Catholic Champion
Because the Truth is a matter of life and death.
Music and the Loss of
Virtue.
By Matthew James Bellisario 2008
Introduction.
Most people will spend a great portion of their life listening to music. Whether we are in a department store, watching television, at a concert or driving in our cars, we have music pouring into our ears, and hence into our souls many hours of our day. As I will demonstrate, the time spent hearing and listening to music disposes us to certain attitudes in our lives, which have an effect on the way we think and feel. I do not think it will be a hard task to demonstrate the destruction that most modern music has had on our culture, not only in the US, but in much of Europe as well. As we will see, the attitude of music in the US and Europe started to change in the late 17 and early 1800s. Music would no longer be created to lift up the attitudes and souls of the listeners, but it became a vehicle to spread despair and the melancholy states of its composers. We will also see how pagan influences crept into musical pieces as well. The complete attitude change in music is easy to see if we are willing to be honest with our ears and ourselves.
This different meddling in the virtue of music would not only occur in the lyrics, but in the composition itself, which would be much more damaging than their obscene lyrics. Many people today in the so-called modern/contemporary Christian music industry make this mistake. They try to bandage up tormented, syncopated occult-like music with Christian lyrics. Little do they realize that the music structure itself is not speaking to the intellect but to the passions of the body. As Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones has said, “Rock music is music for the neck down.” Therefore the lyrics become a secondary aftereffect of the composition. As I will substantiate later in this work, there is no such thing as Christian rock music. It is an oxymoron, like saying pagan, Christian music. It does not work, and it is a destructive type of music that disposes the soul to vice, and not virtue. This goes for much of the contemporary Christian music as well that incorporates into it occult like rhythms and beats. Almost all of the modern music we are exposed to on the radio and on television are of a non-virtuous type. We are plagued by rap, country, and electric guitar driven rock, all accompanied by voodoo-like syncopated rhythms. Rock, Jazz, Blues and other modern music originated from Africa and its pagan, voodoo rituals. (Tame 1984)
We know that music cannot make people do things against their will, but we can say and prove that it disposes us to a certain attitude. (Nortz) Music, like all other arts, can be classified according to its spiritual likeness. It either rises or descends. I don’t think it is hard to prove that sound has an effect on living organisms. We can look at a study that was done using flowers in a laboratory. The experiment exposed two different sets of flowers to a loud volume by two different types of music. Both types of music were played at the same volume over a period of weeks to see if the music would have an effect on the flowers. Dorothy Retallack of Denver, Colorado conducted the experiment. The types of plants used for the experiment were petunias, which were divided into two groups. The first group was exposed to a rock music station (KIMN) , and the second to a semi-classical station (KLIR). The Denver Post reported: “The petunias listening to KIMN refused to bloom. Those on KLIR developed six beautiful blooms. By the end of the second week, the KIMN petunias were leaning away from the radio and showing very erratic growth. The petunia blooms hearing KLIR were all leaning toward the sound. Within a month all plants exposed to rock music died.” She then later exposed several different plants such as corn, and morning glory to rock groups like Led Zeppelin and Vanilla Fudge and saw the same result. She also had a group of plants grow in silence, and another group grow while being exposed to classical music, and found that the group that had been exposed to the classical music had grown larger and more healthy that those in silence. This little experiment shows us something that all of the ancient cultures knew; music was not something to be taken lightly. As we will see, music is something that mankind has looked at in the past as a very powerful way of influencing its listeners. It was also looked at in ancient cultures as a way to dispose its listeners to virtue.
I have spent my whole life listening to music, and I can say that music has always had a great influence on me. I can remember pestering my mother into buying me my first record album of Kiss Alive II. Her face was quite perplexed by the pictures of the so-called musicians on the back of the album. One guy had blood all over his face, the others were all painted with clown-like make-up. It took quite a bit of bickering to get her to buy me the album. What at first was quite repulsive later became a household name. Kiss would even appear on Good Morning America to convince ordinary housewives that there was nothing wrong with their music. Kiss would become one the most popular rock bands in the world. Not only can we see how poor their musicianship is, we will see that they have a desire to push their Satanic, occult-like attitude through it as well. This type of oppressive attitude can be seen through virtually all of our modern rock, rap, country and jazz music. Sexual promiscuity, the occult, lying, cheating and stealing are all the common themes of this type of music. Most of the lyrics reinforce what the music is really saying through its musical composition. Therefore, when the lyrics are changed, it really doesn’t change the disposition of the music itself. Good lyrics do not fix bad music. I would spend my entire adolescent and young adult life listening to and playing this kind of music.
