What happened to music?

[methibosheth]

Why is it that nowadays a lot of singers have such inappropriate songs?! Why do they make all the people listening to it think that all these immoral things are what should be done. The people listening consider these singers "role models" when they are really not! I am a teenager but I listen to older songs...why weren't the olden songs as trashy as the songs today?

Cornelius Van Til (a philosopher) wrote that culture is religion externalized. In a cultural context, religion has a broader definition than usual. It can be defined as follows: an object of praise and reverence, and the beliefs that can be inferred or deduced from this praise and reverence. Thus, whatever or whoever a society praises and reveres is the god of that society.

What does today's music praise? The answer is the lawless autonomy of man. Autonomy simply means to be under nobody's authority. Lawlessness is the lack of morality. Think about it: today's music tells you to do whatever you desire (usually to seek pleasure), with no regard at all to the morality of your actions or your accountability to a higher authority.

However, this does not answer the question of why today's music is less moral than yesterday's music. The answer is simply that our culture has shifted from a more or less Biblical culture to a humanistic culture. Its impossible to pinpoint exactly when this shift began, but the 1925 Scopes trial is often noted as a watershed moment in America's cultural revolution. In other words, our culture (including it's music) has gradually exchanged the authority of God for the authority of the individual.

Some may argue that a moral culture (and hence moral music) can be achieved without the authority of God, but without sufficient authority morality becomes nothing more than individual preference. If we desire moral culture, we must reaffirm Biblical authority in culture.

I apologize if this comes off as too preachy or too deep, but questions of morality & religion are inextricably linked, and I do tend to swim in the deep end