Lexi,
Music is about harmony & relaxation & feeling good. The head-banging noise produced by mindless morons & listened to by even greater morons is just well, head-banging noise. I totally accept that not everyone likes the others type of music but much of what is on the airwaves in the past 5 decades is not music. It is soul destroying crap designed to be & just do that. I flew in a Britten Norman Islander yesterday & they're extremely noisy but I could still hear some of the head-banging beat from the next passenger's (an australian female lawyer) headphones.
If you want to know about good music then look up youtube & click on La Paloma to start with & before long you'll find thousands of good songs from around the globe. Why do I suggest La Paloma to start with ? Because La Paloma is the most recorded song in history & you don't achieve that by being not appealing. There isn't a language that this song hasn't been performed in. That alone should be an indication of good. Enjoy !

'Why are white teens trying to be black teens?'

I used to ponder this in high school. There was a group of kids who used to incessantly play Basketball (The traditional games were cricket and rugby at the time) and pop their 'Ghetto Blaster' down near the pole, and wear all the Nike Gear and talk in Afro-American slang.

I used to ask them if they'd rather live in South Central LA, and participate in real life gang violence, and have the same life prospects as the average Black African-American.

They never understood my argument. The though they were 'hard' and somehow believed they were living in the same environment and related to the struggle of the black man. I didn't see how this could be authentic in suburban Sydney. I asserted they were kidding themselves.

'thus stereotyping the band as violent. '

With titles like 'Speak English or Die'?

'Speak English or Die is the first studio album by the crossover thrash band Stormtroopers of Death (S.O.D.).

After Anthrax finished recording Spreading the Disease, there was still some studio time left, so Scott Ian and Charlie Benante called some friends, practiced some songs, and recorded it all within a week. It was released in 1985 and re-released on the Megaforce label in August 1995. A platinum edition of the album was released in February 2000. Dan Lilker has stated, "The lyrics were never intended to be serious, just to piss people off."'

I remember.

People do notice only when things have moved far enough for something to seem "dated".
Ironically, just about that time the dated thing becomes cool again, and "rebels" are wearing platform boots and listening to "guilty pleasures".

Anything good, and Abba was good, may sound dated after some time, but you could never say they are now irrelevant.

People can discover the joys of the past, not just feel nostalgic for their own youth.
I personally discovered 1920s Charleston jazz when I was over 40, and I was born in the 60s.

Dated, yes.
Would I sacrifice it for today's pop? Never.

BTW, there are several Abba phases, the earliest [circa Eurovision] being the camp one everyone refers to.
One of the last songs they recorded was "The Day Before You Came". It sounded nothing like "Abba" [sparse sombre techno] and hasn't dated at all.)

Like everything in life, different people like different music, and often change their preferences as they get older.

One person's joy may be another person's horror music :)
Abba were a wonderful group, but when I was young, the people who loved ABBA were considered total dags by my groups of friends!

And even though my friends and I secretly sang along with ABBA, we would never publicly admit it, and we would go about wearing Led Zeppelin T-shirts, or rocking to Black Sabbath tapes.

I don't think anything is different these days at all.
Most parents don't like much of the new music on radio these days, just as their parents didn't like their music.

I find I like listening to much of the new music, except for rap music (arrghh)! But I always have the music of the last three decades on hand to relive my younger days too :) .

Dear QL and Individual,

My children were taught music from a very early age - beginning with the Suzuki School of Music. They went through many phases. Their taste in music varied greatly - but neither was really into the "heavy-metal" type of stuff.

My taste in music is also varied - My favourite is of course Latin.
(brings out the gypsy in me), but I also love - Rhythm and Blues, it depends on my mood. I think Music like Art - it's extremely subjective.

As for our children? Well if you think about it, a good portion of our efforts are as parents devoted to external matters that may not really matter at all. What will be important is the content of our children's hearts and minds, or what is often described as character. When we say, "It's what's inside that counts," we speak a simple but profound truth. We have growing agendas for raising our children. But while we are feverish about providing our children - every oportunity - from music lessons, tennis lessons, to a college or university degree, it seems that our job as parents is much simpler - and that is as I mentioned earlier - to raise a decent human being.

Decency might sound like a modest ambition, but in today's culture it is not so easy to achieve as we might think. Every parent I know lives with the uneasy sense that their children are growing up too fast, without clear values or a real code to live by. While we spin our wheels worrying about, "reading, writing, and arithmetic," our children may be missing the "real basics" like respect, loyalty, and a sense of fair play.

Thankfully, our children have responded rather well to us as parents.
Luckily we seem to have succeeded. Our children have grown up into young adults of whom both my husband and I are extremely proud.

Suzeonline, lexi. and others, music minders have a great responsibly to what is being consumed by the very people we protect , and the FCC as become apart of the all you can eat festival and as long as it makes money, its all fine. Some say there are limits to where human beings will grow to and rock & roll in the 50/60's, parenteral control was a huge nightmare, however many survived the musical transitionals with minimal scaring. Stormtroopers of Death (S.O.D.). The lyrics as Houellebecq describes it, as just to piss people of.....well that alone ties in with Lexi's "reading, writing, and arithmetic," our children may be missing the "real basics" like respect, loyalty, and a sense of fair play. Gooogle Stormtroopers lyrics and see why.

Abba....for me sort of past me along with a number of groups, and I think the "follow the FANS abridge" wasn't of great interest. Although after becoming musically talented in the eighties, is still didn't put posters on the wall, act out like moron or hurt, kill, or damage anything other than the skin on the tips of my fingers:)

Shockadelic I hope your suggesting Iam singling out Black people? Its more to find out why white and black people who's a supporter of those that produce negative angry hate music and why.
Iam all for the feel good sound, and that,s a board scope in anyone language but some of the links I would like to put on here, well....I would get past the next click:)
We all can see the US way of life, and how its transforming our AUST culture by making them think gangs guns and the almighty bird to just about everything can and will reflect on all as they will become adults.

ADCD....just love them, U2 and mountains of non columbine rhetorical nonsense.

Please read all the posts made by members on this link, says it all for me in most.

http://mediacriminaljustice.blogspot.com/2011/04/look-at-violence-in-music.html

http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Evils%20in%20America/Rock-n-Roll/mice.htm

So those who produce harming music should be held accountable of the out-comes that can be easily proven.

LEA