Rats and Rap Music

by NikL 22 Replies latest jw friends

NikL

I just thought I would share this little gem that showed up in my e mail box. It seems to be making the rounds of Dubdom at the moment.
Rats and Rap Music

A traveling overseer was visiting a congregation recently, and had this interesting experience to
relate about 'RATS & RAP MUSIC'.

The brother said, "Yes, I've heard people say with regards to Rap Music. . "Oh!, I don't listen to the
words, I just like the beat. I don't know any of the words, . I just like the rhythm of the music."" He
then asked the audience, " Are you one of those people?"

Then he continued, "Let me tell you about a an experience I just heard. There was this young guy
who did an experiment with rats. He had a group of rats, and he taught each rat to go through this
maze he had set up. After a while he would time them, to see how long it would take the rats to get
through the maze. One the average, he found that it took this group of rats about 10 minutes to get
through the maze.

Then he divided the rats up into 3 groups.
The first group was kind of a controlled group, so he did absolutely nothing to change their
routine for two weeks.
With the 2nd group of rats he put a speaker on top of their cage, and for 10 hours a day he
exposed them to classical music. He did this for two weeks.
However, with the 3rd group of rats he put a speaker on top of their cage, and exposed them to
hardcore Rap music for 10 hours a day for two weeks.

After the two week period, he took the first group of rats and had them go through the maze
routine just as he had taught them to do. It took them 10 minutes to go through the maze, just as
they had always done.

The 2nd group of rats that were exposed to the classical music went through the same maze,
and he found that it took them only 8 minutes to do it, . . .. so it had shaved 2 minutes off the time it
had originally taken that group.

Then he took the 3rd group of rats that had been exposed to Rap music, and had them go
through the same maze routine. The brother asked the audience, "Do you know how long it took
that 3rd group of rats to traverse the maze?"

The congregation was very quiet. The brother astonished them when he said, "Would you believe it
took that 3rd group of rats 20 minutes? The exact same maze they were originally able to get
through in 10 minutes now took them twice as long.

Do you see how the Rap music slowed them down mentally, . . . and the rats didn't know what the
words were either." Interestingly, he then continued on, and said that the young man couldn't
continue the experiment any further, and he asked, "Do you know why?" The audience was quiet
again, and the brother explained, "The rats that had been exposed to the Rap music for 10 hours a
day for two weeks started to kill each other!"

Then the brother.concluded with the thought provoking question, "Do you really think that such
vulgar, profane Rap music has no effect on you?"
Sassy

That illustration is ridiculous.. He probably had it too loud or something. Bet if you used heavy metal rock it would have had the same effect. Classical puts people to sleep..
I was going to say that the rats took longer in group #3 because they learned to chill....
but then the part about them killing each other.. hmmm.. must have been playing from Murder Inc.
got my forty homey?

What a bunch of BS. Its like in the early eighties when we told that playing records backwards reveals hidden messages. And I always loved the question posed by CO's. If Jesus came over to your house, would you be ashamed of what records he would se on your shelf?
I have a similiar question, If Jesus came to earth today and went to Bethel would he be ashamed of whats claiming to be his sole representive on the Earth?
Sassy

some of that music did have words if you played it backwords, but it didnt' necessarily mean there was anything wrong with it..
but of course.. we were still supposed to throw it out..
Euphemism

Funny... I heard that same experience in a public talk, but it was hard rock, not rap... I'm detecting an urban legend here.
Okay, I resorted to Google, and this is the closest thing I can actually find, from http://www.soundtherapy.co.uk/research/musicresearch.php :
Physicist Harvey Bird and neurobiologist Gervasia Schreckenberg subjected different groups of mice to the sound of traditional voodoo drumming, to Strauss waltzes, and to silence, and then tested each group's ability to navigate through a maze to get food. [refs. 5a, 5b] All music was played continuously at low volumes to eliminate possible behavioral effects from loud sounds generally. The groups that were subjected to either silence or Strauss waltzes had no problem learning the maze, with the Strauss waltz group having a slight edge in performance. However, the voodoo group performed progressively worse over the period of time they were exposed to the music and eventually became so disoriented that they became unable to complete the maze at all. These mice were also hyperactive and aggressive, often engaging in cannibalistic behavior.
On dissection of the brains of these mice, highly abnormal neuronal growth patterns were found in the hippocampus region, with excessive dendritic branches growing out in all directions yet making few connections to other neurons; the hippocampus region is known to be important in learning and memory formation. Significant increases in messenger RNA, which is involved in memory formation, were also found. This latter effect probably corresponds to the increase in dendritic branching, as if the brains were persistently attempting to make sense out the sound stimulus, but could not.
[ref. 5a] MacKay, Greg; "How Music Affects Your Kids...What Parents Need to Know"; http://www.vanillafudge.com/link_backups/music2.htm
[ref. 5b] Lipkin, Richard; "Jarring Music Takes Toll on Mice"; Insight Magazine, April 4, 1988, p.58.
A number of commentators have interpreted these findings to condemn all forms of rock music; while this does not necessarily follow logically from the Bird and Schreckenberg results, the Retallack experiments (see section 2.5, below) on plants at least suggests that many types of rock music may be harmful to human health. Some researchers and health professionals have suggested that the electronic distortion used by many rock bands might be a factor, in addition to the common use of anapestic rhythms (persistently syncopated, with two short beats, a long beat, then a pause).

