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.
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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)
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