“…they call in the spirit by the rhythm of the music.”37
Evil is contagious, and the wave of demonic spirits which The Beatles and The Rolling Stones unleashed in the 60s had become a unstoppable flood by the 70s. But that was nothing compared to the whirling maelstrom of the 80s as rock expanded its repertoire even further into the realms of grotesque darkness.
Satan, who recognized the vulnerability of a human being’s auditory senses, equipped his disciples of chaos and disorder well. Through the use of the latest space age technology, amplification became the essence of rock’s roar. The electric guitars, keyboards, and drums that were a part of every performer’s arsenal, gave musicians the ability to duplicate the hazy confusion and distorted visions that accompanied their psychedelic drug trips, while at the same time suffocating the senses of the listener with a heavy, steady, throbbing, mind-deadening, ear-popping beat.
Satan has now sent his troops into all the major fields of cultural entertainment.38 The fact is that unless you are deaf and blind, it is virtually guaranteed that rock music has, in some manner, affected your view of the world. We may not be willing to admit it, but each of us is manipulated daily by the persuasive techniques of the advertising media – through radio, television, films, billboards, magazines, newspapers, product packaging, etc. And advertisers routinely utilize the popularity of rock stars and rock music in the promotion of products and services.
Millions of young people today wake up every morning to rock music. They drive to it, study to it, play to it, eat to it, and go to sleep to it. Studies show that between the 7th and 12th grades, the average teenager will listen to and watch 11,000 hours of rock music and rock videos – more than twice the time they will spend in class!39 And all the while, today’s rock musicians continue to raise cain in performances that are often openly occult and increasingly bizarre.
Rock’s addicts are being virtually controlled by music, from the way they dress to the way they view and understand everyday issues of life. The National Review magazine has declared: “Rock’s sheer pervasiveness makes it the most profound values – shaper in existence today.”40 How? For the purpose of our study, we’ll need to take an even closer look at the many guises of today’s rock music.
HARD ROCK vs SOFT ROCK – First of all, not all rock music is the same. It is important to keep in mind that through the years there have been dozens of rock-relatives added to each branch of the Rock family tree, far too many to name. However, there are two dominant genes under which we can identify and categorize each new offshoot.
Since the rock battle began over 40 years ago, Satan’s main assault force has been a double-headed challenging that operates under the twin identities of Hard Rock and Soft Rock. If the sick displays of psychotic behavior that make up a large part of the Hard Rock scene are not your style, then welcome to the world of Soft Rock, where themes of universal love(lust), peace, and the brotherhood of mankind color the lyrics, along with cleverly-worded references to the excitement of doing drugs.
Soft Rock (alias Pop Rock, alias Contemporary Rock) is the offspring of The Beatles’ music, and much of the blame for what is now known as The Sexual Revolution can be placed directly to their account. And the older rock gets, the lower society’s standards sink. Since the Beatles arrived on the scene with their seducing message of drugs and immorality, our world has seen an alarming increase in sexual crimes, abortions on a massive scale, epidemics of sexually transmitted diseases (including the plague of AIDS), along with rampant drug addiction and all the depravity that goes with it. Many of today’s most popular entertainers, such as George Michael, Carly Simon, Prince, Madonna, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, and Barry Manilow are Soft Rockers. Soft Rock has become the ‘elevator music’ of the 90s, and, like it or not, we are being bombarded with it on every hand.
Hard Rock was introduced into music’s family tree by the first, and still reigning, kings of satanic rock, The Rolling Stones. By flaunting behavior that the Scriptures plainly identify as being demonic possession (and yet today is dismissed as mere artistic showmanship), rock bands are being catapulted overnight into the coveted spotlight of mega-stardom. Performers and songwriters candidly confess to receiving the inspiration for much of their music at séances, saying, “what we do is what we’re about. If it comes out demonic, that’s what we are.”41
The bands will often choose a name to spell out its motive and intention: Styx (in Greek mythology, one of the rivers of Hades), Iron Maiden (a hideous, medieval torture device), W.A.S.P. (short for “We Are Sexual Perverts”), KISS (meaning “Kings In Satan’s Service”),Twisted Sister, Judas Priest, The Grateful Dead, and Black Sabbath are but few out of many hundreds.42
In today’s rock message, absolutely nothing is forbidden-sex, drugs, witchcraft, murder, suicide, spiritualism, Satan worship, homosexuality, sado-masochism, sodomy. It is a monster that has adopted the nickname Heavy Metal – once a literary synonym for torture, but now it is used as an umbrella term for a legion of snarling ghouls, including the newest blasphemies of Shock Rock, Satan Rock, and Armageddon Rock. Rock’s voice has never been louder or more evil, and it is not just for listening any more. It is for watching too. With the advent of video and MTV, the intensity of rock’s assault has been multiplied, and today, partaking of the hard rock experience is like stepping into the middle of an epileptic seizure. It is beyond human control.
IDENTIFYING ROCK – All music uses rhythm. For instance, a waltz rhythm is ¾ time, and goes like this: ONE two three ONE two three. For a stirring march written in 2/4 time, you would count: ONE two ONE two. The conventional way to count 4/4 time is as follows: ONE two THREE four ONE two THREE four.
Technically speaking, the rhythm of rock is 4/4. But all the normal conventions and principles of sound music have been laid aside, and here the accent is placed on the offbeat: one TWO three FOUR one TWO three FOUR. In addition, there is usually a highly accented “back beat” coming between the regular beats creating what is known as “syncopation.” In his book, The Day Music Died, author and former rock performer Bob Larson writes, “Syncopated rhythms evoke the most sensuous response from the human body, particularly when they are electronically accentuated.”43
Rock music is written (and performed) to be felt, as well as heard, and one essential instrument for this type of music is the electric bass guitar. Its super-amplified low frequency vibrations give rock that gut-level intensity that preys on sensory perceptions. The tempo can be fast or slow, but if the beat is rock, the fundamental response will be erotic.
A second key to identify rock music is repetition – words, choruses, instrumental parts or chord patterns that are repeatedly played or sung throughout the song. As any educator will tell you, repetition is one of the most effective teaching tools that can be employed. And when you consider the neurotic, profane, and suggestive words that are being fed into the brain of even very young children, it’s “no wonder people are going crazy. That’s enough to drive a human being crazy.”44
A third important characteristic of rock can be its volume. As if the over-amplified, buzz-saw screams of guitars and the wild, incoherent vocals of the performers were not loud enough already, rock performers and fans enjoy their music best when it is cranked up to 100+decibels of sound (approaching the threshold of pain, where the body becomes completely disoriented). Such an intense, steady pounding can quickly cause the mind to lose touch with reality and even induce various stages of trances. The psychological principle being applied here is this. The louder the music, the more vulnerable the listener become to the lyrics being sung.
Did You Know…?
Our ear can detect sounds
Vibrating at less than 20 beats per second,
Continuing upward past 20,000 per second-roughly, from the lowest note on a pipe organ to the highest note produced by a violin
The nerves of the ear (auditory nerves) are more widely distributed and have more extensive connections than those of any other human sense. Consequently, what we hear affects our entire body.