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I hope I've posted this in the right place. Mods, please feel free to move the thread if you see fit.
As a fan of both heavy metal and horror movies since my pre-teen years, I've long been fascinated by this storm-in-a-teacup cultural phenomenon. To an Australian raised in a part of the world where no-one worries about much at all, it seems like a uniquely American response. Is this because your country was founded by Puritans and, in more recent times, has given evangelical Christianity more cultural influence than elsewhere?
Full disclosure: I was raised in an Anglican (Episcopalian) family and went to church regularly in my youth. I did so without much in the way of faith because it was part of my Sunday routine. Nowadays when I go to a service, it's out of respect for the traditions my mother held dear and as a way to remember her.
In some ways my parents' brand of Christianity was and is quite progressive and left leaning. Mother Of Mine was never much concerned about what I watched, read or listened to and I don't recall being told off about the demonic posters on my bedroom wall or the presence of Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, KISS, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest et al in my record collection.
Dad, a man of the cloth no less, would sometimes look askance at me and intone warnings about excessive morbidity when I enthused about my latest short story idea. His early attempts to persuade me to listen to Wagner went nowhere, but neither parent feared for my safety or my soul as I explored the darker side of human nature through music, film and fiction.
Had I lived in middle America or the heart of the Bible Belt, it's fair to say my tastes would have caused a great deal more controversy. From age ten onwards I read about Tipper Gore and her PMRC and the alleged influence of Metallica, Slayer and Ozzy on a number of teen suicides and wonder how on Earth people (American people in particular) could take all this so seriously.
As the years wore on I began to research all this more widely. I learned about accusations of Satanic ritual abuse (SRA) in books like Michelle Remembers (1980) and read of many similar claims throughout the decade. These, and the hysterical media coverage that surrounded them on shows like Geraldo, persisted despite a total lack of evidence, and were eventually all but debunked by FBI agents Robert Ressler and Ken Lanning after years of investigation.
The stories persist, however, and are today almost exclusively the domain of online conspiracy nuts. I have one cleaner who firmly believes everything is controlled by the Illuminati and that there's an army of Nephilim frozen under Antarctica. Another takes the Bible as literally as his work roster and regularly lectures me about opening myself to Satanic influence when I leave my yoga exercise diagrams or meditation notes on my desk. I do this purely to get a rise out of him and it works every single time .
Thirty years on from the height of all this hysteria, it's not uncommon to see people from religious fringe groups distributing leaflets outside concerts by 'controversial' acts or to hear them calling for Harry Potter books to be banned. They don't attract as much attention as they used to because, as Stephen King says, 'the world has moved on', but they still make a fair bit of noise.
So, good people of C-D, if you were an impressionable youth or a concerned parent during this curious time during the late 70s and through the 80s, how did it make you feel? Did you consider it a genuine threat to your moral and spiritual wellbeing or just hype intended to sell tabloids?
Growing up in an Evangelical church I remember the Satan hype well. And to be fair, it wasn't all hype. Lots of artists did go out of their way to at least pretend to be Satanic, and they did influence a lot of people. But society is less religious now, and even my old church plays rock music every Sunday, so I guess the Satan-rock menace is harder to take seriously. The big threat today, apparently, is not guys with long black hair and mascara but clean cut white men.
Last edited by The Dark Enlightenment; 09-12-2017 at 10:00 PM..
I almost forgot how Al Gore's wife was the big crusader for decency in music now Al has MAN BEAR PIG and a lot of money. What a difference a few decades can make.
A significant portion of American society is still living in the Middle Ages. They literally believe that the Christian God is behind everything important that happens in their lives (and in the world at large). They take the Christian Bible as mostly literal history including the creation story and global flood in the book of Genesis. Many of these people send their kids to evangelical Christian schools or homeschool them, in order to "protect" them from the outside world.
I grew up in that twisted subculture of America, so I know.
If you look past the name and image, Black Sabbath's early lyrics are quite cautionary. Geezer Butler, who wrote the bulk of them, was a good Catholic boy who considered training for the priesthood at one point in his life and read too much Dennis Wheatley, who was himself one of the most socially conservative authors in a very reactionary genre.
Listen very carefully to what Ozzy is singing here.
The song title and album cover conjure a particular kind of image, but the lyric is quite the opposite. It was written after band founder and bass player Steve Harris had one of his infamous nightmares and drew inspiration from Tam o' Shanter by Robert Burns, which he studied at school.
I didn't think much about it at all, it really didn't affect me. I don't know anyone who was affected by this, we just listened to our music and thought Tipper Gore and the church ladies were uptight and silly.
The 80s? Pffft. Those were just wannabes at panicking about Satanic influences of rock music. Heck, I grew up in the 50s when they burned Elvis Presley records for being the Devil's music. Those old-time hell and brimstone preachers back then could really dish out the fear to straight-laced parents and kids of that era.
Good example. Those who complained about the line 'would you like to see the Pope on the end of a rope?' obviously didn't listen to the whole song.
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