AFFECTS OF MUSIC ON HUMANS
"To the question, 'Does music affect man's physical body?' modern research applies in the clear affirmative. There is scarcely a single function of the body which cannot be affected by musical tones [score] ... Investigation has shown that music affects digestion, internal secretions, circulation, nutrition and respiration. Even neural networks of the brain have been found to be sensitive to harmonic principles.....
"Researchers have discovered that consonant and dissonant chords, different intervals, and other features of music [score] all exert a profound effect upon man's pulse and respiration-upon their rate and upon whether their rhythm is constant, or interrupted and jumpy. Blood pressure is lowered by sustained chords and raised by crisp, repeated ones. [It has also been found that the tension of the larynx is affected by melodies, that sound stimuli can have a negative effect upon the skeletal muscles, that rock rhythms cause the heart beat to lose its perfect rhythm, and that certain rhythms can even cause a rare malady known as "musicogenic epilepsy" (76 documented cases as of 1984), with which some of its victims have been tormented to the point of committing suicide or murder.] ... We can see, then, that music affects the body in two distinct ways: directly, as the effect of sound upon the cells and organs, and indirectly, by affecting the emotions, which then in turn influence numerous bodily processes" The Secret Power of Music, p 136 - 137, by David Tame.
"Music is a curiously subtle art with innumerable, varying emotional connotations. It is made up of many ingredients and according to the proportions of those components, it can be soothing or invigorating, ennobling or vulgarizing, philosophical or orgiastic. It has powers for evil as well as for good." The American Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 99, p 317, Article authored by Dr Howard Hanson of Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester, NY.
The rhythms common to rock music cause brain nerve damage and behavior degradation.
In another interesting study the motor pulses produced by the brain to different musical stimuli were measured. The range of music included rock, blues, classical and ethnic samples. It was found that especially when rock music and jazz were played the motor pulses produced where the same as those produced normally by the brain during sexual arousal. The qualities of experience and mental energies displayed overt sexual qualities. Some of the ethnic music, also displayed these qualities mingled with aggressiveness.
Most rock historians agree that accenting certain beats within the measure compels the listener to a state of bodily excitation (e.g. Graham, 1971; Hibbard & Kaleialoha, 1983). This emphasis on rhythm or beat with its roots in African music comprises one of the important building blocks of rock music and an important identifiable element (Oliver, 1969; Southern, 1983).
Julius Portnoy has also found that not only can music [score] "change metabolism, affect muscular energy, raise or lower blood pressure, and influence digestion," but "It may be able to do all these things more successfully ... than any other stimulants that produce those changes in our bodies" (The Secret Power of Music, p 138, by David Tame).
Musicologist Alice Monsarrat points out that it "is precisely at this point that rock 'n' roll ... becomes potentially dangerous. This is because, to maintain a sense of well-being and integration, it is essential that man is not subjected too much to any rhythms not in accord with his natural bodily rhythms" (The Secret Power of Music, p 199, by David Tame).
"The unsuspecting "guinea- pigs" were a teenage boy and girl. They had never met previously and were completely unaware of any strange happenings. Unfortunately for them, as they sat getting acquainted in a cozy "private" room with soft music playing in the background, their reactions were being observed and recorded. When classical music and soft ballads were piped into the room they talked and were friendly, but somewhat aloof. When pop music and jazz were played they quickly developed a much "friendlier" attitude and began to hold hands and put their arms around each other. When the music changed back to classical and ballads they would again become more formal and reserved. If the music would swing back to the jazz and pop music "their formality would give way to familiarity." Satan's Music Exposed, p 63, by Lowell Hart.
"Nothing is more singular about this generation than its addiction to music. . . It is their passion; nothing else excites them as it does; they cannot take seriously anything alien to music. . . I suspect that the rock addiction, particularly in the absence of strong counter attractions, has an effect similar to that of drugs." The Closing of the American Mind, p 68, 81, by Alan Bloom, professor of Social Thought at University of Chicago.
