2 posts tagged “morality”
According to an article on CNN.com today (thanks, twitter friends for bringing it to my attention), 1-in-4 teenage girls has an STD. The statistics are even worse for African-American teenage girls, where the ratio is nearly 1-in-2. The most common STD is Human Papilloma Virus, or HPV, which among other things can cause genital warts, infertility, and cervical cancer.
I think this is very disturbing. Something, somewhere, is terribly broken. Personally, it's a reminder to me to be there teaching my daughter values, responsibility, and (though it's terribly out of fashion) chastity. While the twitter friend who mentioned it said something about condom use, I can't help but point out that the transmission of STDs among teens would go way, way, WAAAAY down, if teens kept their pants on, zippers up. Some people might call that "out of touch". I'm reminded of my favorite line from "Aliens".
It's the only way to be sure.
I mean, it's not like the music is really all that great, from what I've been hearing my daughter singing lately.
Wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. I saw this article today from the Guardian. It raises a couple of questions. First things first - I don't think this is painting a whole picture. I'd like to know who's being downloaded. I'd like to know if digital downloads from legitimate stores is going up. I'd like to know if the overall music industry is growing or shrinking. And I'd like to know if there are any historical analogues. Maybe that information is in the original study the article is referencing. But I thought this paragraph was interesting...
Although social networking sites are boosting interest in music that translates into sales, a growing band of consumers are unconcerned about being prosecuted for illegal downloads, according to Entertainment Media Research.
Okay... so the Internet is boosting interest, and sales.
That's good, right? But it's still not enough. Granted, illegal
downloading is wrong, but it seems like a waste of time and resources
to go after these people hell bent for leather. And as I expressed
above, the music being released today by and large is pablum. Of
course, maybe I’m not the best critic of this trend – most of the
music I liked as a kid was movie soundtracks.
Where do I find good music today? May I humbly suggest it’s not on the radio? Personally, I like listening to podcasts, and if I like the music they play, then I’ll go looking for it. It’s how I discovered Celldweller (7th Son) and Black Lab (Podcast Music Countdown).
And granted, I've bought three cds over the last few months,
which is like saying water ran uphill - it just usually doesn't
happen. It just so happened that some of my favorite bands had
releases this summer.
I remember in high school giving a girl a ride home from play rehearsal, and she was struck by my love for Van Halen. I don’t recall her exact words, but I seem to recall it was along the lines of “I thought you were a decent, upstanding, moral person.”
Sigh. I hereby admit a love of sweet, sweet thrashin’ guitar. I'm going to stop here, and maybe post more on this later, because I don't want this to be a book. Maybe a podcast.
