Often, individuals are faced with the task of determining whether a given music is good or bad when they listen to it. The answer to this question may rest on what the hearer put into focus and does vary from one listener to another. Some listeners may end up basing their reaction on the elements of the song while some center on the contents of the song. The content of a given song can help individuals make an appropriate judgment as to whether a given song is good or bad on their account of listening to it. The content of music is known to have effect on the hearer just as the flavor of food impacts the taste of the particular food (Henderson, 91). With every sound of music having emotional and intellectual appeal, it is vital that one listens to the songs well before passing a judgment about the song (Aaron & Rich, xxiv). Listening to Manson’s music
Manson is one of the musicians whose music seems to be bad on the basis of the messages contained in them. For instance, many of Manson’s music tend to have lyrics that can be misinterpreted by the listener during listening time and thus can serve to pass the wrong message of suggest something different to its listeners. For this reason, one often feels a bit tensed while listening to such music instead or being relaxed and enjoying the music as required. This situation is a reaction to the fact that, one need to be extra attentive in order to isolate lyrics that have clear meaning from those lyrics that are ambiguous. When listening to Manson’s song, a listener cannot fail to think of the messages contained in the song. Mansons’ song seems to advocate values that are against the culture of Christians with the use of words that are of bad influence to individuals. These lyrics tend to arouse the thinking of the listeners around things that may be abhorred by the society especially the Christian community. As Plantega notes, music is normally used for conveying important messages (p. 270) however, for Mansonn’s case, these messages tend to be of negative value. The music of Manson is not only filled with messages that are hard to decipher but also with messages that seem to promote violence and reduces tranquility in the society. For instance, some songs of Manson, promote the ‘hate of love’ and thus its listeners can adopt these new values and end up being among those that do not respect love and cohesion in the society. Therefore, listening to such music can end up spoiling one values and belief making them act in a manner that is not expected.
Manson’s work is more that entertainmentThough some people may feel that Manson’s work is purely for entertainment, Manson herself believe contrary. Manson has been reported to have said that her music performance was a satanic ritual and that those that form part of the audience always gain access to her personal satanic ritual (Larson, 55). For this reason, it is evident that Manson’s music performance has a mission to accomplish apart from the mere entertainment of the audience. Thus being more than an entertainer, Manson has can be seen as propagating values that are not founded on Christianity. Manson feels that her music work goes beyond the notion of providing entertainment to the listener as it tends to teach and shape individuals in a certain way. in fact Manson warn parents that they should teach their children better of leave them to her for them to be raised up (Smithhouser and Waliszewski, 16). With Manson’s music having messages that seem to contradict the values system of the society as well as the being conflicting to Christian beliefs, listening to such music is bad as it tend to influence one towards adopting wrong set of attitudes and beliefs that do not pay off.