(a) Dr. John Diamond, a medical doctor, has conducted extensive research on the medical effects of music. He has noted that man is rhythmic in respiration, heartbeat, pulse, speech, and gait, and when the rhythm of music corresponds to the natural body rhythms, it produces feelings of ecstasy, alertness, and peace, and it energizes the mind and body, and facilitates balance and self-control. (These secular medical findings are also supported by Scripture [I Samuel 16:15-17,23]).
(b) Dr. David Nobel, another medical doctor and an authority on music, has done extensive research on the value of music rhythms [score] corresponding to body rhythms. He writes that, "None of these qualities accrue to the rock sound. Instead, rock contains harmonic dissonance and melodic discord while it accents rhythm with a big beat. In fact, the anapestic beat [two short beats, a long beat, then a pause] used by many rock musicians actually is the exact opposite of our heart and arterial rhythms [thereby causing an immediate loss of body strength]."
[Dr. Diamond confirms Dr. Nobel's findings and adds that the stopped anapestic rhythm "heightens stress and anger, reduces output, increases hyperactivity, and weakens muscle strength." (Admittedly, the technological ability to objectively measure stress and anger is problematical at best, while the measurement of muscle strength is quite precise and meets all the requirements of scientific reliability and statistical significance.)]
(c) The power of music to communicate is demonstrated in an article "Music's Surprising Power to Heal," by David Mazie, in the August 1992 Reader's Digest: "Music reduces staff tension in the operating room," says Dr. Clyde L. Nash, Jr. …… "and also helps relax the patient." [He uses classical music such as Vivaldi and Mozart.] Nash is one of many physicians around the country who are finding that music, used with conventional medical therapies, can help the sick in the healing process.
(d) Clinical researchers at the U.C.L.A. School of Nursing in Los Angeles, and at Georgia Baptist Medical Center in Atlanta, found that premature babies gained weight faster and were able to use oxygen more efficiently when they listened to soothing music mixed with voices or womb sounds. At Tallahassee (Fla.) Memorial Regional Medical Center, premature and low-birth-weight infants exposed to an hour and a half of soothing vocal music each day averaged only 11 days in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit, compared with 16 days for a control group. At Baltimore's St. Agnes Hospital, classical music was provided in the critical-care units. "Half an hour of music produced the same effect as ten milligrams of Valium," says Dr. Raymond Bahr, head of the coronary-care unit.
How does music help? Some studies show it can lower blood pressure, basal-metabolism and respiration rates, thus lessening physiological responses to stress. Other studies suggest music may help increase production of endorphins (natural pain relievers) and S-IgA (Salivary immunoglobulin A). S-IgA speeds healing, reduces the danger of infections, and controls the heart rate. Studies indicate both hemispheres of the brain are involved in processing music. Dr. Sacks explains, "The neurological basis of musical responses is robust and may even survive damage to both hemispheres" ("Music's Surprising Power to Heal," Reader's Digest, August, 1992).
"In conclusion, we can say that insofar as the physical body is concerned, the notion that music has no effect upon man, or that all music is harmless, is absolutely in error" (Tame, p. 141).
"No longer [can] modern musicians possibly claim that music is a matter of 'taste,' or that the musician should be allowed to perform anything he chooses ... Every moment of music to which we subject ourselves may be enhancing or taking away our…clarity of consciousness, increment by increment " (The Secret Power of Music, p 144, by David Tame).
A California music therapist was interested on the effects of rock music on teenagers, and in 1978 he administered an Emotional Stability Test to 240 school children between the ages of 10-18 while Rock music was being played. The results were then examined by a Psychologist who was unaware of this experiment. The Psychologist concluded that the test had been given to inmates in a mental institution (see Satan's Music Exposed, p 101, by Lowell Hart).
Scientists tell us that music not only affects our emotions, but it actually causes a mulititude of physical reactions in our bodies, such as changes in hormonal levels depending on what type of music it is. Not only does it do this but certain kinds of music can coerce one to surrender his autonomy and to follow a crowd. "..it is the rhythm that controls the activities of large groups...[It] furnishes a nonverbal persuasion not only to act but to act together." What though is it that rock music with its driving rhythms compels us towards.. Mike Quattro a well known producer of rock shows tells us. "Rock motivates you internally, gives you a sensual feeling. A girl can be turned on by the music. It releases her inhibitions. The beat of the drum has always been a factor.. A girl realises her own sexuality through the music."
