Why Is Music So Popular In The 1960s

Music has been around the world since the beginning of entertainment. Music has popular since the 1960s. During the 1960s’, music has changed from classical music to modern pop and rock from the artists such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Also, in the ‘60s, they were containing songs that were use to protest. For example, Soul singer Sam Cooke wrote “A Change Is Gonna Come” and Bob Dylan wrote “Blowin’ in the Wind”. Both songs are responses to racism during the Civil Rights Movements. Also, other songs such as “Masters of War” by Bob Dylan and “The Unknown Soldier” by The Door are songs that protested the Vietnam War. In the ‘80s, hip-hop were introduced to mainstream radio and introduced the white class to urban lifestyle that most parents didn’t approve of it. In the ‘90s, music has become more aggressive for both hip-hop and rock. Music groups such as N.W.A. introduced the mainstream radio to topics such as police brutality, drugs, and violence. This caused the FBI to investigate the group and their lyrics. In rock, lyrics has became more personal and depressing. Rock bands such as Nirvana has lyrics that contain topics such as suicide, anger, and hopelessness. Media
believed that songs with aggressive feelings have some links to school shootings such as Columbine School Shooting. In this century, today’s music is more aggressive on sex. Artists are talking about sex more than other generations. These topics cause major concerns to parents and media and cause controversy in the music industry. Music should be rate based according to the lyrics in a similar way movies and video games are rated.

Content in lyrics of songs became a major topic in music due to some topic may be inappropriate or offensive to certain people. One of the controversy topics is misogyny. Misogyny is dislike or prejudice of women. In music, especially hip-hop, misogyny become a big topic because artists expressed their negative feelings toward women. For example, rapper Eminem expressed his anger towards his ex-wife in the song “Kim” by saying “So long, b**** you did me so wrong” (MetroLyrics). This song grabbed attention from the media as this lyrics seem hostile towards his ex-wife. Violence is another topic in the music. According to MetroLyrics, in the song “Gangsta Gangsta” by N.W.A. have lyrics “My man Dre'll f*** you up in a minute. With a right left, right left you toothless. And then you say go***** they ruthless!”. Another topic in music is the promotion of drugs such as marijuana and alcohol. In the song “Blame It” by Jamie Foxx talks about blame the problems on alcohol. According to AzLyrics, he said “Blame it on the booze, Got you feeling loose, Blame it on 'tron, Got you in the zone”.
Parents doesn’t like this types of lyrics because they feel that this types of lyrics will encourage their child to do the activities in the song.
According to studies, 69 percent of all of the songs that are played on the radio have at least one reference towards sex. 31 percent of the songs on the radio have at least one reference toward drugs. Another study shows that kids spend 2.2 hours every day listening to music. Also parents feel that today’s music is exposing their children to inappropriate language. Hip-Hop always deal with having complaints about rappers using explicit language in their songs and kids are listening to this music. So parents feel that their kids will listen to this songs with inappropriate lyrics and be encourage to have sex, drink alcohol, and smoke
weed.
Even though artists have these inappropriate content in their songs, that music should not always be censored . that it’s the parents’ responsibility to know what their child is listening. that it’s the music labels’ responsibility for children listening to their artists’ music. Artists expressed their feelings into their songs by talking about controversial topic and using vulgar language. Some artists such as N.W.A. and Public Enemy discussed about the events they see every day in their songs. Some artists describe various controversial topics such as police brutality, racism, and violence in their life. Creativity will also be missing if music is censored. The artist's creativity let the artist to go the next mile than the next artist. This is the fuel that every artist needs. If music is censor, the freedom of expression and creativity in music will disappear. I believe rating music is a good way to prevent any controversy with music. The reason I believe about rating music because as I stated in the last paragraph, I believe that music should not be always censored. Rating music would be a great way to warn their parents while keeping the creativity in the music. In order to have a good rating system, music should be rated similar to the rating system in movies.
In movies, they used the MPAA Rating System to inform the viewers if the movie have any content may be inappropriate. For example, rating G and PG for movies is good for adults and children to watch. However, rating PG-13 and R are not really suitable for children and usually for adults. For example, songs with no or little explicit content should be rated PG. Songs with inappropriate words such as a**, d***, b**** should be rated PG-13. Songs with words such as f***, s***, and other offensive words would have a rating of R or higher. If rating music is not enough to inform the parents about content in music, maybe updating the current music rating system can help. When you buy a CD in a store, it will a have a Parental Advisory sticker on the front cover if the album contain any inappropriate language. The Parental Advisory sticker doesn’t really explain specifically what words are used in the songs. They don’t list the words that are used in the album and listeners don’t have a clue of what words are being used before they listen to it. Sometimes songs may have one explicit word in the song and they have the sticker on their album.