Berthold Auerbach once said, that "music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life (Guillemets)." With technology continuing to innovate and broaden the spread of information, more melodies continue to be heard through out our day to day lifestyles. Whether you're on the road stuck in traffic listening to your XM radio or at home searching for footage of your favorite shows on Youtube, it's no secret that there is a deep connection and understanding that comes in the form of music. So, we wonder, does musical lyrics affect today's society? In this fulfilling world that we continue to elevate upon, we cannot forget the natural arts that have traveled with us throughout centuries and one way to express our journeys in life is through lyrics.

Life comes with countless entertaining and pleasurable moments, but also despicable and dreadful moments that everyone conditionally encounters. The only true way to answer a question like "does lyrics affect society?" is to first realize what makes up a lyric. Lyrics are the words to a song. A person who writes lyrics is called a lyricist. The meaning conveyed in lyrical verses can be explicit or implicit. A great example of an implicit lyrical verse would be Billie Holiday's, "Strange Fruit", a song that condemns American racism, particularly the practice of lynching and burning African Americans that was prevalent in the South at the time when it was written. The "strange fruit" referred to in the song are the bodies of African American men hanged during a lynching. They contrast the pastoral scenes of the South with the ugliness of racist violence. Yet, some lyrics are so abstract as to being completely unintelligible. For instance, one of Tupac Shakur's lyrics read, " Why am I fighting to live, if I'm just living to fight, why am I trying to see, when there ain't nothing in sight, why am I trying to give, when no one gives me a try, why am I dying to live, if I'm just living to die(Tupac Resurrection) ." As grueling and rigid the lyrics are perceived to sound like, you can definitely get a grasp of his walks through life being depicted in his terminology. Just from that simple lyric I felt a similar struggle he has faced in the coming years of growing up as a black youth in America. There is a sense of poverty and wanting of mental freedom being expressed through Tupac's music, and that can greatly affect anyone. It doesn't matter who you are in this world because we all share one commonality, and that is nothing is every promised tomorrow. For every cause there is an effect. For every good there is evil. For every love there is hate, and the fact is that it is a true artist's job to remind us through music of time's greatest lessons because like Aristotle once said, "The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival (Smith)."

History proves that a lyric withholds great abilities to stimulate the minds of our surroundings in the times passed. From artists like Bob Dylan, a prominent singer in the civil rights movement, to artists like Bob Marley, a widely respected reggae artist who was also a political activist, certain musical lyrics guide the young minds to a future once not promised for the past. Yet, in today's humanity, we still endeavor the same struggles we've been fighting for thousands of years ago. Regrettably, the FCC is in continuous control of what information goes out into the media regardless of how respected the artist's talent is. The major problem with music is that we leave the responsibility with the foremost record labels and to our governments, giving them the option to either play or toss certain lyrics in the garbage can that may illustrate how a certain matter truly is. In fright of the government's reputation right now due to the growing dislike ness of the war we are in, more and more artists have decided to speak on behalf of the people of America, demanding a solution to today's unnecessary dilemmas. That's where the corrupt side of how a lyric affecting our society is revealed. The first amendment in the U.S. constitution clearly preachers that it prohibits the federal legislature from making laws that establish religion or prohibit free exercise of religion, laws that infringe the freedom of speech, infringe the freedom of the press, limit the right to assemble peaceably, or limit the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances (FindLaw For Legal Professionals). The censorship increasing in today's information society has brainwashed us with propaganda embellishing a fantasy lifestyle formulating us to believe we once lived it and one way their doing that is by controlling what is heard through our media. Immortal Technique wrote a song explaining the horrific acts the government's involvement in music has made. His lyric's read, "It's like MK-ULTRA, controlling your brain, suggestive thinking, causing your perspective to change. They want to rearrange the whole point of view of the ghetto. The fourth branch of the government, want us to settle a bandana full of glittering generality. Fighting for freedom and fighting terror, but what's reality? Read about the history of the place that we live in, and stop letting corporate news tell lies to your children (Seeks Lyrics)."

In closure, society will continue to be affected by lyrics because music is life's therapy. Be willing to realize that true lyrics are nothing more than a representation of feelings less spoken about but rather more thought regarding. We all think about love, sex, religion, poverty, happiness, depression, disease, money, politics, violence, hunger, family, friends, enemies, bills, death, health, wealth, nature, laughter, art, evil, etc., but we rarely discuss the actual issues that it comes with and thats where lyrics fulfill their requirement. Lyrics represent the voices of views unheard and no one can take that from you.

Shit....Like these kids! Not exactly the best examples, but hey!.....that's what I've been seeing lately. What do you think when you see shit like this?

-SilencedAxiom.