Columnist Phyllis Schlafly tells of a letter she received from professional musician Jack Staulcup in response to an article she had written deploring the sex rock trend. She wrote in 1978: "According to Staulcup, a steady diet of rock and roll junk promotes degenerate rebelliousness among teenagers that finds its outlet in drugs, alchohol and illicit sex... Staulcup concludes that rock and roll is the biggest legalised racket this country has ever seen. If we value civilisation, we cannot afford to ignore any longer the high correlation between the multibillion dollar hard rock racket and the explosion of drug use and illicit sex among their teenage victims." In 1978, a California music therapist, investigating the effects of rock music on teenagers, administered to 240 school children aged 10 -18 an emotional stability test during which rock was played. The results were then examined by a phsychologist who was unaware of the experiment. He concluded that the test had been given in a mental institution.
To those who would propose the argument that music in itself is neutral and its the words that make it either moral or immoral, Dr Max Schoen in his book "The Psycology of Music" says, "Music is the most powerful stimulus known among the perceptive senses. The medical, psychiatric and other evidences for the non-neutrality of music is so overwhelming that it frankly amazes me that anyone shouls seriously say otherwise."
There have been many scientific studies done on how Rock music adversely affects the mind and body of its listeners. For instance: In one study the body’s hormone levels were affected while listening to Rock music. In another study the motor pulses produced by the brain were measured while a group of subjects were listening to Rock and Jazz music. It was found that the particular motor pulses produced while listening to this type of music were the same pulses that had been recorded in the brain during sexual arousal!
“There is scarcely a single function of the body which cannot be affected by musical tones....Investigation has shown that music affects digestion, internal secretions, circulation, nutrition and respiration. Even neural networks of the brain have been found to be sensitive to harmonic principles....
"Researchers have discovered that consonant and dissonant chords, different intervals, and other features of music all exert a profound effect upon man's pulse and respiration - upon their rate and upon whether their rhythm is constant, or interrupted and jumpy. Blood pressure is lowered by sustained chords and raised by crisp, repeated ones.” The Secret Power of Music, p 136-137, by David Tame, 1984.
"Some background music has been known to induce musicogenic epilepsy, triggering a chemical brain reaction that elicits thoughts of suicide or murder. . .doctors had documented seventy-six similar cases....music designed to soothe can be altered to torment". Elevator Music, p 194, 196, by Joseph Lanza.
"It is almost impossible to overstate the absurdity of the claim that music is neutral, amoral, or void of communication by itself...Those who have looked beyond the current music publications know that no one has ever taken the position that music is neutral except for Christians in the last twenty-five years who are trying to justify bringing rock into the church." The Battle for Christian Music, p 52, 56, by Tim Fisher.
It is true that music can have a powerful influence on ones emotions, mood, or state of being, and this is clearly taught in the Scriptures (see 1 Samuel 16:15-17, 23; 2 Kings 3:15). This fact is also recognized by many in the professional and scientific fields.
“Music has the power to by-pass our conscious focus of attention. We can actually become the music. And conversely, we are what we listen to.” Music and Sound in the Healing Arts, p 14, by John Beaulieu, 1987.
“To date, he [Dr. Silverman] calculates, some 50 studies have demonstrated that the subliminal presentation of emotionally charged messages can trigger unconscious thoughts and feelings, and thus alter behaviour...the perception of stimuli too weak to be consciously recognized...is a real phenomenon that ‘has been demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt.’” Psychology Today, May, 1983, citing Dr. Silverman, adjunct professor at New York University.
“Probably the most important development in the scientific investigation of music was the discovery that music is perceived through that portion of the brain receiving the stimuli of emotions, sensations, and feelings without being first subjected to the brain centers involving reason and intelligence.” Music, How it affects the Whole Man, by H. Lloyd Leno, quoted in Ministry Magazine, November, 1973.