In my early twenties I began playing in rock bands, and I would end up recording my own rock cd. My heroes were Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, who was bound up in the occultism of Aliester Crowley, The Beatles, who also were tangled up in the occult, and Eric Clapton as well as many of the early blues players. Jimmy Page actually purchased Crowley's estate in the 70s. (Lachman 2001) These for many years were my heroes. Later, when I became a Catholic Christian, I would begin to see how destructive this music really was. I spent almost two years of my life playing almost every Sunday in a Christian Rock band for non-denominational church. This however began to bother me, and thankfully God pulled me out of that mess, and as a result I am now happily a part of the one and only Catholic Church. This is an amazing journey in itself, but I will not get sidetracked on that. It will suffice to say that during my stay at that church, the music was not Christian at all. In fact we often mixed in secular songs to set the tone for the pastors misguided talk for that Sunday. I soon saw it for what is it was, demonic music with Christian lyrics all put forth as a show. Unfortunately many evangelical/non-denominational churches display this kind of nonsense every Sunday. There is a great wisdom displayed by the ancient church as to what type of music should be allowed in the Divine Liturgies on Sunday. The Church knew that music should be virtuous, and all of the sensible philosophers throughout history believed the same as well. Good music, as in all good art should dispose the people to virtue, and a feeling of hope and peace. What good is music if it leaves the listener in despair, in a state of lust, or in a state of confusion? We will illustrate how today’s modern music does just these very things. Much of modern music is indeed a promulgator of despair, lust, hate, arrogance and confusion. If we are to enjoy music for what it is, it should lift us up. This modern rock/pop music should be tolerated in only limited fashion, and it should never be introduced into a "Christian" or church setting.
Part II
Part II- Click here.
By Matthew James Bellisario 2008
Introduction.
Most people will spend a great portion of their life listening to music. Whether we are in a department store, watching television, at a concert or driving in our cars, we have music pouring into our ears, and hence into our souls many hours of our day. As I will demonstrate, the time spent hearing and listening to music disposes us to certain attitudes in our lives, which have an effect on the way we think and feel. I do not think it will be a hard task to demonstrate the destruction that most modern music has had on our culture, not only in the US, but in much of Europe as well. As we will see, the attitude of music in the US and Europe started to change in the late 17 and early 1800s. Music would no longer be created to lift up the attitudes and souls of the listeners, but it became a vehicle to spread despair and the melancholy states of its composers. We will also see how pagan influences crept into musical pieces as well. The complete attitude change in music is easy to see if we are willing to be honest with our ears and ourselves.
