Rock Music: Are They Really Singing About Satan?

I also like NIN but I have noticed that trents albums have gotten a lot darker since pretty little hate machine. Mostly I think artists are just putting on a show to sell albums. a freind of mine grew up with a major rock star. he wont devulge his name, this may not be legit. But his freind was a pretty straight shooter. He signs his first record deal, they go on tour. they are not doing so well so, the grung out a bit, get peircings, tattoes, dance with the devil. You know all that rock and roll stuff. bingo they become very popular their album goes platnum. He is the same guy really but he has to "look" a certain way to sell albums.

Also look at the Goo Goo dolls. they put out like 12 albums before a boy named goo. I used to really like them. they were these three down to earth guys from Bufallo. Now tell me the lead singer is down to earth. Its pretty lame really.

 

I dig pissed off music!

 

Anything that happens in the entertainment industry is almost always gimmick first, reality second. There is also a difference between "dark" and "satanistim". I find Tool videos far more disturbing than Iron Maiden singing "Number of the Beast."

Besides, it can only influence you in that direction if you want it to. Lyrics don't make you who you are.

 

I'm a pretty big NIN fan, and I have to say that I have no recollection whatsoever of Reznor mentioning Satan in any of his songs. He has some dark lyrics, but mostly what he's singing about is lonliness and a feeling of disconnection from others.

In fact, in the song "Closer" he's saying (albiet in a rather raunchy way) that he wants to have sex with this person because, "you get me closer to God." So, in fact, he's not Satanic at all, but actually seeking a deeper connection with the divine.

I've been around all kinds of people in my life -- musicians, witches, journalists -- and I have NEVER met a Satanist or anyone that actually claims to be. I think it's all just a myth made up by people who want to scare others into following Christianity.

The musicians that use Satanic imagery do it just to sell records to teenage buyers.

 

I'm a Christian, and I like heavy metal/hard rock.

I think some of the "Satan" stuff is gimick, but I'm sure a portion of it is real too. I also think the thing many Christians have against it, is the influence it can have on people (mainly young impressionable kids). Most "Bible-beaters" do go overboard, but their heart is in the right place, even if I don't agree with their tactics. I actually think, it pushes some people into listening to that type of music, just to see what all the fuss is about.

My brother (who's a lot like me) had a NIN album..... that is until he read an interview where Reznor said he wanted to be the Anti-Christ. He got rid of it the next day.

I don't know exactly where that imaginary "line" is that an artist can cross, but it's there... probably different for different people.

I still have a hard time really getting into singing "Highway to Hell" full bore.

There's some other lyrics off of Metallica's "Garage Inc." album, like:

"I wish to sell my soul, to be reborn. I wish for earthly riches, don't want no crown of thorns..... Devil take my soul, with diamonds you repay. I don't care for Heaven, so don't you look for me to cry. And I wil burn in Hell, from the day I die."

"Come, come into my coven, yeah. And become Lucifer's child."

"And I was made a mercenary. In the legions of Hell. Now I'm king of pain, I'm insane, yeah."

The whole "Loverman" song is pretty bad, and it's probably my favorite off both discs.


And, Metallica really isn't that "bad" when it comes to "Satanistic" music.... comparatively.

I don't exactly love those type lyrics, or get them tattooed on my arm, but I still like many of the songs (just not all of them).

 

In my findings, if its not Christian, then its satanic.

 

believe what you want....
make your own decisions.

don't believe what "christian" friends tell you... to them it's all satanic if it ain't Amy Grant or D.C. Talk....

SATAN RULES

 

Seriously? Do you honestly believe that everything that is not Christian is automatically Satanic?

 

Well of what I understand, some of the earlier metal, was in fact satanic based, but the stuff im into is more just against god or religion. Every good metal band has someone in it that has been tortured, they sing about the torture. Marilyn Manson seems to feel religiously persectud, so he hates god or whatnot.

 

My dad always told me that "rock-n-roll" was "the Devil's music". The way he put it was, that it wasn't so much "pro-evil" or "pro-Satan" as that it was not made to bring glory to God.

I wondered about that for a long time. He held it over my head for a long time too.... not in a bad way, just as a "reminder" type thing.

Then, one day, I asked him if rock was "evil" then why wasn't country music (which he listened to). He didn't really have an answer so the punk stopped listening to country music (now that's stubborn, and he's where I get it from). Well, not completely, just around me. He doesn't tell me that rock is evil anymore though.

A lot of Christians don't realize that God has no problem with us enjoying ourselves while we're here on Earth. He just wants us to believe in Him, and for us not to misrepresent Him. By "misrepresented", I mean, like someone saying they're a Christian, but not acting like one at all.

To me, not misrepresenting God, would be like not singing "Highway to Hell" at a Church function. Or hitting the crack pipe and rolling over to tell my hooker about Jesus. Or in any other way influencing people to do something that I know someone shouldn't do.... ugh, that sounds dumb, but I think you know what I mean.

