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PASTOR GENERA.L'S REPORT, MARCH 2, 1984
PAGE 11
Much can be said of the wickedness of today's rock--and especially rock
video--music. The television critic of the SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER, Michael
Dougan, wrote an exceptional piece in his paper
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s January 12 edition:
One of the worst things about MTV, the rock video channel shown
on most local cable outlets, is its rejection--through song
lyrics and visual symbolism--of qualities like warmth, humor or
interpersonal affection. Alienation is thec;perat1ve mood ana;
considering most viewers are at an 1mpressfonable age, that's not
healthy.
Now the National Coalition on Television Violence...has quan
tified the problem.
After monitoring MTV for an unspecified
period of time, NCTV has issued a report claiming more than half
of MTV's videos "featured violence or strongly �eit'edvfo=
lence.
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NCTV counted an average of I'e" instances of
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violent or
hostile" action each hour, with 35 percent of
the
violence being
"of a sexual nature."
"Rock video's combination of lyrics and images adds a new dimen
sion to television violence,' said NCTV project director Phil
Galli.
"Many of the videos added violent imagery that wasn't
even present in the lyrics.
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NCTV Chairman Thomas Radecki had
his own objections:
".'.!2:!.!
messa<i e is that violence is normal and
OK, that hostile sexual relations between men and women are
commoila"'nd acceptable, that heroes actively engaged in torture
and muraer of others are fun."...
Among the...examples from the NCTV report:
"'Fight Fire With
Fire,' by Kansas, features slave torture and sadistic women.
'Murder Weapon,' by T-Bone Burnett, features the stalking of a
woman to kill her with a gun. Golden Earring's 'Twilight Zone'
features slow-motion murder and repeated interrogation torture.
� has women boiled alive while other women � portrayed
!!_
cold-hearted and enjoying torturing men...• "
Nor was NCTV enamored by the names of some rock groups, including
Three Teens Kill Four, Sadist Faction, Pseudo Sadists, Rash of
Stabbings anO:-:-:-oea:a-Kennedys.
(It's interesting to note that
two of these titles--"Three Teens Kill Four" and "Rash of
Stabbings"--are clearly inspired by newspaper headlines.) ...
It's not that everyone who watches MTV is bound for rape and
mayhem, of course, but the desensitization issue is! real matter
of concern.
It has always amused me a bit that some outside church groups have devoted
so much energy to try to decipher alleged diabolical backward messages
( "backward masking
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)
in rock songs.
Such plotting has undoubtedly oc
curred. But this misses the much bigger picture: There is plenty of harm
"up front" in what young people plainly hear and see. Ours is a society
increasingly "without natural affection" (II Tim. 3:3).
--Gene H. Hogberg, News Bureau