The Hurting Teen and Influence of Music

He was 16 at the time and he was sending songs to my daughter to get her opinion of what she thought.

My daughter knows my love of many genres of music and eagerly shared with me to get my opinion as well.

Most parents when hearing a song for the first time think to themselves, “I hope I get through this song without it killing me.” Honestly, most parents dread listening to their teen’s music because it comes from a totally different generation.

Unfortunately, we are living in an era in which music provokes and encourages sex, rape, stealing, insulting authority, rebellion, violence and a whole plethora of topics that is too long to list.

What is most tragic, is that many parents are totally unaware of this type of influence in their teen’s lives. It doesn’t matter if your teen grew up on a farm, in another country, came from a religious background or just lived a very normal life – they will be influenced.

They say that music moves the soul. I believe that to be true. Music reaches depths within us that words don’t always do. When we don’t know how to express ourselves, a song says the words for us. It is entirely its own language of sorts. Sadly, that musical language can also destroy a young teen.

Going back to that young man that shared his music with my daughter, I had to sit down and explain to them about the background of that singer and why they needed to stop listening to it. At first, they were debating me, but after revealing to them the truth with backed up facts, they had realized that I was right.

One particular singer was Marilyn Manson who is known for publicly burning Bibles, spitting on pictures of Jesus, hating religion and Christian parents in general. His name was chosen by two idols of his – Marilyn Monroe and Charles Manson.

He learned early on as a teenager about satanism through Anton LeVay who is founder of the First Church of Satan and author of the Satanic Bible. Marilyn Manson is now a recruiter for LeVay and holds the title of “Reverend”. He is known for selling his WWJD bracelets with his meaning of “We Want Jesus Dead”. He encourages during concerts to kill helpless animals, to kill God, kill parents and kill themselves. There is so much more that I could write but I think you get the picture.

Several known artists are involved in the Illuminati organization (which they do not deny) that idolizes power, satanism and witchcraft. With satanic symbolism and label designs that are sometimes hidden or public, are drawing thousands of teens to their music encouraging them with deceiving messages that their self-worth is only good through praying to the gods and spiritual entities.

The two most prominent ones are Beyonce as well as Jay Z. Example – Beyonce who calls upon Sasha Fierce, spirit of power and strength before and during the concerts.

There are many more out there in the music world but the issue really is where do you go from here? As parents, we should never feel like it is too late to speak truth to our teens?

I have made a lot of effort to listen to my teen’s music. Because of this, it gave me ample opportunity to really get them to listen to the lyrics and not the music itself.

What I found is that many teens get caught up into the music first because of its beat or unusual sound. The lyrics were secondary. However, if you have a teen in crisis, the lyrics come first according to their crisis, their hurt, their pain. They listen to anything that is related to their struggle.

So here are some of the things that helped me understand my teens and their music as well as help my teen understand what was negative or positive about it and how to use it as a healing balm to their soul:

1. Find out what kind of music they are listening to – another words, do your research! Know the artists and their backgrounds. Many teens don’t bother to research that part of the music industry.

2. Ask your teens their opinions about certain songs that they listen to. Find out WHY they listen to that artist or song.

3. Tell your kids you want to know more about the artist and have them do a fun truth or fiction game about the artist with you. See if they really know who they are listening to. It will give you opportunities to bring up important information that your teen didn’t think or know about before so that they understand the seriousness of lyrics that could affect their life in a negative and harmful way.

4. Provide alternatives for your teens. If they love Screamo, find some Christian or positive sounding Screamo. If they like Rap, find them some Christian or positive sounding rap. I’ve heard some pretty good songs this way that even I appreciated as well as them.

5. Pray that God would give them peace when they listen to Christian music and defray from music that only promotes evil. Ask God to open their eyes and ears to truth about the music they listen to.

The 30 Day Lesson

My daughter was heavily influenced towards suicide by some of the songs she listened to. The lyrics of these songs were of an extremely sad and depressive nature. Some of the songs also influenced her emotions towards anger as well which encouraged her to hate others and even thoughts of killing others.

I challenged her to 30 days of listening to Christian music only. 30 Days. That’s all. I also played it in the car wherever we went and around the house. Before the end of the 30 days, she had started to change.

She shared with me that throughout that time, certain Christian songs she heard really affected her in which she downloaded the songs on her Ipod. When we went for car rides which was part of her coping for depression, she would listen to the music and be at a calmer and more peaceful place.

After the 30 days were up, she came to me and showed me that she was continuing to put songs on her Ipod because she had noticed that she didn’t feel the same sense of peace when she listened to her other music. Within six months, she had over 80% of her Ipod filled with Christian music. You are talking about someone who liked the depressing and violent hard core rock and rap music. This new challenge had literally changed her life.

The Lord is my strength and my song.

Exodus 15:2