OFF: Truth (oh no) and Shock Rock

William Duffy xl5 at IINET.NET.AU
Tue Dec 2 10:46:00 EST 1997


>Sure BOC shocked our parents in the the 70's as Marilyn Manson shocks me
>today.  But this is the nature of the times.  Years ago Alfred
>Hitchcock's Pyscho was considered the scariest movie out there, not
>necesarrily for what it showed but what people thought they saw.  Today
>we get blasted with f/x and high body counts instead of working the old
>imagination.
>
>Manson, GWAR and the like are simply following the trend of appealing to
>the lowest common denominator.  The real shame of it all is that our
>children our overloaded with this mega bombardment of negative images.
>Each and every parent needs to be on guard against this assulat on our
>children.  My kids don't listen to Manson or Gwar becuase THEY have no
>desire to.  They saw footage of GWAR and thought they were clowns.  Well
>grounded kids and I'm proud of them.  If you have concerns about the
>impact of this stuff on your kids talk to them about it, keep the lines
>of communication open with them.
>
>As for me I lump those guys in the categopry of music that just dosen't
>interest me, its not good or bad.
>
I saw an interview with Christopher Lee today, in which he spoke about the
differences between the Hammer films and today's horror genre.
He said that he didn't consider the films he made as horror. They were
fantasy, morality tales, whatever. The majority of the action was portrayed
by the skills of the actors, as opposed to today's films, which are all
special effects, with the actor having to play second fiddle.

He was pointing out that today's films have to use more graphic images to
put their story across, instead of relying on the skills of the actors. All
of this tends to descencitize  (probably spelt wrong) the viewers, and
therefore doesn't really succeed at its job.

I don't see the need for a lot of today's death metal bands to go all the
way the their very graphic horror clips. Most of the time you can't make out
what they are singing anyway.
For all we know, they might just be singing about having a cup of tea?

William



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