Music to die for

Summary 

According to "Eminem lyrics: Rapper says album was 'not made for the squeamish'" (2020), rapp singer Eminem has defended his use of an offensive comparison to the bombing at the Ariana Grande concert, which killed 22 people, in the song “Unaccommodating” in his latest album, Music To Be Murdered By, which he says is not for people who are easily upset. This is not the first time the rapper’s language has offended people; anti-gay language has previously angered some. In his defence, Eminem admits that the words in his new album are shocking. He argues that he intended to shock to make his listeners aware of how common violence is in modern society. He suggests that shocking his audience might cause them to act to reduce violence in society, which would be a desirable outcome.

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Response 

still hits  1,000 years on 

First, I have to admit that I have not listened to Eminem's song that is upsetting people. In fact, I have listened to rap music except in films like Bad Boys, where it features heavily. I don't dislike rap, which does often sound OK. In the films I've enjoyed watching, it fits the themes well. But these days I usually listen to music that I enjoyed when I was a student, first in high school and then at university. This means I like rock such as the music by the band Queen, whose song "Bohemian Rhapsody" is one of my all time favourites, also the work by David Bowie, the Beatles, and some Australian heavy rock groups from the 1970s and 80s. None of this is recent music. Even older are my classical music favourites, and the really old music I enjoy are Gregorian chants, which go back many centuries to mediaeval monks. 

Although I can understand why some people are offended by Eminem's latest songs, I don't think that is a good reason to ban them. I suspect he wanted to upset people to get their attention, which will boost his sales, but artists have always done that. Shakespeare, for example, wrote several plays about killing kings, especially his famous plays Hamlet and Macbeth. And his Romeo and Juliet would probably have serious legal problems today because it's about teenage sex: Romeo is a teenager and Juliet is only thirteen years old when he meets her at a party and falls madly in love after breaking up with his old girlfriend. None of this is the sort of thing that nice people think teenagers should be watching today. When a TV series shows young people having sex, there is often a big fuss in the media saying that it's inappropriate. I wonder whether the people who complain about such shows even know just how violent and full of naughty sex classic literature is. And Eminem is seriously wrong about violence in modern society. There is much less violence today than in the past. Murder rates are lower and decreasing almost everywhere compared to a few decades ago. And centuries ago, there was a lot more killing, fighting, rape and other violence. Things are much better now. 

The Nazi flag that causing outrage
in Australia recently

Finally, even though things are disgusting, sickening, and generally offensive, I don't think that is a good reason to ban them. If we agree that democracy is the best form of government, we have to accept the basic right to free speech, and if we only want the law to allow things that we think are acceptable or nice, then we do not actually respect the right to free speech, which means do not really support democracy. For example, in my country, Australia, there has been a big controversy over an ugly Nazi flag that a couple of people flew over their home. The Nazi symbol is disgusting, and it certainly upsets a lot of people, but I don't agree with those who think it should be illegal. In Germany, it would be illegal, and I think the German law is wrong. If ugly, filthy things cannot be expressed, neither can they be argued against. It seems to me much healthier for society to let offensive things be said so that they can also be publicly criticised and condemned, and so that the often false beliefs they are based on can be proved wrong and corrected. If we can't say something because it offends some people, then our own mistaken beliefs cannot be corrected, and that is not good for society. 
 

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Question

Should the law allow singers or other artists to say things that seriously offend a lot of people?  

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Reference

• Eminem lyrics: Rapper says album was 'not made for the squeamish'. (2020, January 23). Retrieved from  https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-51226817