lifestyle promoted by the new wave music. In Jamaica, and we have no reason that it has not spread to Guyana, partisans of Gaza and Gully routinely erupt into pitched battles against each other.
The music is also socially destructive because it consistently pushes negative stereotypes – especially about the poor and the powerless that the artistes purport to speak for. While these artistes claim that they are merely reflecting a reality that exists – in the end it is a very selective depiction of that reality.
Poor communities are not all about wife beating, rum drinking and rumbling with weapons. By reinforcing the negative stereotypes, the music normalise their acceptance within the group that most need a vision of a way out.
We would like to propose that the government has to look at the effects of the violence-inducing music on our young people and begin to take some action. We might have to look at some form of censorship of the more pernicious lyrics. We all accept the moral legitimacy of the government legislating and imposing sanctions against hate speech and invidious racially negative stereotyping. There is an identically analogous situation with the music we are discussing.
The government has a duty to act when public morality is being corroded but especially so when it affects the most vulnerable of our society – the young.
There is, of course, the danger of governmental censorship spilling over into more insidious forms of statist control. But we have to weight the possibility of that danger against the clear and present cancer that is eating away the future of our society – our youths. We once had censorship over movies without suffering any appreciable harm. We cannot do worse with the music of violence.

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Censor Violent Music

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