Allocating blame.

First published 2005-2006.

I just heard “Hit Me Baby One More Time” on the radio. Marvellous song by Britney Spears, I must say. Her insightful lyrics just make me want to punch a woman in the face. And then sue her for inciting domestic abuse. I’m being ridiculously sarcastic.

Nobody blames the alcohol when someone drinks and drives. They blame the person for being such an idiotic moron. So why are artists to be held personally responsible for anything they may or may not say in their art?

As if a murder involving a young woman being stuffed into a suitcase wasn’t headline worthy enough, the added spin that the man who killed her idolised Eminem makes for saucier reading – and provides yet another excuse for society to blame everybody but themselves for the ills in the world.

This is merely something which happens when people confuse musical lyrics and real life and totally misinterpret a song that was written to set an example against such crazy behaviour. “Stan,” the song in question, may talk about violence, but then already violent minds are bound to pick up on it. I didn’t see Christopher Duncan pick up on the lyric: “I really think you and your girlfriend need each other, or maybe you just need to treat her better.”

Attempting to map a general pattern of social deviances and attaching it to rap lyrics really isn’t realistic or fair. There are millions upon millions of Eminem fans; how many of them would take a baseball bat to a girl’s head? Some people are destined to be nuts even if they’re hardcore fans of Elton John, whose relatively harmless lyrics couldn’t possibly anger anyone.

As with everything else in the world, from religious texts to an unmade bed, musical lyrics are open to interpretation and a consequent acceptance or non-acceptance of the information. We don’t need to be censoring gangster rap (however awful it may sound), but rather teaching our children how to think for themselves, as opposed to absorbing literal language like vegetables.

Parents should take a look at their kids’ music. Not forbid it. By taking some time to explain the satire behind certain lyrics, the teenager, first of all, wouldn’t feel rejected because of his musical tastes. If their sons and daughters are still experiencing difficulties, the parental role is to warn them against misinterpretation and to urge them not to act foolishly. A simple role in a child’s life could stop them from growing up to think that certain acts are right; if nobody tells a child not to stick their fingers in the plug, they’ll never understand that it’s bad for them. People are continuously making excuses for bad parenting. Somebody shoots students in his school and it’s suddenly the fault of guns being glamorised on television.

There are many factors which could lead to somebody wishing to imitate Eminem to the extent of acting out his songs, but bad parenting is probably a good start. Whilst musicians have responsibility over what they promote, it takes a certain frame of mind to pick one type of music over another. How many murders have we seen in the media with the perpetrator emulating “Bob the Builder”?

Or maybe it isn’t as easy to put the blame on something so silly.