The Moral Panic Against Rock Music

I'm talking about this because it's always been a subject that's fascinated me since I got into the genre. Why the hell did this happen?

Well, it seems to go all the way back to when Rock music was in it's infancy. And the moral panic started because of (drumroll please) racism.

See, in rock spaces, black and white teens were dancing and interacting with each other.

There is a long history around fears of "race mixing" (back and white people interacting together)

There was also a hatred surrounding the sexual lyrics of some rock songs. The 50's was a time when sex and sexuality were not topics of conversation in those times, so a genre with songs talking so blatantly about them was uncomfortable to the older generation.

With the 60's and 70's, the panic was, again, around drugs and sexuality: it was now overt, which made pearl clutching Moral Guardians fear for their children's sobriety. I quickly mot advocating for struggling use in any way, but Im fairly certain that a better way of securing a child's sobriety would be to sit then down and have an honest conversation with them is a better method than getting offended at the music.

And now we come to: the 80's. Where the dubacherous rock star stereotype was made, even though it really isn't that true nowadays.

In regards to the hedonism in the hair metal scene: it was absolutely present, and it is absolutely wrong. And I am so happy that rock musicians don't adhere to that image much any more. But I feel like the people who fought against the entire genre missed something: they didn't have any dialog with their children about drugs or sex or having self respect and clear boundaries. Part of the fault is on them as well, and accepting this is something that, throughout history, these Moral Guardians failed to do.

With everything else: These Moral Guardians were trying to find Satanic imagery in anything, and it was honestly comical how up in arms these people were. They even set up a committe to try and weed this stuff out (going to far as to having Dee Snider testify in congress. Big mistake, he eloquently ripped them to shreds-seriously, look up the video). The commission lost a lot of credibility eventually, leading to the panic dying down a little, but man, it's the perfect visual for these people.

The last one I want to talk about is when people were up in arms about rock music in the 2000's. Specifically, that these bands caused teenagers to kill themselves.

First, no one issue can be blamed for a person to take their own life. It is often a cocktail of issues that people often ignore.

Second, I find it highly disrespectful that these people used the tragic deaths if teenagers to fuel their own moral panic campaign. But that's another article.

The one I think everyone remembers is when The Daily Mail tried to claim MCR (specifically, the then new album The Black Parade) was pro suicide. Because lyrics like "I am not afraid to keep on living" totally causes harmful behavior in teens.

Except, this one faced more backlash than before: there was no longer a centralized news source from where people got their news from. People were actually hearing the voices of MCR fans, who organized a fucking protest in response. These Moral Guardians no longer had the monopoly on news that they once had. And I think it is because of the end of this "news monopoly" (if you will) is the reason Moral Panics might not get the same traction as they once did.

But why did these happen? Here's my theory: Ignoring, for a second, all of the drug use and dubachery, rock music often points out issues within systems, problems that older generations didn't (and don't) want to face.

The early moral panics would not have existed if people weren't racist, but of course they can't say it put loud, so they blame the music.

They didn't want to accept that their mishandling of things meant that these kids found this outlet. When they saw kids in the 80's idolize this messy rock star image, they didn't seem to stop and consider that maybe they should have talked with their children about self respect, drug use, and boundaries. 

They didn't want to face their own shortcomings. There was definitely a problem with the musicians, but the parents also had a part to play.

Same thing with emo in the 2000's: people don't want to face the messy reality surrounding the topic of suicide, and they don't want to face the reality that maybe if they had tried to reach out, the person might not have felt so alone. So they put the blame on other people, not themselves.

Because it's safer and more comfortable when you aren't to blame. QBut rock music often forced their older generations to look at their failings, so they tried to keep it hidden and demonized.