To what are you currently listening?

[Basilios]

I'm listening to devil music, Coheed and Cambria.

[yt]IcrCoHFUML0[/yt]

[Baldrick]

Modern pop, rock, or whatever, is from hell.

It really is - I'm surprised that more people don't know this.  It IS from hell; it is inspired by hell; recording artists reportedly take an oath to the devil (quite serious).  And it literally sounds like hell: senseless noise.

Show me magisterial support for your assertions. Both of you. Unless a source of entertainment is directly leading one to sin, you cannot say it's evil, or from hell. Doing so is certainly not Catholic, rash, and prideful.

Magisterial support?  I doubt very much if there's an encyclical from a pope about "pop/rock" etc, if that's what you mean.  I doubt the Vat2 Popes would condemn such a thing - which, of course, has only been a major cultural force since Vat2 anyway.  Probably Francis is right at this moment listening to Britney Spears for all I know.   

This bit...

Unless a source of entertainment is directly leading one to sin, you cannot say it's evil, or from hell.

is just plainly false. 

[Mono no aware]

Modern pop, rock, or whatever, is from hell.

It really is - I'm surprised that more people don't know this.  It IS from hell; it is inspired by hell; recording artists reportedly take an oath to the devil (quite serious).  And it literally sounds like hell: senseless noise.

Show me magisterial support for your assertions. Both of you. Unless a source of entertainment is directly leading one to sin, you cannot say it's evil, or from hell. Doing so is certainly not Catholic, rash, and prideful.

I doubt there's a magisterial teaching on it, but there were certainly Catholic priests and moralists in the 1950s who condemned rock n' roll for being corrupting and primal.  Bishop McVinney of Providence, Rhode Island called it "a musical fad which is leading its young devotees back to the jungle and animalism."  In the 60s, Beatles records were burned not only in the American Bible Belt, but in Catholic countries as well. 

The problem, really, is that rock music itself is only a little older than the wide-scale liberalization of the Catholic Church in the 1960s, so a magisterial pronouncement can't be expected.  You had some pockets of protestation and condemnation in the 1950s and early 60s, but after that there's radio silence.  I can sooner picture Pope Francis participating in a hand-holding sing-along of John Lennon's "Imagine" than I can see him writing an encyclical on the dangers of rock music and citing the intricacies of Jimmy Page's obsession with Aleister Crowley, or the lascivious stage performances of Rihanna.  It's just not going to happen.  That said, it does provide us an easy out.  I happen to like rock music myself.  I'm "currently listening" to it.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP7VQLvLMZo[/yt]

[Maximilian]

I can sooner picture Pope Francis participating in a hand-holding sing-along of John Lennon's "Imagine" than I can see him writing an encyclical on the dangers of rock music and citing the intricacies of Jimmy Page's obsession with Aleister Crowley, or the lascivious stage performances of Rihanna. 

No need to merely "imagine" this any longer.
Here is video of "a hand-holding sing-along of John Lennon's 'Imagine'" at the "Soccer Match for Peace" hosted by Pope Francis in Rome.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rkav_MrA-8w[/yt]

[Mono no aware]

Maximilian, that is truly surreal.  What a spectacle.  The footwear on that young woman is just outrageous.  And hers is the cheesiest interpretation of "Imagine" I've ever heard.  I'm slightly disappointed, though, that the footage of that performance does not include Pope Francis swaying to and fro while waving his hands in the air.

[Chestertonian]

I can sooner picture Pope Francis participating in a hand-holding sing-along of John Lennon's "Imagine" than I can see him writing an encyclical on the dangers of rock music and citing the intricacies of Jimmy Page's obsession with Aleister Crowley, or the lascivious stage performances of Rihanna. 

No need to merely "imagine" this any longer.
Here is video of "a hand-holding sing-along of John Lennon's 'Imagine'" at the "Soccer Match for Peace" hosted by Pope Francis in Rome.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rkav_MrA-8w[/yt]

not enough zofran in the world

[piabee]

Someone's seen Hell's Bells a few too many times.

Also, no one in this thread posted "Imagine" previously. Hmm

Edited to fix amusing typo

[Kaesekopf]

Someone's seen Hell's Bells a few too many times.

Also, no one in this thread posted "Imagine" perversely. Hmm

I watched the first ten minutes and I thought it was more diabolic than the music it railed against....

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

[Baldrick]

I didn't even know such a movie existed.  So can't comment on it. 

As for "Imagine", the lyrics are bloody awful, morally, artistically/technically.  An anthem for nihilism. 

I didn't grow up with rock music, so I am always shocked by it when I hear it:  the decibel levels at which it's played, the grinding/metallic/machine-like infernal sound OR the cloying melodies AND the sexualized beats - all of which is combined with either raunchy/suggestive lyrics or utterly banal lyrics (the real power of the the music works at a more primitive level.)

Those of you who have read Plato's Republic will recall that music is one of the most dangerous - or, sublime/elevating - forces we can experience.  It's influence is very subtle.  This is one reason why he thought education in music is so very, very important. 

[Chestertonian]

4/4 is a sexualized beat

all right then

[Maximilian]

I'm slightly disappointed, though, that the footage of that performance does not include Pope Francis swaying to and fro while waving his hands in the air.

Here's the closest I could find from the same event:



And here is Francis meeting "the hand of God":

[Mono no aware]

4/4 is a sexualized beat

all right then

No, that's not the point.  There was 4/4 before there was rock n' roll.  The argument against rock n' roll, generally speaking, is that it has a lurid Dionysian quality.  And rock music is a whole package: beats, lyrics, dances, fashions, behaviors.  I wasn't aware of anyone who seriously denied this; rock music is incontrovertibly Dionysian.  Sometimes you do get the occasional ankle-biter who'll say, "but what about Simon & Garfunkel?" or "I only listen to Belle and Sebastian and sit in my room all day reading 19th century poetry" or "I like nerdy mathematical prog-rock that has lyrics about dystopian futures, what's wrong with that?"  But those are few and far between.  The common argument in favor of rock music is that we can just compartmentalize it.  It's "well, some of it may be toxic but I don't pay attention to the lyrics and it doesn't do me any spiritual harm.  So there."  Like those fakirs in India who walk across a bed of hot coals: "doesn't bother me!"

[Mono no aware]

ROFL!

[Baldrick]

And here is Francis meeting "the hand of God":

Very witty, lol. 

[Baldrick]

4/4 is a sexualized beat

all right then

No, that's not the point.  There was 4/4 before there was rock n' roll.  The argument against rock n' roll, generally speaking, is that it has a lurid Dionysian quality.  And rock music is a whole package: beats, lyrics, dances, fashions, behaviors.  I wasn't aware of anyone who seriously denied this; rock music is incontrovertibly Dionysian.  Sometimes you do get the occasional ankle-biter who'll say, "but what about Simon & Garfunkel?" or "I only listen to Belle and Sebastian and sit in my room all day reading 19th century poetry" or "I like nerdy mathematical prog-rock that has lyrics about dystopian futures, what's wrong with that?"  But those are few and far between.  The common argument in favor of rock music is that we can just compartmentalize it.  It's "well, some of it may be toxic but I don't pay attention to the lyrics and it doesn't do me any spiritual harm.  So there."  Like those fakirs in India who walk across a bed of hot coals: "doesn't bother me!"

very well said