“Music, which does not depend upon the master brain to gain entrance into the organism, can still arouse by way of the thalamus - the relay station of all emotions, sensations, and feelings. Once a stimulus has been able to reach the thalamus, the master brain is automatically invaded, and if the stimulus is continued for some time, a closer contact between the master brain and the world of reality can be thus established.” Music and Medicine, p 270-271, by Dorothy Schullian and Max Schoen, 1948.
As Rock is very syncopated in its rhythmic drumming and percussion, so the same kind of altered states of consciousness and various physiological responses that the early drummers of Egypt and other civilizations produced in their listening audience, are the very same hypnotic trance-like effect that can be produced by the drummers of today.
“The use of syncopated rhythms, with their ability to alter states of consciousness, stem from ancient Egypt. It is to Egypt that historians trace the origin of drum-syncopated music and its uses. In the temples, priests intentionally employed complex syncopation in order to induce trances and other disturbances.” Witchcraft, p 23, by Pennethorne Hughes.
"Today's drummer differs but little from the shaman in his incessant beating out of a rhythm, and likewise often enters into a form of trance while performing.” The Secret Power of Music, p 199, by David Tame.
“Drumming is made for trance and for ecstatic states. The basis of percussion is redundancy and redundancy is the basis of trance....Everywhere you look on the planet people are using drums to alter consciousness….I’ve discovered, along with many others, the extraordinary power of music, particularly percussion, to influence the human mind and body....There have been many times when I’ve felt as if the drum has carried me to an open door into another world.” Drumming at the Edge of Magic, by Mickey Hart of the rock group Grateful Dead.
Many people, including the Rock performers themselves, are very aware of this trance-like hypnotic effect being produced in the listeners of Rock music!
"By carefully controlling the sequences of the rhythms any pop performer can create audience hysteria. We know how to do it." John Phillips of the rock group Mamas and the Papas, cited in Into Rock or On the Rock, by ChristianHelps.org.
“Rock music is an ideal vehicle for individual or mass hypnosis.” Musician Andrew Salter, cited in Pop Goes the Gospel, p 20, by John Blanchard, Durham: Evangelical Press, 2nd ed. 1989.
“Assemble a mob of men and women...treat them to amplified band music, bright lights...and in next to no time you can reduce them to a state of almost mindless subhumanity. Never before have so few been in a position to make fools, maniacs, or criminals of so many.” The Devils of Loudun, Epilog, by Aldous Huxley, 1953, New York, Harpers and Brothers.
"It is the rhythm that controls the activities of large groups...It furnishes a nonverbal persuasion not only to act – but to act together." Music In Therapy, p 140, by E. Thayer Gaston.
“[Rock music] is the strongest drug in the world.” Steven Tyler of the rock group Aerosmith, in Rock Beat, Spring, 1987, p 23.
“What is undeniable about rock is its hypnotic power. It has gripped millions of young people around the world and transformed their lives.” Rock Music, p 79, by Professor William Shafer, Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1972.
“Rock music in particular has been demonstrated to be both powerful and addictive, as well as capable of producing a subtle form of hypnosis in which the subject, though not completely under trance, is still in a highly suggestive state.” Are the Kids All Right?, by John G. Fuller, New York: Times Books, 1981.
"We take kids away from their parents and their environment to where the only reality is the rhythm and the beat." Donnie Brewer of the rock group Grand Funk, quoted in "Satan's Music Exposed" by Lowell Hart.
“The children are being hypnotized [through music] without their knowledge...And, it is even more insidious when one realizes...the more often the hypnotism is repeated, the higher the susceptibility of the subject.” Dr. W. J. Bryan, editor of the Journal of the American Institute of Hypnosis, cited in Assault on Childhood, chapter 3 Singing Death, by Alan Gourley.
“I recalled the effects of the music I once helped produce in nightclubs. I remembered seeing sensuality, uncontrolled emotions, rebellion, violence, and what I would now call devil possession....I also saw extreme lethargy....our ability to produce these different reactions and sensual responses to our music filled us with glee. Yes, we knew we were manipulating people’s minds.” Louis Torres, bass player for Bill Haley and the Comets, cited in Inside Rock Music, p 43, by Vance Ferrell.
