Dealing with the Whole of Music

Dealing with the Whole of Music

A faulty notion concerning the whole of music purports that the way to deal with the whole of music (i.e. both sacred and secular) is to ignore half of it.  These Christians seem to believe that if we ignore secular music it will go away.  So they stick their philosophical necks in the sand and like good ostriches they can’t see it (on MTV) or hear it (either in concert or on recordings).  Now this philosophy is simple isn’t it?  Yes it is – too simple.  The trouble is that while they have their heads in the sand they believe that they do not have to deal with it.  However, much to their chagrin, when they come up for food and water, they can’t help but notice their offspring jigging, bumping and grinding to the beat of this music that doesn’t exist.  Why doesn’t this music exist?  It doesn’t exist because they chose to believe that it doesn’t affect them or their family. 

However, while they were refusing to deal with secular music philosophically, their children have purchased a whole stack of this stuff.  The reason they finally realize that they must deal with secular music is because their children are deeply involved with it.  Since these parents have had their head in the philosophical sand, they don’t know what philosophical guidelines to set for their children so they take the easy way out.  The parental decision is get rid of this stuff!  Now we have a bona fide musical generation gap on our hands.  The children rebel and at this point, if they are verbal, a series of yelling matches will probably take place.  If they are of a more stoic nature, a time of silent pouting will take place.  One or the other will take place because the parents have not developed a lucid music philosophy that covers the whole of music.  (For more on this discussion see Chapter 13 of Church Music Matters.)