LETTERS: ROCK MUSIC: SCAPEGOAT FOR VIOLENCE

To the editor:

I am writing because I feel that we shouldn't make rock music the scapegoat for violence. I feel that we should focus more on the people and less on the music.

Critics claim that rock music, heavy metal or punk rock promote a wide variety of undesirable behavior, including drug use, promiscuity, sadomasochism, Satan worship and even murder and suicide. I am 17 years old, and since I have been listening to rock music I have become a born-again Christian and so have a few of my friends, none of which use drugs or drink alcohol. I also haven't had any suicidal feelings since starting to listen to rock music. If you ask me, I think the critics have it backwards.

Rock music alone should not be expected to promote socialization since family, community, schools, law enforcement agencies and the media are all important parts of the socialization environment which influence our behavior and encourage us to decide right from wrong for ourselves. Rock music has drawn several assumptions from critics that it promotes violence, but there is no evidence of research demonstrating a definite link between rock music and violence.

I believe that we should take a look at the people who cause this violence. If music makes a person commit murder, then I think this person had something wrong with him or her.

While findings show that adolescents who like heavy-metal music differed from adolescents who did not in several ways, it would be a mistake to conclude that heavy metal causes problems to which it was found to be related to.

It is state in "The Punk and Heavy Metal Handbook," which is a guideline on how to intervene and separate the youth from this subculture, that "the majority of punk and metal fans simply enjoy the music, and only a small percentage engage in destructive lifestyles." That small percentage are probably the ones who already have psychiatric problems and just so happen to like rock music.

In closing, I would like to state that not all rock music lyrics are based on violent behavior. Some of it is a bunch of guys just having fun doing something they love: making music.

BRIAN BURLBAUGH

Scott City