“In short, rock has trivialized evil…Rock’s sheer pervasiveness makes it the most profound value-shaper in existence today. Unless you are deaf, it’s virtually guaranteed that rock music has affected your view of the world.” National Review, February 24, 1989, p 28-31, 59, article: “That Old Devil Music,” by Stuart Goldman.
Since a lot of Rock performers are well aware that their music produces trance-like effects, altered states of consciousness and even hypnotizes their listeners, some deviously take advantage of this fact and work to control their listeners, or even try to change their outlook on life by planting subconscious thoughts.
“Once you have some type of rhythm, like it can get hypnotic if you keep repeating it over and over again. Most of the people will fall off by about a minute of repeating. You do that say for three or four or even five minutes if you can stand it, and then it releases a certain thing inside of a person's head. It releases a certain thing in there so you can put anything you want right inside that, you know. So you do that for a minute and all of a sudden you can bring the rhythm down a little bit and then you say what you want to say right into that little gap. It's somethin' to ride with, you know. You have to ride with somethin'. I always like to take people on trips. That's why music is magic.” Jimi Hendrix, cited in “Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky”, p 356, by biographer David Henderson.
“I figured the only thing to do was to swipe their kids. I still think it is the only thing to do. By saying that, I am not talking about kidnaping. I’m just talking about changing their value systems, which removes them from their parents’ world very effectively.” Rock star David Crosby, of the group Crosby, Stills and Nash, in Rolling Stone Interviews, vol 1, p 410.
“We are moving after the minds, and so are most of the new groups.” Mick Jagger of the rock group Rolling Stones, in Hit Parader, January 1968, p 12.
“The ways in which sound affects the human organism are myriad and subtle. The loud sounds and bright lights [of today’s music] are tremendous indoctrination tools.” Frank Zappa of the rock group Mothers of Invention, cited in The New American, April 8, 2002, p 11.
"I don't know if anyone has really understood what we're trying to do. This isn't just about shock value...that's just there to lure the people in. Once we've got ‘em we can give ‘em our message." Rock star and minister in the Church of Satan – Marilyn Manson in Hit Parader, October, 1996, p 28.
“Pop music is the mass medium for conditioning the way people think.” Graham Nash of the Rock group Crosby Stills & Nash, in Hit Parader Yearbook, No. 6, 1967.
“Atmospheres are going to come through music, because the music is a spiritual thing of its own....You can hypnotize people...and when you get people at [their] weakest point, you can preach into the sub-conscious minds what we want to say....People want release any kind of way nowadays. The idea is to release in the proper form. Then they’ll feel like going into another world, a clearer world. The music flows from the air; that’s why I connect with a spirit, and when they come down off this natural high, they see clearer, feel different things.” Jimi Hendrix, rock star, in Life, October 3, 1969, p 74.
“I think every time people listen to this new album [Antichrist Superstar] maybe God will be destroyed in their heads...” Rock star and minister in the Church of Satan – Marilyn Manson, in huH, October, 1996, p 37.
Now Rock ‘n’ Roll music is primarily a music to move and dance to. As the senses of the listeners are drawn into the hypnotic rhythmic music, many become enraptured. They begin to move and dance with the beat of the music, their inhibitions start to be cast off, until finally they give free-reign to their emotions and passions. So just like in the ancient pagan rituals, as with the Dionysians of Greece, where the music got into them, possessed and then led them to do things they wouldn’t normally do, so Rock music is doing the exact same thing!
“Rock is visceral. It does disturbing things to your body. In spite of yourself, you find your body tingling, moving with the music....To get into rock, you have to give in to it, let it inside, flow with it, to the point where it consumes you, and all you can feel or hear or think about is the music....Such open sensuality.” Rock music performer Tom McSloy, in National Review, June 30, 1970, p 681, article: “Music to Jangle Your Insides”.
“I couldn’t believe it, all that rhythm and power. I got stoned just feeling it like it was the best dope in the world. It was so sensual, so vibrant, loud, crazy. I couldn’t stay still...I was moving and jumping...By the end I was wild." Rock star Janis Joplin, cited in Wichita Eagle, October 6, 1970, p 7A, article: “Janis Joplin Followed the Script,” by Joel Dreyfuss.
