Damn. It was really good. I'd suggest anyone who's interested in this kinda thing to find out when it comes on again and try to catch it.
Omnius Deus:
Though I see that side of it, I disagree, to some extent. The problem comes when someone either tries to blame the music by 100% or defend the music, by 100%. Sure, it's not the music's fault that society is the way it is, but the music and the way it's portrayed and glamorized plays a large role. It seems to me that a lot of artists don't really realize how powerful music really is. Many of them (especially in the gangster rap genre) do what they do to make money. That's it. Bottom line. If people like what they hear and the artist sells records, cool. That's all that matters. They don't realize there is more to it than that.
For some people (especially young people) music is religion. It is something that is in their ears day in and day out, for hours and hours on end. Tupac didn't create thug life, but he put it on a platform that is one of the most powerful platforms to ever exist - and I'm not saying he's wrong for that, at all. I'm saying that those that do it need to at least take responsibility for the consequences of such a thing. Tupac is a bit of an exception, because he sits in a gray area, in relation to the Pop-Hop artists of today. He didn't exactly glorify Thug Life. He spoke about it on a realistic level, and he showed a realistic struggle to cope with the situations that he lived in, while striving for more.
We are in a completely different era of hip hop than what Tupac wrote (as far as mainstream goes). Kids still listen to this stuff just as often, but the message has degenerated so far that they aren't even getting the sense of balance that Tupac spoke about. They are getting the glorification of some of the most vile aspects of the hip-hop culture. It is like Brain Washing. If you sit someone down in a chair, strap them in, and play propaganda through their eyes and ears, from an early age, eventually that person will begin to fall in line with that line of thinking. Everything else will seem alien. This is what happens when people choose their favorite artists out of the trash they have easy access to.
So, no, the music is not at fault, alone, but it has a hand in it. The artists, producers, radiostations and other media outlets have to take part in the blame. Artists like to blame the parents, but I feel that's a bit of a cop-out. Parents can only dictate to their kids so much. When the kid is out in society, at school, at friends' houses, whatever, anything goes. Some of the wildest nut-case-kids have come from the homes of very fit parents, because of outside influence.
Universal Mind:
Gangster rap is not like Heavy Metal, though, in that (yes, because of society) the majority of the fan base lives in a world where the source material is much more attractive, on a perceived level of necessity, than heavy metal. Many of the kids who are "doing what the music tells them to do" live in really shitty conditions. Reaching the goals that are proposed in ganster rap (stacking money at all costs, cars, screwing as many women as humanly possible, slinging drugs to make a quick buck) are hardly given any other option than to emulate that lifestyle. The music itself is a very powerful recruiting tool, for that reason - more-so, I'd say, than heavy metal. When you have nothing, you feel you have to get something, and when you see and hear all these "gangsters" flashing their money cars and chicks around, and making it look so easy, how hard do you think that would be to stay away from? Sure, it's not a change that's going to happen overnight (No, I don't think a single song can turn a person into a sociopath) but continued exposure to an entire genre of amoral lyrics - set to attractive music that allows your body to want to move while the lyrics just sort of infiltrate your mind, whether consciously or subconsciously - over the years, definitely can.
Awoke:
I completely agree with you. The affect that music has on people works both ways. I was exposed to gangster rap WAY before I was exposed to positive hip-hop. Because of my background (which is where I agree with UM and Omnius) it lead to a bit of distaste for the state of what I thought "Hip-Hop was." The songs alone, were not enough to turn me into a sociopath. But that is, in part, because I didn't start really listening to hip-hop until I was well into my teens, and I already knew the kind of person that I was.
But, it wasn't until a few years later that I discovered more underground hip hop, from conscious, positive artists. Not only did it change my perspective on Hip-Hop, but it re-enforced my outlook on life, and made my passion for positivity and creativity so much stronger. It amplified my emotions and made the importance of a positive outlook so much stronger for me.
There are just too many consequences for degenerative, negative media being in the mainstream. And sure, artists have the right to do what they want with their music. It just really bothers me - as a parent, especially - to see the ignorance they display to what that kind of pollutive "entertainment" helps to do to society. Sure, it may be "made" for adults, but it's shown 24hrs a day on basic cable channels and major public radio-stations. No parent can shield their children from that. It's not possible. It just bothers me that many "artists" just don't care.
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