Do you think swear words help or hinder the song ?

[Reconsiderate]

[artpaul]

I guess I wonder about my lyrics ?

In the name of humor I have suggested The Backstreet Boys I want to Kill Them.

But I figured no one would take me seriously.

[KatsuCadence]

[artpaul]

I wonder about this topic.

About the rhyming and about things Lenny Bruce said and about rap and comedy at night clubs these days.

Maybe there is a way to say things more inteligent without using alot of words that will offend but still be funny ?

What would you think of a minister who used swear words to explain the gospel ?

Is it wrong for me to be close minded because I don't want to hear certain words so I turn off some songs ?

I know I forsure don't want anyone to call my wife a B----
But if you said George W should be shot I think I would understand where your coming from and know you didn't mean it literally.

Yet if we had a president that we all liked and someone said that maybe that wouldn't be the same.

Do people feel there is a time and place for things like at a bar is different then in church.

Talking about someones wife or talking about a famous person no one likes.

But maybe even if George W is doing what we don't like we should still respect him because he is our President ?

Well there is alot to think about and I believe when the Bible says in James that the tongue is the hardest thing to control it might be right.

[Reconsiderate]

[KatsuCadence]

[Reconsiderate]

[MrsPeabody]

I don't have an official opinion on whether swear words increase or decrease record sales, but as a consumer, I can't stand it when I hear a swear word that was thrown in unintelligently or just for shock value. It's a huge turn off in music and in general language... Instead of hearing music at that point I hear nails on a chalk board...

I've gotten this feeling from one of musics most notorious swearers Eminem. I like what he does. I think that some of his tracks are artful and intelligent. But in a lot of his albums I find redundant tracks that rely more on their bleepable content than actual lyrics for appeal. I still got the albums though so does it really matter to him or his record company that I skip 50% of the tracks?

On a similar note, I want to commend Reconsiderate for his thoughtful avoidance of out-right vulgarity in these tracks:

[GregK]

I have to agree with Mrs P on this- if the swear words are thrown into the song without any real REASON for them other than someone throwing them in- it can SOMETIMES somehow debase the quality of the piece. However- on the other side of the coin, I've liked pieces by Guns N' Roses or even the Sex Pistols where (certain colorful words referring to forniction) were thrown around in almost every other line. At times this can make the line funnier or more serious- depending on the context. I have a couple of songs where I use the "minor swear words" ie: pg13 swear words- in one song I wrote that "they bombard you with bull$&*!" and in another I have said "Dammit, I deserve better" and although I sat on the fence for a while as to whether using these words would hinder me in some way in the future, I thought about the "BS Word" in Pink Floyd's "Money" and it made me realize that there are no suitable substitutes for a good, well-placed swear word. NOTHING comes close to conveying the angst or frustration in "Damn" or "dammit" - if you took Clark Gable's infamous line and changed the word to "darn" or "hoot"- it would NOT convey the message accurately- it wouldn't have the same "weight".. and the same goes for the bs word- NOTHING stacks up close to it..sure there is "baloney" or "malarky" or even "horse hockey"- but it does not do the justice as a good healthy whopping load of BS. I think that politicans should be more openely honest and use the occaisional bad word- "my fellow Americans..the taxes are too damned high and basiclly as Americans- we're all getting it right in the a** - so unless you want to get screwed for another 4 years- vote for me"- see..THAT would work!

[Reconsiderate]

[MrsPeabody]

There's one more thing I have to say about swearing in music.

I agree it has a place. There are plenty of good songs that use curses appropriately, but there are plenty that don't. There is a cost to swearing freely in music and I think that cost is the general decline of intelligent speech.

Just the other day I was in the Supermarket in the cereal isle and a mom with two kids in toe walked past me. One five year old said to his mother, "what the f*ck mom? I want Count Chocula". The other child (maybe a four year old) agreed, "yeah, what the f*ck, mom?"

If this is the way children learn to speak from an early age, I feel that the generation will come to rely on curses as appropriate speech and never expand their knowledge of language to more appropriate, concise and precisely descriptive words. I have seen this phenomena in various high-school student's essays that I have corrected for a former job -- not the use of curse words in formal writing, but a lack of a broad vocabulary.

Granted, music is not the only place that kids learn to curse (there's also TV, bleeped out or not, you know what they're saying, Movies, Parents, other kids, etc), but music is certainly a main source. And when you're 7 and your favorite rapper has a dirty sailor's mouth, you probably will to

One must carefully chose their words and curses make it too easy just to curse rather than think about word choice. There are so many great words out there and as partial to the word 'f*ck' as I am, I know that it belies my real intelligence. Plus, fornicate would sound so much cooler in a song...

Musicians represent a form of media that has a profound influence on young people. I personally was very influenced by the first artists and bands I ever listened to. Therefore, I think it all of our responsibilities to choose words wisely. I'm not saying curses should be eliminated, but used when there simply isn't a better word available.

There are so many great words out there, why limit yourself to the dirty ones?

[Reconsiderate]

[GregK]

Well, I admit that my language can be rather colourful at times., I'd learned a lot of words on the back of the Boston subways and one of my friends IS a drunken sailor LOL. But I think in life- not just music, one has to learn to be much more DIPLOMATIC in his or her's surroundings and interactions. Especially if others may/could be influenced by words and actions-such as kids. I fear that being a "Gentleman" is a thing of the past- and it's sad because you can walk through the mall and clearly see that the world needs more Gentlemanly/womanly people! I'm not talking about Etiquette or which fork to use- just geniune down-to-earth everyday gentlemanly qualities. Unfortunately, it seems that in SO many places- out in the world, in music, or from tv and the media- it appears that I could get a better, more intelligent conversation from a POTTED PLANT!

[Reconsiderate]

[artpaul]