Drop the Beat

Music has the ability to define a generation. It sets us apart from our parents and reflects our ideas, perspectives, attitudes and makes up what we define as “pop culture.”

We connect to our music through emotional experiences. Music can make us energized, happy, maybe sad and at times angry. When we feel energized by a song, we want to dance in our car and pretend no one’s watching. But what if you literally “dropped the beat,” and only focused on the words? What does our current generation define themselves as? Do the lyrics matter, or is it irrelevant as long as you’re having fun blasting it in the car?

Satan is called “the prince of the power of the air” in Ephesians 2:2. Music is a powerful tool for selling his merchandise, and we watch as people line up to be his customer. One of the top female artists, Kesha, set the record by selling 610,000 digital downloads in one week with a song about being drunk, clubbing and guys wanting to be all over her. Her tour is called “Get Sleazy.” Like it or not, sleazy music is what many members of the current generation say defines them, and they are setting records for it.

From the mouth of a 3-year-old

This subject became personal during my time as lead teacher of a daycare classroom for 3-year-olds. I overheard a child singing an Usher song that was full of sexual innuendos. I asked her to please stop singing that at school, and her response was, “But my mommy plays it in her car.”

It hit me right then that this passive listening is anything but harmless. That little girl didn’t know what she was singing, but how long will it take until she does? We are cultivating in our toddlers (let alone teenagers) some very scary ideas of social norms.

Superficial reality

If we drop the beat, we’re left with auto-tuned artists telling us life is all about partying, having fun, drinking too much and being crazy with friends.

Much of popular music teaches us that love can be found in clubs and is something that should intoxicate us and overwhelm us to the point of being addicted to it like a drug. Among its lyrics we also find catchphrases such as Lady Gaga’s “born this way” and Kesha’s “we are who we are.” All of this has Satan’s fingerprints all over it. He wants you to believe that nothing is wrong, and there is nothing worth living for that has substance and takes sober effort to attain. Why change? Why work when you can play?

A superior generation

“Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12).

Adults used to say to young people, “What would your grandma think if she heard that?!” But I am not a grandma. I’m not even a mom yet. I am a young adult, encouraging you to take an active role in evaluating what you download onto your iPod or turn on in the car.

There is good music out there, and there is bad. I know it’s hard to delete music that you paid for. But let’s be honest, it probably cost about 99 cents. The real question is, what is it costing you by keeping it?

Sarah Henderson, a nanny of a 2-year-old boy, and her husband attend the Columbus/Cambridge, Ohio, congregation of the Church of God, a Worldwide Association.