Greater of two evils?

Let me just start by giving a little background as to why I'll be asking my question. I'm in a debate class, but it's coming to a close here shortly due to only being a semester long course. Today we had a debate, one of the worst yet, about which has a greater negative impact on America. Rap or Metal? The debate, despite my high hopes, degraded into one of the worse finger pointing, hypocritical messes I've ever seen.

So I ask DV, in your opinion which promotes more negativity in general? Reasoning, of course, is a must here.

"Metal" is to large a field, you can have anything from the good old Guns N' Roses and Metallica to the crappy screechfests people play today. I don't know much about rap, but it can be anywhere from inspirational to downright degrading and uncivilised.

It's really hard to compare them...

Rap includes various things like Hip-Hop and R&B, while Metal includes all of its various types, as far as this discussion is concerned.

I'm not really asking you to compare the two, just look at the negative effects of them has on society and then compare those results rather then the genre's themselves.

Well like I said, both genres have their good styles and bad styles...

Anyways, if you're looking for a definate answer, I believe that rap has a more negative impact, simply because it is more popular than the seedier styles of metal.

I think both have a negligible impact on behavior. People will either listen to music they already agree with or they will ignore the messages in it because they like the tune. The tiny few who do change their behavior when exposed to music would more than likely be exposed to negative messages in other forms, like television.

Tell your teacher it's the television. And then don't take part in the debate at all. That is the right thing to do.

I'm no expert at america, but I sincerely think it is rap. Only because rap is mostly about the lyrics, the beat is repetitive after all.

Metal is more about the instrumental though, I'd say.


Of course, things are different where you go. Here in Brazil, for example, it's surely metal due to violence, since rap is not that present and most people cannot understand English anyway.

most metal these days is either the crazy gothic stuff, or the sweet fantasy lyrics type. I would have to agree with Kromoh though, that metal is much more about the instruments not the lyrics. My brother was a huge metal head along with his friends and they never hurt anyone.

Rap, imo, has several very inspirational songs. but there are several popular ones that are completely degrading and having people think they can get away with illeagle stuff. So, I am going to have to go with rap as well. However, as RD said, any negative from either one is negligible.

Music is just another thing for everyone to point thier finger at and say "That's whats ruining todays society."

But the one that could do the most damage is rap since it's everywhere.

I would say rap is worse since its main focus, as has been pointed out, is the words. Most rap songs are telling a story about riding around in da hood wit drugs or up in da club drinking and "admiring" women. Metal is usually more cryptic in its messages and in alot of the worse genres in this way you can't even tell what they're saying anyway. Both styles have their high points and low points but I'd say that rap overall is worse because of the life style that it usually portrays that kids think is cool.