“It [giving sexual gestures during his rock concerts] happens subliminally....it's the music that compels me to do it....you don't think about it, it just happens....I'm a slave to the rhythm.” Rock superstar Michael Jackson, in “Michael Jackson Talks to Oprah”, Oprah interview, 1993 (http://www.allmichaeljackson.com/interviews/oprahinterview.html) (also cited in The Evening Star, February 11, 1993, p A10).
“...rock and roll has an insistent, powerful impetus -- basic backbeat and shuffle rhythms...which demanded a physical response. So the harsh, direct syncopation of rock and roll came as a physical manifestation of its content -- a challenge to loosen up, to break the old molds of convention and propriety, to express real emotions. The musicians themselves moved and danced as they played, begging the listener to cast off his inhibitions....Its strength (has) always been rooted in the sexual energy of its rhythms...Rock and roll made you want to move and shake and get physically excited.” Rock Music, p.16-17, 25, by William J. Schafer, Augsburg Publishing House, 1972.
“Rock and roll challenged the dominant norms and values with a genuinely Dionysian fervor....We must never forget our glorious Dionysian heritage.” Rock & Roll: An Unruly History, p 150, 155, by Robert Palmer, Harmony Books, New York, 1995.
Mike Quattro, who is a producer of Rock ‘n’ Roll shows, makes this amazing statement:
“Rock motivates you internally, gives you a sensual feeling. A girl can be turned on by the music. It releases her inhibitions. The beat of the drum has always been a factor...A girl realizes her own sexuality through the music.” Mike Quattro, cited in The New Sound, Yes, p 112, by Ira Peck.
This connection between Rock music and sex clearly reveals it to be part of the pagan music of Babylon! But for those who doubt that the effects of Rock ‘n’ Roll music, in all of its varied styles and forms, including pop, light, heavy, acid, punk, Country and Western, etc., will lead one to rebel and cast off inhibitions, morality, and encourage sexual freedom, then listen to what Rock musicians themselves say about the effect of their own music!
“Our music is capable of causing emotional instability, disorganized behaviour, rebellion and even revolution.” The Beatles, cited in Satan's Music Exposed, by Lowell Hart.
“I’d like to incite people to break the framework, to be disobedient in school, to stick out their tongues and to insult authority.” Rock star John Lennon of The Beatles, in Ramparts Magazine, July 1971, p 47.
“Rock and Roll is about rebellion.” John Sinclair, in The Big Fad, July, 1971, p 47.
“The great strength of rock & roll lies in its beat. It is a music which is basically sexual, unpuritan...” Irwin Sibler, in Sing Out magazine, May, 1965, p 63.
“The new left [of the 1960's] sprang from Elvis’ gyrating pelvis...Elvis Presley ripped off Ike Eisenhower by turning our upright young awakening bodies around. Hard animal rock energy surged hot through us, the driving rhythm arousing repressed passions.” Jerry Rubin manifesto entitled “Do It”, cited in The New American, April 8, 2002, p 11-12.
“The throbbing beat of rock provides a vital sexual release for adolescent audience.” Jan Berry of the group Jan and Dean, cited in Pop Goes the Gospel, by Blanchard.
“Our music is calculated to drive the kids to sex.” Rock star Mick Jagger of the Rock group Rolling Stones, in Hit Parader, January, 1968, p 12.
“The sex is definitely in the music, and sex is in all aspects in the music.” Luke Campbell of the Rap group 2 Live Crew, cited in Why Are You Opposed to Contemporary Christian Music?, by David Cloud.
“That’s what rock is all about--sex with a 100 megaton bomb, the beat!” Rock star Gene Simmons of the rock group Kiss, interviewed on Entertainment Tonight, on TV channel ABC, December 10, 1987.
“Rock ‘n’ roll is all sex. One hundred percent sex.” Debbie Harry of the Rock band Blondie, cited by Carl Belz, in Television Shows and Rock Music, as it appeared in The Age of Communication, by William Lutz, Goodyear Publishing Company, 1974, p 398.
“Rock music is sex. The big beat matches the body's rhythms.” Frank Zappa, of the Rock group Mothers of Invention, in Life magazine, June 28, 1968.
