There's some stuff I found in the publications that I found completely rediculous regarding music:
g78 5/8 pp. 16-20
A Recording Artist Finds Something Far Better
For countless youths around the world, the ultimate symbol of success is an idolized rock-music star. For this reason, rock musicians and rock groups have played a considerable role in shaping the attitudes of their fans toward life. In a series of interviews with an Awake! correspondent, a former rock star, whose records have sold in the millions, discussed what real success is to him. The following summary of high points from those interviews may prove to be helpful to anyone seeking to attain success in life. Young people may also be helped to reevaluate their own attitudes.
Question: You went from Tommy Ray and his Carib Steel Band to the T-Bones, didn't you?
Answer: That's right. The T-Bones were a group recording out of California that took the Alka Seltzer commercial "No Matter What Shape Your Stomach's In" and made a million seller out of it. They saw me in New York and asked me to join the group. That's how I ended up in California.
Now, has anybody ever listened to the T-Bones (or even heard of them)? They were a surf-rock instrumental band. The Watchtower wants to make this seem like a huge lifestyle change. The T-Bones didn't have any immoral lyrics (or any lyrics at all), and the song title "No Matter What Shape Your Stomach's In" doesn't seem to portray any demonic reference. Prince is a much better example. Speaking of Prince...
g92 11/8 4-7
The rock star Prince sang the praises of brother-sister incest.
Has Prince read this? BTW, here's a sneak peak at some of his recent lyrics from the album "The Rainbow Children":
We were always meant 2 b
In paradise eternally
B4 the truth I did not care
Now I feel it Everywhere
dx30-85
former rock star's life story: g78 5/8 16-20
heavy metal: g85 11/22 19
Huard, Bruce (life story): g85 9/22 19-22
Led Zeppelin: g77 11/8 29
Lerner's (Alan Jay) comment on: g80 2/22 29
Led Zeppelin gets their very own spot in the Index. Nice!!!
w83 1/15 p. 9 Modern Trends in Music - Can They Sway You?
You parents and young people: Have you checked the lyrics of some of the discs that are on sale-or that are perhaps already in your home?
Okay, I think anyone, including JWs would get in trouble opening an album in the store just to check out the lyrics. Also, the internet didn't have the popularity in 1996 that it does today.
w83 1/15 p. 9 Modern Trends in Music - Can They Sway You?
For example, one group plays a piece called "Mr. Crowley." Who is Mr. Crowley? A 20th-century satanist and promoter of modern witchcraft! In many cases, one look at the album cover should be enough for a Christian witness of Jehovah to decide whether to buy the record or not, especially when there are portrayals of witchcraft and demonism, or symbols of paganism and the occult.
Why didn't they put a picture of the album here? Shouldn't youths have an example of what to avoid?
w83 1/15 7-10
Bill Mullane, former rock musician from New Jersey, U.S.A., explained it this way: "When I was playing bass guitar in a rock group the whole effect was physical. The insistent rampaging beat and the aggressive style just got through to you. As a musician I became a part of it. Then, as I watched the audience respond and get swept along with the same primitive urges, I wanted to affect them more. It's that kind of sound. It grabs you. Of course, at that time I was often under the influence of drugs, even as many in the audience were. So the euphoria grows. You know, it's like casting off all restraint. You can go wild and forget your inhibitions.
I searched the internet trying to find out who the f--- Bill Mullane was. All I came up with was the above quote on Quotes' site.
g89 6/22 12-14
A number of U.S. record companies have now agreed to put warning labels on records containing explicit lyrics dealing with sex or violence.
I suppose they mean this warning?
The Awake! sure didn't go into the details (or research) of how this happened. Who did they agree with? It sure wasn't John Denver, he was against these labels!
g94 9/22 6-8
As for the lyrics of other songs sung by screaming members of heavy-metal bands-often lip-synched by their fans at concerts in wild frenzy, or listened to on audiocassette tapes for hours on end-what influence do such messages have on impressionable youths? Consider, for example, these lyrics: "Satan our master in evil mayhem guides us with every first step," and "Spill your blood, let it run on to me. Take my hand and let go of your life . . . You've spilt the blood. I have your soul."
It's nice that the Watchtower Society neglected to mention the band's name: Slayer
Same article:
Robert Palmer, a jazz critic writing for The New York Times under the heading "Witchery Pervades a Jazz Album," commented about the black jazz group called The Art Ensemble of Chicago, stating: "The Art Ensemble of Chicago's slogan is 'Great Black Music-Ancient to the Future' . . . But there is more than one sort of blackness here. There is . . . the blackness of voodoo spells cast in the dead of night. It isn't exactly a malevolent blackness, but this is not the sort of record one would put on at even the wildest party. . . . It is a phantasmagorical expedition into the heart of darkness." As a disciple of Christ would you want that type of music in your collection?
WTF is the Watchtower Society quoting Robert Palmer for, since he was the one who sang "Addicted to Love", a song which is no doubt about sex. Robert Palmer was also in a band called "Power Station", who did a cover of a T.Rex song called "(Bang A Gong) Get It on", again a song about sex.