 

Unless it comes from one of the bands known for their meaningful lyrics/good songwriting (matchbox twenty, Dave Matthews, Ben Folds, etc...), the lyrics probably mean very little and are designed as a play.

Some bands do really get into the theme of their music, and those at the extreme end of the spectrum do as well. Just look at Marilyn Mason and Kurt Cobain. While a decent lyric writer, there's no question that he reflected his music.

But I have the feeling many of them don't. The music and lyrics turn into nothing more than an act to sell albums - almost as bad as general pop music.

 

Right after 9/11, they were having a floor meeting in our dorm and said we could talk about what happened and our feelings and stuff. Lots of people showed up because they wanted to talk about it.

We get in and everything is cool. We talk for a while and then the group who organized it turned on us. The entire thing ended up being about Christianity and Jesus and how music is bad. They showed an hour long video about how rock and rap and all sorts of stuff made teenagers do bad things. Everyone who listened to NIN or Metallica or ANYONE was going to turn out to be a terrible person, and rob stores and commit terrible crimes. All because they listen to music that doesn't carry God's message. And it produces mob mentality. All kinds of stuff.

And I was pissed off frist of all because they lied to us to get us down to this meeting. They were all from the Christians on Campus or something. They had flyers up in the halls telling about this meeting to talk about 9/11. NO WHERE on the fliers were anything about Christains or music or anything else.

But I listen to Metallica, and Ozzy, and anyone else (I have no one specific genre I listen to) and I don't do any of that. I've never even made below a B in school! But they labeled me a bad person because I listen to this music. That's the only real problem I have with Christianity, is that they try to push their religion on everyone else and if you don't agree to everything they say, you're going to Hell. I believe in God and I pray and I would consider myself Christian over anything else because that's how I was raised. But just because I don't go to church every Sunday or have total faith doesn't mean I'm bad. I know lots of people who feel similar to this (most of my friends) and I don't think it's wrong. We just don't have everything figured out yet.

And when I told Lynus about this meeting he was infuriated. He felt much like I did. But I don't know his exact opinion on whether or not rockers are really satanic or not, but I will ask him. I wish I would've read this earlier because he actually got a chance to call me, but I'll put it in my letter next week. I don't have the address yet and neither does he. I know he's not satanic, but I also no he's not very Christian. His views are very similar to mine, but I don't want to put any words into his mouth, so I'll just leave it at that.

Even if the music is satanic in intention, I don't think it means everyone who listens to it is evil and satanic as well. Any of that help?

 

sin is on the inside....it already lives in you.

if something causes you to stumble in your walk with God, then you should eliminate it from your life.

i often find myself ascribing Christian meaning to songs where I know the songwriter didn't intend it....

example: hanging by a moment by lifehouse:

desperate for changing...starving for truth...closer to where i started..chasing after you...i'm fallling even more in love with you...letting go of all i've held on to...i'm standing here until you make me move...hanging by a moment here with you.

I can see King David saying this same kind of thing to God in Psalms. I find a ton of meaning in that song for someone who is trying to live their life in service of God.

a kid at my church is a big dave matthews fan...he said he started thinking about the concept of Crash...obviously there are sexual conotations in that song...but he removed those and said that just the idea of Crashing into God made sense to him. i thought that was really cool.

as for romantic love...God is the author of romantic love!! read Song of Songs in the Bible! there are thousands of "secular songs" that I would sing to my wife (if it wouldn't crack glass with my bad voice!) to describe our relationship...a relationship completely monogamous and one we seek to glorify God with.

 

Max: That's a good way to look at it. In Islam, Rumi was a Sufi (the mystical "denomination" of Islam) poet who wrote hundreds of love poems to God. They were all very romantic and very intimate if not lurid and extremely beautiful. He thought of it as being "in love" with God. It's a nice sentiment.

 

agreed, jeff...Christ is referred to as the bridegroom and the church His bride throughout the Bible. That analogy is particularly amazing to me given traditional Christian views on original sin...that the church is necessarily imperfect, and that Christ loves us nonetheless. we think about finding the "perfect wife." in my view, we're clearly not that "perfect wife" in the analogy...yet He loves us anyway. amazing.

 

Lynus called. And I did ask him.

He said for the most part, it's a gimmick. He said Black Sabbath started out as a blues band. After seeing some scary movie (he told me which one but I can't remember) they kinda asked themselves why people would want to be scared. Anyway, it evenutally turned them into the band that we all know today.

I can't say the same of all bands, but that's his opinion.

About sin already living in you, I think that's a great statement. Anything can turn anyone away from God. It's your job to not let it. The weak people will turn regardless. If it's not music, it'll be something else, imo.

 

don't give me credit for it princess....it has another source!

 

I wasn't giving credit necessarily. But you did bring it up on the board and you get credit for that.

What I should have said was that I wish more people would see this and think this way instead of condemning everyone who listens to certain music.