Questions & Answers
Is it wrong to listen to modern music?
If the music has beat as its primary musical element, yes; if not, not necessarily. Unfortunately, most of modern music falls into this category, for instance, rock, pop, K-pop, country, hip hop, rap, electronic, heavy metal, death metal, techno, grunge, alternative rock, and so on.
The primacy of rhythm in most modern music makes it a danger for the soul because essentially rhythmic music stirs up the lower passions and makes it more difficult to control them. The passion of sexual desire is immediately awakened in a man who walks onto the beach because of the predominance of flesh over clothing there. Similarly, music with a dominant beat has the immediate effect on the listener of exciting lower passions such as rage, hatred, rebellion, lust, self-pity, morose nostalgia, despair, and envy.
Those whose passions are excited are more likely to act without reason and those who act without reason fall into sin.1 The passions only seek what they desire, without consideration of the good of the whole person, and it is the job of reason and grace to stifle the passions when they desire sin. This becomes all the more difficult the more the passions are aroused.
Those who compose beat-centric music are specifically seeking to rouse the passions of their listeners, and those listening will have their passions aroused, whether they desire it or not. Meanwhile, it is the duty of a Catholic to avoid actions that will arouse his passions, when possible, precisely because such arousal typically leads to sin.
I would invite everyone who has listened to modern music at some point in their life—and I suspect that is close to everyone—to make a careful examination of the effect it has upon them when they are listening to it. Those who have not made such an examination are being affected by it more than they realize, particularly if they listen to such music on a regular basis. If you find that the music excites your lower passions, provokes in you an emotional elation that makes sin more attractive, and gives you a rush that takes you out of yourself, then you have all that is necessary to realize that the music is dangerous.
It is clear that humans cannot live without music because of its special power to speak to our souls. Music affects us automatically, before any reflection on our part. We cannot stop those effects; we can only decide whether to try to combat them or foster them. We also, generally speaking, decide what we listen to. Since beat-centric music evokes passions that lead to sin, listening to it is an occasion of sin, though it is not a sin in itself. This is why we should remove it from our playlists.
Besides the flawed musical architecture of most modern music, it would be helpful for us to consider its lyrics, singers, fans, and videos.
The lyrics of beat-centric music often have a direct correspondence with its musical nature. Songs that arouse the passions of rage, rebellion, and lust are typically going to speak about rage, rebellion, and lust. Or the lyrics will simply be meaningless, as Dr. White noted in a December 2009 article in The Angelus.2 The reason for this is that the main message of rock is communicated through its driving beat, not the words of its songs. This is why the music remains problematic, even if the lyrics happen to be good or meaningful, and why Christian rock, which tries to sanctify unholy music by holy lyrics, is a mistaken enterprise.
Singers of modern music often embody the nature of the music they sing. A disordered music that promotes a loss of self-control is going to promote a disordered life, particularly when it is the central feature of that life.
Rock music started the trend of modern music genres taking rhythm as their primary musical element. It took off in the 1960s as a musical expression of the counter-cultural hippie movement. This led a 1969 issue of Life magazine to famously affirm: “The counter-culture has its sacraments in sex, drugs, and rock.” The association of sex and drugs with rock music was not defamatory but explanatory. Listening to rock music—and its offshoots in modern musical genres—encourages “letting go” of one’s morals and seeking escapes from reality such as drugs provide. The disproportionate number of drug overdoses and broken lives among rock stars should be a cautionary tale for those who are considering whether to invest themselves in their music.
Meanwhile, it is typical for musical stars to become idolized by their fans. The reason for this is that rock/pop/country artists have the power to evoke strong emotions by their songs, emotions that their listeners enjoy, foster in their souls by a repetitive listening to the songs, and become addicted to. The concert becomes a ritualized ceremony where fans pay homage to the stars and submit themselves as completely as possible to their music in order to enjoy an ecstatic communing in beat-induced emotional frenzy. Following close upon adulation is imitation. Fans naturally want to be like the musicians they adore. Because of all this, those who get into the habit of listening to modern music run the risk of catering to the lifestyle it represents—and also being unwilling to give it up when its defects are pointed out.
A final confirmation of all that has been said above is found in the music videos that are produced to accompany modern music. They provide the means for the musicians to act out in real time what their music represents, without being constrained by the limitations of a stage performance. They get to display, while singing, raw sensuality, flagrant contempt of others, hatred and rage, glorification of crime, love of money and material goods—in short, a glamorization of the life of sin.
Modern music starts by choosing to make rhythm its primary musical element, a choice which means that it will stir man’s lower passions when played. Then, it proceeds logically to choose song themes, lyrics, lifestyles, and movies which display a life without constraint of the passions. Any reasonable person can see that listening to such music will lower a soul and obstruct its appetite for the higher goods that lead to our salvation.
Because this is what beat-centric music is and must necessarily be, it is important for Catholics to choose not to listen to it. Even if it is not sinful or does not lead to sin each time it is listened to, yet it embodies a spirit of sin and it has committed a relationship with the world, the flesh, and—sometimes as well—the devil. St. Paul tells each one of us not to be conformed to this world, but to “be transformed in the newness of your mind, that you may discern what is the good, and the acceptable, and the perfect will of God” (Rom. 12:2).
Endnotes
1 “The passions of the soul, in so far as they are contrary to the order of reason, incline us to sin: but in so far as they are controlled by reason, they pertain to virtue.” (I-II, q. 24, a. 2, ad 3)
2 “The Problem with Modern Music,” pp. 25-28. See http://www.angelusonline.org/index.php?section=articles&subsection=show_article&article_id=2885
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