Music As Accomplice
A Review by Jessica McCartney

The very first record I ever bought was "Don't You Want Me Baby" by Human League, and my mother didn't want me to have it because the lead singer wore makeup.  I still love that song, I still remember sneaking out to buy the record.  And then there was Duran Duran.  OH, MY GOD!  What an obsession I had...I wrote their lyrics on all my notebooks, I collected pictures and had every video and album.  When the song "The Reflex" came out, my mother and I fought for WEEKS over whether I should be allowed to listen to it because it had highly "sexual" themes. (I won).  Duran Duran begat

I'm not going to tell you that the members of Rammstein are good, catholic, low fat, low cholesterol, puppy loving angels, because they're not.

Depeche Mode (S&M, Godlessness, Drugs, Socialism....) My mother and boyfriend BOTH tore their hair out about that one.  I wore the clothes that David Gahan wore, I papered my room in posters, I skipped school to see them in concert (oh...sorry mom).  What followed Depeche Mode was an endless stream of entertaining, wonderful, talented and sometimes controversial bands....The Beastie Boys, Nitzer Ebb, Public Enemy, Faith No More, Soundgarden, Bush...I worked at the radio station in college, I made goulash for Fugazi, I interned at the most powerful Modern Rock station in the Midwest.  I guess what I'm trying to say is...I think I know a lot about music.  I think I have good taste...but most importantly, in my 18 years or so of loving all sorts of music, from all sorts of genres, I have NEVER ONCE, been influenced by music to hate, hurt or kill someone.  It's just that simple.

My current favorite band is Rammstein.  Maybe you've heard of them.  Maybe, even better, if you're lucky, you've heard the truth about them.  In my approximate 12 months of following Rammstein, I have heard them referred to as NAZIs, pedophiles, "fags", satanists, drug addicts, alcoholics, pyromaniacs and mysoginists.  Fortunately, I've met the band...I worked backstage at one of their concerts, and I also know two people who know the band and their management very well.  Even more fortunate, I know that these hurtful accusations and cruel labels are not true.

I'm not going to tell you that the members of Rammstein are good, catholic, low fat, low cholesterol, puppy loving angels, because they're not.  Their music is angry, loud, energetic and explores issues of sexual fetishism, perversity, lost love and violence.  Yes, violence.  Violence against others, revenge against enemies, and destruction of evil.  However, if I could paraphrase a quote from the finest television show of all time, The Simpsons, "I did some research and I came up with some startling facts...there was violence long before [rammstein]."  Cain killed Abel out of jealousy of his status, a whole big group of people crucified Christ because they disagreed with him (these are two stories published in a widely circulated book, available to children, called THE HOLY BIBLE).  Macbeth, Hamlet, Richard III, they all killed people too.  The purpose of art is to hold a mirror up to nature, to reflect what the artist sees.  If one holds another mirror up to art, he will most likely see a little bit of himself.

It saddens me to see bands like Rammstein, Marilyn Manson and KMFDM indirectly blamed for such atrocities as the massacre in Littleton, Colorado.  More than that, it saddens me that these young killers heard messages in this music that so many millions of fans never hear (or even look for).  But, if we live in a country where children can have ready access to assault weapons and explosives, surely we must also allow artists to create music, no matter how disturbing it may be.

In closing, I would like to express two thoughts to you:

"Judge not, lest ye be judged"  (that's from the Bible)

and

"Protect each other from heartache, for your time together is short, and even if you're united for many years, they will seem to you like minutes. "  (that's from Rammstein)