My wife and I just got through watching 'Fashion Rocks', and I am just speechless. We are music lovers. My wife is very musically inclined, but I am not, I just know how to download tunes off of Itunes onto my Ipod. But we love music. So any time there is anything on television that has to do with music, we make it a point to watch.
So we happened to be flipping through the channels and came across 'Fashion Rocks' on CBS. We thought that this would be something that we would be interested in watching. Well, were we wrong. There was hardly any act that I would consider good music. The only artist we really enjoy, OneRepublic, didn't even get to do their whole song. They were the only true 'musicians' on the show.
There was only one theme that we noticed throughout the whole show, and it was the same theme that we noticed the other night as we watched the VMA's. That being the theme of sex. As a man, who struggles with lust (as do all men), it is difficult to watch these things. During both shows I leaned over to my wife and said, "When did it become so fashionable and cool to wear clothing that shows more skin on the front of the body than on the back?"
It seemed that all the artists', if you can even call them that, music was about sex and their showing was about encouraging sexual activity. Now I want to remind you that I am not a legalist. I enjoy good music, which means that I do not enjoy most 'Christian Music". I am finding more and more that the music I enjoy the most is performed by artist that are not very popular. Those who hold true to real music and real messages.
I guess I am just having a hard time understanding why there is such a huge market for 'music' that encourages sexual activity. Especially since most of the consumers of this music are teens. We complain about teen pregnancy and about kids dressing inappropriately, and yet we allow our children to be exposed not only to music that encourages these behaviors but also, let them watch the videos and movies that encourage this kind of behavior. I just wonder if parents would start monitoring what their kids are watching and listening to, would we see a change in behavior? Not only see a change in behavior, but also would we start to see the music industry begin to get back to music that encourages real talent and positive messages? I don't know the answer to this, but I do know that if you are a parent, instead of ignoring what your kids are exposed to, you should start listening and watching what they are.
As pastors and youth leaders, we should be educating ourselves on these things as well. For far too long, we have ignored these things and preached against them. This is a huge failure on our part, leading us to be totally ignorant in our speaking and leading on the topic of culture. Even Paul was educated on the culture of his time. At times he was even able to use figures and music of his culture to help reach people for Christ. People don't need to hear us preach against somethig, and yet seem totally out of touch with what we are speaking about. It is very apparent to me that we need to become more educated on our culture, so we can relate and speak in such a way that allows people to know be confident that we know what we are talking about.
So what do you think? How do you feel your knowledge of the current culture is? What can we do differently in order to be able to counsel and teach people in such a way that they know that we truely understand what we are talking about?
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