Does modern Hip-Hop culture cause moral Decay?

Question

I'll give my opinion after I see a few answers.

Answer 1

Sorry...if you listen to grandparents...Moral decay happened in the 50's, and 60's our parents say moral decay happened in the 70's and 80's. I believe that it happens every generation...it's just more fun in even numbered decades.

Answer 2

I could start this discourse at about 350BC but let's do 20th Century music for brevity.

In the early 1900's we heard that jazz was the harbinger of doom.  There was ragtime music in all the bawdy houses and flappers were dancing some wild dances in Charleston.  Then, by the 1940's it was that heathenistic Big Band Swing that destroyed our youth.  Everyone seemed in the mood...

The late 50's brought us "rock and roll" and all of the evils so associated and then the Beatles and the Brit invasion with all of that long hair and counter-culture.  How times were a-changing.  Rock and roll was here to stay.

We saw the Brit invasion turn into that "devil's music" that became psychedelic rock and that completely "un-American" protest music that simply destroyed the morals of the country.  Not to mention the "free love" and drugs that were openly encouraged.  That generation even asked what war is good for and concluded that it's good for absolutely nothing.

In the mid-to-late 70's it was disco and all of the intimate excess that went with that club scene.  How terrible that time must have been to those with Puritanical morals.  Everyone was having s*x with everyone else.  It was "afternoon delight".

Come the 80's with Madonna and Blondie and [gasp!] Boy George and the whole world went topsy-turvy - those girls just wanted to have fun.  How much more deviant could we become?  Ho's on MTV!  Then there was the origin of hip-hop and all sorts of "new age" musical trends.  Everything seemed so confused.  Even "good 'ol" country-western was all about poor moral examples; what with cheatin' on each other and keeping your boots under other people's beds.

The 90's went somewhat tame by comparison except within a few genre that started seriously rejecting all forms of authority and especially police authority.  (of course we can look back to the 60's and 70's for the same sort of sentiment in the protest movement)

"Nowadays" - same old-same old.  We're still making the complaints about the way "music of the kids today is ruining their morals".  We can look back at some historical people that said the same thing in their day.  If we had listened to Guido of Arrezo (991-1033) who made the same observations in his time, we'd be listening to Gregorian Chant on MTV instead of the many choices we have now.

Add:  Every generation is the "era of "parent's just don't understand" and "fight the power" - every single generation.  Each generation thinks they're the only one that feels this way - they're all wrong.  It's the way things are.  And you know what, the parents don't understand.  Just like you don't understand those pre-teens you're referring to.  Ã¢Â˜Âº

Answer 3

yes it does. It promotes sexual freedom, disobedience of the law and the family values. It says to disrespect everything and do as you please.It displays a hatred of all things white.On the other hand, it was the same in each decade since the fifties.It id the total disregard for others that makes this generation so much at risk and heading on a destructive path.You are totally sane. I came from the post ww2 generation, the rebel. At least we turned out ok in the end.

Answer 4

No.

And if so, just as much as classic rock did.

Cultures go through their fads but I've never heard of them to be wiped out by music.

Besides, what "morals" is it decaying?

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*edit*

Classic Rock promoted vast drug use and drinking and completely shifted the pop culture.

But my point is that the reason it seems harmless now is because it's done and over with. We are looking back through the eyes of people who have learned from it.

But to them, back then, it was the same thing.

My point is that in a decade or two, hip hop will be just as harmless as comic books were.

Answer 5

No!  Why would Hip-Hop culture cause moral decay?  What is new today that was not 10, 20, 30 or 40 years ago?  For every example you listed I could easily several similar examples from other older forms of culture.  Maybe the problem is with YOU!

Look, it is all-to-easy to think that "these kids today" are somehow different from kids in "my era".  But if you really sat down and understood what was going on, you'd see that for all practical purposes kids are kids.  Maybe before you pass judgement, you should take the time to see the WHOLE  context in which these kids live and learn.  It is inaccurate to judge an entire generation from a small sampling of modern music listened to by only some kids.  For every "bad" kid you see there are probably two "good" kids you didn't notice.

I also noticed that the examples you used dealt with sexuality.  Kids today are just as foolish and hormone-driven as they were in past decades.  Ever read Romeo and Juliet?  While that was a work of fiction, it does point out that teens were romantically involved about 400 years before Hip-hop made the scene.  Read Kinsey's works about sexuality in the 1940's and 50's...what he found will surprise you.  Your teen-age grandparents were enjoying their sexuality just as kids do today.  Maybe the modern media can transmit more overt sexual images but there is no reason to believe that behavior has actually changed.  Teens have been sexually active since there were teens on earth.  And since when did s*x become the sole barometer of moral decay?  s*x is a part of human life and something which shouId be entered into with foresight and education as well as enjoyed.  Tell me, what if the kids you teach didn't have s*x but espoused racist, classist, or anti-environmental attitudes?  Would those noxious beliefs be a symptom of "moral decay"?   Why not?  

As a college teacher, I often find people speaking about moral decay and "the horrible state of the world" today.  Most times they are only focusing on the most negative aspects of a small minority of the people in question.  Furthermore, often the "objectionable" qualities are those typically associated with members of "outgroups" such as young, poor, urban, non-white males.  Why would you think that might be?  

Why aren't we concerned about the moral decay exhibited by rich white men who bilk the american people for billions of dollars each year?  Why is Paris Hilton a celebrity while Divine Brown (google her) a pariah? Some groups never have to worry about "adding to the moral decay of society" because their acts are always judged in the most favorable light.   Is that fair?

So I don't believe that hip-hop is causing moral decay anymore than did rock and roll, jazz,honky tonk,or banjo music.  The past always seems better than the present.  New cultural forms are always "worse" than "our era's culutral forms".  Rather than pass judgement, try to understand what concerns these teens, what challenges they face, and what they dream of.