Since the 1920s, uptight religious folks have called Blues (& sometimes Jazz) music "the Devil's music". Decades later, Rock-n-Roll mainstreamed the Blues mixed with teenage rebellion and transgressive irreverance, which shocked suburbanites & tempted rightwing televangelists to the point of equal parts hypocrisy & condemnation. :naughty:






:fire:

There was music that I suspect were designs against naive: hit the road jack, get a job, you get the idea. Rationalizations in popular music.

I remember when I was going to Christian youth events there was so much talk of rock music being the 'devil's music. There were people speaking about how songs played backwards had certain 'demonic' messages. In particular, if you played Led Zepellin's 'Stairway to Heaven' backwards there was a scream of 'Satan is God'.

At the time, I can recall being really worried as it conjured up so much fear. It involved so much fear of Satanism and often seemed like people were looking for Satan. Also, it may have been based on a gimmick, with bands having 666 in titles and certain letters being spelt backwards. However, I can remember a lot of people going as far as destroying certain music as though it was 'evil'. It went quite far, with even groups like Status Quo and The Beatles being viewed as 'Satanic'.

There's a very well-worn saying in America, 'why does the Devil have all the best tunes?' The answer is 1, because rock and roll has a beat - we know what that signifies, don't we :brow: - and 2 because it has ambiguous harmonic values, the 'blue notes' and chordal dissonances which 'proper' music would never consider (listen to Purple Haze!)

Thanks, you seem fully cognizant, but alluding and not making direct conflictual statements.

I think a big issue with the musical era in history was people did not have a perfectly clear idea. They wanted to enjoy the music that was designed to influence them.

I am not sure if you think that my reply makes sense, although I am unsure about what you are are trying to say in your outpost or reply to me.

Semantics aside, it does seem that enjoyment of music in its contractidory and influential happens. I love Led Zeppelin's 'Stairway to Heaven' and most "dark' music. Sometimes, the experience of the darkest, including Metallica, emo and goth, seems to give a potential for the transmutation of suffering itself, including the darkest of mental states.

The dark and the light in music is the yin and yang of experience. It involves the innermost aspects of existential philosophy. One critical aspect of this may be the lifestyles of the rock stars, and to what extent are they role models? Beyond this, the content of the music may say a lot about authenticity in the existential sense.

Some of the themes deal with the hardest aspects of human life and also reflect human lifestyles. With one foot in Catholic guilt, my own experience of lived philosophy also was connected with the values of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. The music says so much about protest and subversion, like a reflection of postmodern decadence and a post-apocalyptic grasping for meaning in the wastelands and collapse of a broken world.

There's a very well-worn saying in America, 'why does the Devil have all the best tunes?' The answer is 1, because rock and roll has a beat - we know what that signifies, don't we :brow: - and 2 because it has ambiguous harmonic values, the 'blue notes' and chordal dissonances which 'proper' music would never consider (listen to Purple Haze!) — Wayfarer

What, then, do American fundamentalists make of Afro-American gospel music?
I suspect the biggest problem with some music for the American brand of mainstream Protestantism is its primitive appeal. Too reminiscent of uninhibited, unfrightened, unchastised pagans.

The conflict is basically one of moral highground against antagonistic naivety. — introbert

The rebellion of youth certainly figures in the antagonism. I'm not happy with the designation 'naivety' to sum up the chafing of youth under the constraints of an oppressive regime. At the same time, the recklessness and irresponsibility of youth is also present in the music. I do also think you have to considers the historical context - what was going on in the world, in the political arena, in families.

What, then, do American fundamentalists make of Afro-American gospel music? — Vera Mont

I'd think it largely depends on the race of the believers. It's said, that the most segregated time in America is Sunday mornings. So for white believers the answer might be, "Nothing much."

I'd think it largely depends on the race of the believers. It's said, that the most segregated time in America is Sunday mornings. So for white believers the answer might be, "Nothing much." — wonderer1

I doubt that. There is a good deal of bigotry in America, and the thing most notable about bigots is that they're never indifferent - even to things that have no affect whatever on them. (I mean, they get their knickers in a twist over who might be sitting in the next toilet cubicle!!) If white fundamentalists are opposed on moral grounds to music that has strong visceral rhythm, they can't possibly fail to take umbrage at the songs that arose from the despair and fervent pious yearning of enslavement.

...the thing most notable about bigots is that they're never indifferent - even to things that have no affect whatever on them. — Vera Mont

Doubts are understandable when you don't have the experience needed to have a nuanced view on the matter. The reality though, is a lot more nuanced than what you suggest.

I remember I was terrified of my older sister playing her Ozzy Osbourne record backwards.

The reality though, is a lot more nuanced than what you suggest. — wonderer1

I'd like to have it explained.

I'd like to have it explained. — Vera Mont

And I'd like to be more suited to explaining. You saying that you would like to have it explained reminds me of being in high school, where a friend asked me every morning, "What do you know?" Every morning my autistic brain would take him literally, and start working on trying to formulate an answer, despite me consciously knowing that my friend wasn't actually seeking an answer to the question he had asked.

So it's a little overwhelming for me to try to explain, and I know that whatever I write in attempting an explanation is going to be grossly simplistic and to me feel wholly inadequate. But with that preface out of the way...

Of great relevance is the monkeysphere.

Many fundamentalist Christians live in rural communities and are satisfied that Fox news is giving them an adequate view of the world, outside what they experience daily. They are substantially uninformed about, and fairly indifferent to, other communities. So while they know African-American gospel music exists, it isn't part of the insular world they are happily living in. Therefore they are largely indifferent to such music.

Edit: Link fixed.

That's an interesting article. Actually, I'm one of those weird people who rinse out the recyled cans and put the lids, as well as any broken glass in a labelled 'sharps' container (coffee cans make a handy receptacle) like they do in hospitals, for the safety of anyone who may subsequently have to deal with them. But I admit, I care considerably more about an anonymous refugee falling off an overcrowded ship than I can about a billionnaire who got into a tin can to gawk at a mass grave 4000m under water. So, yes, I can see the monkey brain being selective.

What I'm not seeing there is the relevance to the etiology of popular music, which was the explanation I was asking for.

Many fundamentalist Christians live in rural communities and are satisfied that Fox news is giving them an adequate view of the world, outside what they experience daily. — wonderer1

Now I see what you meant - I guess, not the same people I meant when referring to bigotry. I suspect, not initially: they would have been no more interested in rock than in ballroom dancing. Now I have to further wonder who actually called rock & roll the devil's music. It must have been better informed, more worldly religious leaders and high profile televangelists who did the condemning - of course, I can only speculate why - while FUX commentators and local pastors dutifully echoed their judgment.
Ah, here we are:

https://daily.jstor.org/the-conservative-christian-war-on-rock-and-roll/Conservative religious leaders believed they were locked in a battle against music that “threatened the family, the church and the very integrity of the nation.”

The irony there is, they saw grass-roots music as a slippery slope to communism. As soon as it started to catch on behind the iron curtain, the 'communist' regime condemned it just as stridently, as western degeneracy.
And a shallow dive into musicology:

Rock and roll was coming into the forefront of American culture, and every well rounded, wholesome mom and dad hated that devil's music their kids were listening to.
Let's be realistic here, rock and roll was white people stealing the blues from black people. Arguably taking what they were doing and watering it down in the typical fashion of those of European descent https://www.adamdouglass.com/guitar-blog/rock-n-roll-is-the-devils-music