“Rock ‘n’ roll is pagan and primitive, and very jungle, and that’s how it should be! The moment it stops being those things, it’s dead....the true meaning of rock…is sex, subversion and style.” Punk Rock manager Malcolm McLaren, in Rock magazine, August, 1983, p 60.
Since Rock music is inseparably connected with sex, it clearly reveals it to be part of Babylon the Harlot, and thus Lucifer is its king, source and power behind this paganized music! And just like in the ancient pagan rituals, the same gods or demon spirits appear in the midst of those listening to Rock music, endeavoring to take possession of them because the rhythmic drum beat is the same!
“The idea that certain rhythm patterns or sequences serve as conduits for spiritual energies, linking individual human consciousness with the gods, is basic to traditional African religions and African-derived religions throughout the Americas. And whether we’re speaking historically or musicologically, the fundamental riffs, licks, bass figures, and drum rhythms that make rock and roll ROCK can ultimately be traced back to African music of a primarily spiritual or ritual nature. In a sense, rock and roll is a kind of ‘voodoo,’ rooted in a vigorous tradition of celebrating nature and spirit...” Rock & Roll: An Unruly History, p 53, by Robert Palmer, Harmony Books, New York, 1995.
“The shaman was...dancing possessed to a rhythm banged out on a drum....To these people, communication with the gods was synonymous with drums...the body can become the conduit for a deity, a deity not necessarily the same sex as the worshiper, and drums are the catalyst for the whole process. The trance of the rhythm then begets the hysteria, which begets what Westerners simplistically call ‘possession’.” Appetite for Destruction, p 208, 181, by Danny Sugerman, St Martins, 1991.
“The same exact rhythms are used in...African and Indian music, in rock music, and in music used in meetings of faith healers. The god comes, whenever he is called by anyone using those rhythms.” Demon Possession and Music, by Dr. Juanita McElwain.
Many Rock stars and musicians are fully aware of this direct connection of their rhythmic music to ritual paganism!
“When the slave ships began plying the waters between the New World and West Africa, everyone thought they carried just strong, expendable bodies. But they were also carrying the Counterplayer culture – maybe even the mother goddess culture – preserved in the form of drum rhythms that could call down the Orisha [spirit] from their time to ours.
“In the Caribbean and South America, slaves were allowed to keep their drums and thus preserved their vital connection with the Orisha, though the sudden mingling of so many different tribes produced new variations like candomble, santeria, and vodun...and out of this severing came jazz, the blues, the backbeat, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll – some of the most powerful rhythms on the planet...It is hard to pinpoint the exact moment when I awoke to the fact that my tradition – rock and roll – did have a spirit side, that there was a branch of the family that had maintained the ancient connection between the drum and the gods.” Mickey Hart, drummer for the Grateful Dead, Drumming at the Edge of Magic - A Journey Into The Spirit Of Percussion, p 209-210, 212, Harper-San Francisco, 1991.
“Because it [rock music] is primitive enough and has no bull, really, the best stuff, and it gets through to you its beat. Go to the jungle and they have the rhythm and it goes throughout the world and it’s as simple as that.” Rock star John Lennon of the Beatles, in Rolling Stone magazine, February 12, 1976, p 100.
“Part of what we consider our fundamental rock and roll heritage originated in Africa. Period..” Rock star Peter Gabriel of The Who, Interview with Timothy White, 1986, cited in Rock Lives, p 720.
In fact, one of the founders of Rock n’ Roll – Jerry Lee Lewis, was asked in an interview as to what power falls on him when he is performing. He stated: “The power of Voodoo.” Jerry Lee Lewis, quoted in Hungry for Heaven, p 26, by Steve Turner.
So Rock music, in all of its varied forms, styles, and genres is not safe, but dangerous to even listen to, unless you have no problem with Lucifer and his demon spirits being called down into your midst and then trying to indoctrinate and possess you by means of the rhythmic contagious beat!
“My true belief about Rock ‘n’ Roll – and there have been a lot of phrases attributed to me over the years – is this: I believe this kind of music is demonic....I believe that kind of music is driving people from Christ. It is contagious .” Rock legend Little Richard, in The Life and Times of Little Richard, p 197, by Charles White.