This different meddling in the virtue of music would not only occur in the lyrics, but in the composition itself, which would be much more damaging than their obscene lyrics. Many people today in the so-called modern/contemporary Christian music industry make this mistake. They try to bandage up tormented, syncopated occult-like music with Christian lyrics. Little do they realize that the music structure itself is not speaking to the intellect but to the passions of the body. As Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones has said, “Rock music is music for the neck down.” Therefore the lyrics become a secondary aftereffect of the composition. As I will substantiate later in this work, there is no such thing as Christian rock music. It is an oxymoron, like saying pagan, Christian music. It does not work, and it is a destructive type of music that disposes the soul to vice, and not virtue. This goes for much of the contemporary Christian music as well that incorporates into it occult like rhythms and beats. Almost all of the modern music we are exposed to on the radio and on television are of a non-virtuous type. We are plagued by rap, country, and electric guitar driven rock, all accompanied by voodoo-like syncopated rhythms. Rock, Jazz, Blues and other modern music originated from Africa and its pagan, voodoo rituals. (Tame 1984)
We know that music cannot make people do things against their will, but we can say and prove that it disposes us to a certain attitude. (Nortz) Music, like all other arts, can be classified according to its spiritual likeness. It either rises or descends. I don’t think it is hard to prove that sound has an effect on living organisms. We can look at a study that was done using flowers in a laboratory. The experiment exposed two different sets of flowers to a loud volume by two different types of music. Both types of music were played at the same volume over a period of weeks to see if the music would have an effect on the flowers. Dorothy Retallack of Denver, Colorado conducted the experiment. The types of plants used for the experiment were petunias, which were divided into two groups. The first group was exposed to a rock music station (KIMN) , and the second to a semi-classical station (KLIR). The Denver Post reported: “The petunias listening to KIMN refused to bloom. Those on KLIR developed six beautiful blooms. By the end of the second week, the KIMN petunias were leaning away from the radio and showing very erratic growth. The petunia blooms hearing KLIR were all leaning toward the sound. Within a month all plants exposed to rock music died.” She then later exposed several different plants such as corn, and morning glory to rock groups like Led Zeppelin and Vanilla Fudge and saw the same result. She also had a group of plants grow in silence, and another group grow while being exposed to classical music, and found that the group that had been exposed to the classical music had grown larger and more healthy that those in silence. This little experiment shows us something that all of the ancient cultures knew; music was not something to be taken lightly. As we will see, music is something that mankind has looked at in the past as a very powerful way of influencing its listeners. It was also looked at in ancient cultures as a way to dispose its listeners to virtue.
I have spent my whole life listening to music, and I can say that music has always had a great influence on me. I can remember pestering my mother into buying me my first record album of Kiss Alive II. Her face was quite perplexed by the pictures of the so-called musicians on the back of the album. One guy had blood all over his face, the others were all painted with clown-like make-up. It took quite a bit of bickering to get her to buy me the album. What at first was quite repulsive later became a household name. Kiss would even appear on Good Morning America to convince ordinary housewives that there was nothing wrong with their music. Kiss would become one the most popular rock bands in the world. Not only can we see how poor their musicianship is, we will see that they have a desire to push their Satanic, occult-like attitude through it as well. This type of oppressive attitude can be seen through virtually all of our modern rock, rap, country and jazz music. Sexual promiscuity, the occult, lying, cheating and stealing are all the common themes of this type of music. Most of the lyrics reinforce what the music is really saying through its musical composition. Therefore, when the lyrics are changed, it really doesn’t change the disposition of the music itself. Good lyrics do not fix bad music. I would spend my entire adolescent and young adult life listening to and playing this kind of music.
In my early twenties I began playing in rock bands, and I would end up recording my own rock cd. My heroes were Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, who was bound up in the occultism of Aliester Crowley, The Beatles, who also were tangled up in the occult, and Eric Clapton as well as many of the early blues players. Jimmy Page actually purchased Crowley's estate in the 70s. (Lachman 2001) These for many years were my heroes. Later, when I became a Catholic Christian, I would begin to see how destructive this music really was. I spent almost two years of my life playing almost every Sunday in a Christian Rock band for non-denominational church. This however began to bother me, and thankfully God pulled me out of that mess, and as a result I am now happily a part of the one and only Catholic Church. This is an amazing journey in itself, but I will not get sidetracked on that. It will suffice to say that during my stay at that church, the music was not Christian at all. In fact we often mixed in secular songs to set the tone for the pastors misguided talk for that Sunday. I soon saw it for what is it was, demonic music with Christian lyrics all put forth as a show. Unfortunately many evangelical/non-denominational churches display this kind of nonsense every Sunday. There is a great wisdom displayed by the ancient church as to what type of music should be allowed in the Divine Liturgies on Sunday. The Church knew that music should be virtuous, and all of the sensible philosophers throughout history believed the same as well. Good music, as in all good art should dispose the people to virtue, and a feeling of hope and peace. What good is music if it leaves the listener in despair, in a state of lust, or in a state of confusion? We will illustrate how today’s modern music does just these very things. Much of modern music is indeed a promulgator of despair, lust, hate, arrogance and confusion. If we are to enjoy music for what it is, it should lift us up. This modern rock/pop music should be tolerated in only limited fashion, and it should never be introduced into a "Christian" or church setting.
Part II
Part II- Click here.