Euphemism

Okay, here's a story that comes closer to the one circulating in that e-mail. I've seen it on enough sites, and quoted from actual news sources, that I believe it is probably true.

Wednesday, August 3, 1997

Teen proves hard rock's bad for you

LORRAINE EATON
The Virginia-Pilot

 SUFFOLK, Va. - Your mom was right.
 Rock 'n' roll really does rot your brain.
 That's according to David Merrell, a 16-year-old
 Nansemond River High School student whose
 science experiment supports what parents have been
 saying for years: Hard rock taints the brain - well,
 at least the brains of mice.
 Using 72 male laboratory mice, a stopwatch, a 5-
 by 3-foot maze and the music of Mozart and
 Anthrax, David worked with an Old Dominion
 University statistician to establish that hard rock
 impedes learning.
 In the process, the rising junior captured top
 honors in regional and state science fairs and earned
 accolades from the Navy and the CIA.
 "Don't let your kids listen to hard rock music," he
 said. "I think it has a major negative effect."
 To prove his point, David assembled three
 separate groups of 24 mice: a control group, a hard
 rock group, and a classical group. To ensure
 scientific validity, each white mouse weighed
 between 15 and 20 grams, was 4 to 6 weeks old and
 was bred to ensure no genetic abnormalities existed.
 The mice spent the first week getting used to their
 controlled environment in David's parent's
 basement. They received measured feedings and 12
 hours of light each day. Each mouse navigated the
 maze to establish the base time of about 10 minutes.
 Then David started piping in music 10 hours a
 day. The control group navigated without music. He
 put each mouse through the maze three times a
 week for three weeks.
 The results: The control group shaved five
 minutes from its original time.
 The mice that navigated the maze with Mozart
 knocked 8 1/2 minutes off their time. But the group
 listening to hard rock bumped through the maze,
 dazed and confused, taking an average of 30
 minutes, tripling the amount of time it previously
 took to complete the maze. Most noticeably, the
 hard rock mice didn't sniff the air to find the trails
 of others that came before them.
 "It was like the music dulled their senses," David
 said. "It shows point-blank that hard rock has a
 negative effect all around. I can't think of a positive
 effect that hard rock has" on learning.
 In fact, David thinks that the negative effects go
 well beyond learning.
 During the four-month experiment David housed
 each mouse in separate aquariums. That's because
 last year, for a similar project, he kept each group
 together. The results were horrific.
 "I had to cut my project short because all the hard
 rock mice killed each other," David said.
 David's awards include first place in the
 behavioral science division at the Virginia State
 Science and Engineering Fair and the Tidewater
 Science Fair. He also won Northern Virginia
 Community College's Veterinary Technology
 Award and accolades from the Newport News Art
 Commission, the Science and Humanitarian
 Symposium at James Madison University, the
 Navy, and the CIA.

Taken from: http://www.straightistheway.com/tracts/of_mice_and_music.html

Other references:

http://www.universalway.org/Foreign/hardrock.html
http://www.fischtank.com/inthetankcomments.cfm/reference/86%26e=912
http://www.suncoast.com.au/Kenilworth/Voice/97-11-12/p11a.html

Sassy

Funny... I heard that same experience in a public talk, but it was hard rock, not rap... I'm detecting an urban legend her
me thinks that they change the story to suit the talk. Just because they use an illustration in a talk, does not mean it is true.
jonnydangerous

WTF, I thought they KNEW THIS already, ANTHRAX and Dr. Dre rotted my brain YEARS ago, now I walk around screaming "get away with Murdah" moshing everyone and "running up on fools" with my "tech 9".
Mulan

I would love to believe that was a true story, but it is just a little too much..............too convenient. I hate rap "music" and would absolutely love to be able to tell that story.
It is an urban legend, no doubt.
NukePoet

[quote] "Then he took the 3rd group of rats that had been exposed to Rap music, and had them go
through the same maze routine. The brother asked the audience, "Do you know how long it took
that 3rd group of rats to traverse the maze?"

The congregation was very quiet. The brother astonished them when he said, "Would you believe it
took that 3rd group of rats 20 minutes? The exact same maze they were originally able to get
through in 10 minutes now took them twice as long." [quote]

Rats and Rap Music

Share this