“I believe rock ‘n’ roll is dangerous...I think that we are only heralding something even darker than ourselves.” Rock star David Bowie, in Rolling Stone magazine, February 12, 1976, p 83.
"In the late 1960s and through the 1970s, rock music was followed by “hard rock.” Writing about this in Crisis in Christian Music (2000), Dr. Jack Wheaton explained that “the repetitive, constant loud backbeat” of the drummer, “the pulsating (at an ear-splitting level), low-frequency vibrations, and the soaring, wailing, crying sounds of the amplified guitar trigger major subconscious emotional responses in the body, primarily stimulating aggressiveness, as well as providing increasing, but difficult to control, energy.” He further related that when this music triggers the listener’s fight-or-flight syndrome, “the body is actually getting ‘high’ on its own internally-produced drug (adrenaline), resulting in…an increased tendency to aggressive and anti-social behavior.”
"According to Dr. David Noebel, this type of music has harmonic dissonance and melodic discord, which violate man’s natural body rhythms. And Dr. John Diamond, a New York City psychiatrist, some years ago studied beats of over 20,000 recordings and concluded “that a specific beat (‘stopped anapestic rhythm,’ which is contrary to our natural body beats and rhythms) found in over half of the top hits of any given week can actually weaken you…It interferes with brain wave patterns causing mental stress.” ...
"Given all of the above, it was not surprising that Tipper Gore in the January 8, 1990 Washington Post wrote: “A majority of children surveyed by a Rhode Island Rape Crisis Center thought rape was acceptable. In New York City, rape arrests of 13-year-old boys have increased 200% in the past two years.” A few months later in mid-July 1990, a landmark trial began in Reno, Nevada regarding the British heavy metal rock group Judas Priest (formed in 1969) allegedly having a subliminal message, “do it, do it,” on their album “Stained Glass,” which supposedly led to the suicides of two teens who chanted “do it, do it, do it,” before they shot themselves after hearing the album. One of the teens survived long enough to say it was as though the music controlled his actions, leaving him without a free will. He also remarked, “It was like a self-destruct that went off. We had been programmed.” Wilson Key, a Reno experimental psychologist and author of four volumes on subliminal messages, testified that the misspelled word “sucide” is hidden on the cover of the Judas Priest album. The ability to control someone’s “will” sounds like science fiction, but Dr. Robert Assagioli (who was a disciple of Luciferian occultist Alice Bailey), the founder of Pyschosynthesis, believed it is actually possible to train the “will.”
Through the 1990s as heavy metal rock music was affecting our youth, evidence mounted regarding its deleterious effects....Kimberly Smith in Music and Morals (2005) has explained that what is going on in music today is about “control.” Traditional music, including traditional Christian music, is characterized by self-control, but rock music, including “Christian rock,” causes a loss of self-control.
"Music has been used to destroy our traditional Biblical values, conditioning us to abandon self-control over our emotional impulses. And often the conditioning mechanism isn’t obvious. Click on the highlighted phrase “hidden, sometimes illicit message” in the ABC News report, “Lewd Lyrics Hidden in Hit Songs” (March 24, 2009), and it leads you to “Drug Drenched Lyrics No Music to Parents’ Ears” by Carla Williams (ABC News Medical Unit). The news report quotes “Coke and rum; got weed on the ton,” and says “So chime the lyrics of one of rapper 50 cents top singles in 2005. And such provocative messages, including those about alcohol and drugs, may well constitute a dominant theme in popular music.” The report then indicated that Brian Primach at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Prof. Lisa Merlo in the Division of Addiction Medicine at the University of Florida “agreed that these messages have potential to sway behaviors in younger listeners.” The report revealed that 77% of rap music songs mentioned the use of illicit substances and 37% of country music songs studied made such references." NewsWithViews, July 27, 2009 issue, article titled Conditioning By Music, part 2, by Dennis L. Cuddy, Ph.D., at http://www.newswithviews.com:80/Cuddy/dennis160.htm, accessed 7-27-09, accessed July 27, 2009.