{"id":6074,"date":"2005-02-25T16:08:46","date_gmt":"2005-02-25T21:08:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/2005\/02\/25\/head-banging-traditionalists\/"},"modified":"2005-02-25T16:08:46","modified_gmt":"2005-02-25T21:08:46","slug":"head-banging-traditionalists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/2005\/02\/head-banging-traditionalists\/","title":{"rendered":"Head Banging Traditionalists"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christopher Blosser at Against the Grain has some further reflections<\/a> on rock music and conversion in reply to my previous post<\/a>. I just love how a post that includes both references to Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Cardinal Ratzinger. He brings up something that I have wondered myself.<\/p>\n

So, parting question for the readers: Is there something intrinsically wrong — as Ratzinger seems to suggest — in the form of rock itself, and not just the lyrical content? Is rock capable of being "morally rehabilitated" once purged of morally objectionable lyrical content, or is there something intrinsically wrong with the form of rock itself (as religious critics like Cardinal Ratzinger, and secular critics like Alan Bloom, might suggest)? And does the validity of the Cardinal’s critique extend to other genres as well (hip-hop, techno, industrial, et al.)?<\/p>\n

So go over there and weigh in on this question. I remember Father Rutler bringing up the subject before (definitely in the Ratzinger camp on this) quoting the views of Aristotle and Plato. This view is represented here<\/a> by Fr. Basil Nortz. Though I still listen to hard rock I have found that when I am reading Catholic blogs, especially the more spiritual ones, that I have started to listen to Classical music – especially Baroque. There was a disharmony (puns always intended) between hearing Ozzy belt out "Crazy Train" and reading some of the deeper reflections on Christ and his Church. I found I could mediate better while listening to Classical music. I still like rocking out when I am busy coding at work or doing chores. I don’t have the intellectual ability to analyze the issue of syncopated rhythms and their effects on our emotions and whether rock or some other forms of music are intrinsically wrong or whether it is a more subjective matter in which we should be prudent about. I hope it is the former and not the latter because I am not quite detached enough to give up Geddy Lee or Robert Plant. Like Christopher even though I like rock and especially the guitar I also don’t want them to have anything to do with liturgy. Maybe it comes down to the same reason I now listen to Classical music when reading blogs.<\/p>\n

Previously Don at Mixolydian Mode posted a survey<\/a> about professions and the music they listened to and it nailed mine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christopher Blosser at Against the Grain has some further reflections on rock music and conversion in reply to my previous post. I just love how a post that includes both…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6074\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}