America always needs someone to blame for its problems. Not something, someone. Someone must be to blame, someone has to be the scapegoat. And not just a scapegoat; America feels the need to have some sort of extreme hate figure to blame all of its ills on. And this week's hate figure is.... Eminem!

When I say America, I don't mean the majority of Americans, because America is not ruled by a majority. It's ruled by a white, aspiring-to-be-middle-class Christian minority. And let's face it, America is a country with more problems than scapegoats. So the likes of poor old Marilyn Manson and Eminem have to take the blame.

And let's get this straight; Eminem is not to blame, not even in a tiny, small, insignificant way. NOT AT ALL. No one has ever listened to a record and committed a crime because of listening to it, and they never will. Because no form of art, however powerful, is capable of making anyone do something they don't want to. Manson isn't to blame for the high school shootings, and Eminem isn't to blame for alcoholism, rape, gang violence, teenage pregnancy or anything else, for that matter.

The idea that music, film, books, or whatever, could make someone become violent, or behave in any antisocial way, was an idiot theory dreamt up by a load of 50s academics who wanted to prove rock 'n' roll was evil (although in reality the theory had been around for centuries). But by the 60s the theory was completely disproved, and no qualified psychologist believes in it. It's simply a myth; the same goes for wank like 'subliminal messages'; they never fucking worked, contrary to popular belief, and there is no evidence that watching or listening to something can radically change anyone's behaviour. None.

So, then. Why is that all these freaks in trenchcoats are listening to Eminem, then going to their high school and shooting everyone? I'll tell you why. It's because Eminem sets himself against the white Christian guardians of America, and these kids can relate to that. They listen to Eminem because they're violently disenfranchised from so-called mainstream society, but they don't listen to Eminem and then become violent because of it. Basically, if you're fucked up enough to want to kill anyone, you have some severe childhood trauma, and no amount of art or culture is going to make a difference either way. You're mental. That's it. The music didn't make you mental, you just are.

Although it's obviously true that music can change your mood, and provoke a reaction, it can't alter your brain. Music can temporarily make you feel hyped, angry or depressed, but it can't make you become antisocial, or a rapist or murderer. Kids will always look to whatever it is that their parents hate, whether it's black metal or gangsta rap, but that's because it expresses what they feel, not because it gives them the feelings in the frist place.

True, rap music might not be very nice, but listening to nice music never changed anyone from a violent killer, or  into a fluffy bunny wabbit, did it? The aforementioned kids feel like they're outsiders in their own culture, but it's not Eminem who's made them feel like that, it's probably their own fucking parents. The parents, of course, who hate Eminem so much.

Another stupid argument is that music like Eminem can 'push someone over the edge'; the essential reasoning being that someone already a bit fucked up can listen to lyrics about murdering his teacher, and think 'Oh, yeah! What a cool idea! I'd never have thought of that!'

What a load of crap! Yeah, so a murderer might get ideas from something, but the basic fact is that they'd still have murdered in the first place. If we were to ban everything which might suggest a form of murder or violence, then we'd have to ban pretty much all literature since the beginning of time. Just because some sick fuck gets an idea from somewhere,  it doesn't follow that it was that idea which set him off in the first place. I refer you to my earlier point, milud. Art does not influence our paths of thought.

There are real problems in American culture, as in any culture, but they're not the fault of people, but rather of things. The Bible-belt hysterics, however, can't deal with this fact; it's easier to just say, 'Eminem is the reason why these things go on!', than to admit that the problems go deeper. Eminem doesn't cause the problems or even exasperate them, he just rhymes about them.

The conception of the guardians of America is basically that society don't kill people, pop stars kill people. Which is shit. There are two main reasons why there are so many high school shootings. One reason is that mainstresm US culture is made up of Right-wing shitheads who've obviously forgotten what it's like to be a teenager, or to be alive, for that matter. The second is that guns are far, far too readily available in America, and should basically be banned outright. Guns kill people. That's the fact of the matter. If someone's armed with a blunt carrot, then they're not likely to kill you. But if they're armed with a Glock 9mm and two hand grenades, you can safely say you're in the shit.

These are just two of America's big fucking problems, but they're problems to do with things, to do with society and with laws, not with individual people like Eminem.

It's untrue, of course, to say that the hate against Eminem is a new thing. Ever since there's been mass art there have been people claiming that it was responsible for society's problems. People complained the 18th century romance novels caused women to become weak-minded and easily infkuenced by 'improper' men, for example. In the modern day, the Sex Pistols were really no different from Eminem; they were a reaction against pop music and the values it projected, and a reaction against a government which didn't represent what young people thought. To an extent, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles and even Elvis Priestly were doing the same thing.

However the way that Eminem reacts to the criticisms of media and the powers that be directly, in his lyrics is new. He's like the next step in counter-culture; more intelligent than punk, and less tied to left-wing politics. Eminem just wants to be hated, and he knows how to be. I don't often agree with his lyrics, but that isn't the point at all. Eminem is depicting society in all its fucked-up glory. It's all very well to condemn him for talking about murder, drugs, alcohol and rape, but the fact is that this is what's going on in America today, right now.

The reason why the guardians of America hate Eminem so much is because he takes everything they want to sweep under the carpet, and puts it on show. He tells them that their kids are getting bullied at school, that poverty is everywhere, that guns, drugs and booze are everywhere, and that no amount of moralizing and bullshit is going to make it go away. That's why he's so hated, and so loved.
 
 
 

Bookmark this page