October 1
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oteins!
\y • October 11,1994
The Battalion • Page 3
in a state of iolence
Jljrom movies to gangs to rap, today's entertainment
value provides more shock for the buck
BEl
ne
Jremy Keddie
[Battalion
[iolence, whether fact or fiction, can
nd every day. It can be seen on
lion, newspapers, movies and
in music. Perhaps you could say
people are attracted to violence in
rm or another. At times, people
laid the amount of violence ex-
is overwhelming. But do we ask
Roberts,
lharp,
tes
Dr[ Susanna Homig Priest, assistant
sor of journal ism, said we live in a
e that glorifies violence. However,
said she does not attribute the vi-
in our society to the media, and
mid look into reasons why vio-
ice is so strongly portrayed.
er & BertSakw, |We are much more puritanical
m sexuality than Europe, but we are
ichmore open with violence,” she
<rebs,
tgs
& Edmond H.
tes and SwMa
Murry &
Thomas,
tes
BishopS
/armus,
:es
A. Black,
lion &
Hitchings,
es
negawa, Japan
e said violence is a reflective char-
istic of this country’s society, and
’s violence can be traced back to
ontier days of the United States’.
Dpment, when pioneers were ex-
g and conquering the land. How-
she said it is not easy to pin-point
mse of violence in the media.
’s unfair to say that violence is
id by the media because there is
thing deeper in the culture that
es violence in the media,” Priest
)tion pictures and movies are the
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ing miseries
Lewis and Woody Harrelson star in “Natural
[Killers,” a movie cited for extreme violence.
visual mainstream of violence, and tick
et sales are high for films like violent
films like “The Crow.” Oliver Stone’s re
cent satire on violence and the media
“Natural Born Killers” debuted at No. 1
on the movie ticket sales.
Ralph Large, manager of Hastings
Books, Music, and Videos in Culpepper
Plaza, said violent movies are attractive
because everyone has the internal urge
to kill somebody.
“It’s the fact that there’s something
that other people can get away with that
(the viewers) can’t,” Large said.
“Faces of Death,” a five-part film se
ries, contains clips of fatal accidents and
explicit scenes of violence. The films are
in high demand by con
sumers, and Large said
Hastings does not carry
the movie because the
management thinks it is
too extreme. He said vio
lent movies tend to rent
better at Hastings, but
just because a movie is vio
lent does not mean it is go
ing to have a high rent de
mand.
However, 2 Day Video
on Texas Avenue carries
“Faces of Death,” and can
be rented if someone’s
lucky enough to find it.
Matt Holligan, the store manager, said
the movie is constantly checked out, and
is usually returned late.
“People mainly
hear about it from oth
ers, and are curious
about what it is,” Hol
ligan said.
Violence does not
occur in visual medi
ums alone, but also
exists in music - espe
cially in rap. And rap
has long been the tar
get of attack from
those who believe vio-
.lence,in. music should
be regulated.
Dr. Marilyn Kem-
Foxworth, an associ
ate professor of jour
nalism at Texas A&M,
gave expert testimony
in the October 1990
trial of Florida vs.
Charles Freeman, in
which the lyrics of 2
Live Crew were ques
tioned for obscenity
and violence.
2 Live Crew’s al
bum “As Nasty As
They Wanna Be,” was banned in Flori
da, but Freeman, a record store owner,
chose to distribute the album anyway
and was sued. Louis Gates, an African-
American scholar, testified in favor of
Freeman, and said the explicit lyrics
and violence of 2 Live Crew were repre
sentative of the African-American cul
ture.
However, Kem-Foxworth, the first
African-American woman to receive a
Ph.D. in mass communications with a
concentration in advertising, disagreed
with Freeman and said the group’s mu
sic has detrimental effects.
She said the music of 2 Live Crew
and other gangsta rappers advocates
"When I'm called off, I got a
sawed-off / Squeeze the trigger
and bodies are hauled off."
“Straight Outta Compton”
—Ice Cube
formerly ofN. VC A.
men beating women, which makes it
easier for men to justify violence, includ
ing rape. She said the music also
lessens the chance for women to be able
to stand up for what they believe in.
“If you really buy into that and think
it’s okay, then you start thinking that
that’s the way it is supposed to be,”
Kem-Foxworth said.
Kem-Foxworth said she thinks the
music has the propensity to make people
violent, but only blaming rap music for
violent acts creates scapegoats out of the
rappers.
“Defendants who use that ploy are
mentally disturbed anyway,” she said.
t Music which portrays African-Ameri
can men as violent, is detrimental to
blacks in several ways, Kern-Foxworth
said. Many parents do not screen their
children’s music, and young black
teenagers often want to emulate what
they are hearing, she said.
“They sometimes do not know better,
or otherwise listen to it because it is go
ing against the establishment,” she said.
Kem-Foxworth said the music also'
affects blacks in the way white people
view the music. She said white people
who listen to gangsta rap may think
that the lyrics are portraying what
blacks do.
“They often think you are sup
posed to disrespect to be ‘in’, and
don’t think anything is wrong with
the music,” Kem-Foxworth said.
Kem-Foxworth taught a class two
summers ago which addressed the ef
fects of the media on consumers. She
said the class included the effects of
music, and she had the students listen
to 2 Live Crew and discuss the issue.
“I was appalled that white as well as
black students paid little attention to
the lyrics,” Kem-Foxworth said.
She said several of the students, in
cluding women, had violent music in
their collections, and most of the
women in the class were not offend
ed by the lyrics be
cause they did not
feel it was talking
about them.
She said the
women felt the music
was referring to oth
ers who carried them
selves in ways de
scribed by the lyrics
“bitches” and “hoes.”
Kem-F oxworth
said the number of
listeners of gangsta
rap has decreased
and attributes it to
the increased aware
ness of the music. She said par
ents now scrutinize their children’
music more, and that legislation is
establishing stricter regulations
against the music.
But a decrease in violence doesn’t ap
pear to be the case in movies. Priest
said the violence in movies appears to be
increasing and it is a matter of shock
value — as people are exposed to vio
lence, they become immune to that par
ticular level of shock. She said movies
then have to contain higher levels of vio
lence to have a thrilling effect on audi
ences.
Priest said the catharcist the
ory, which states that vio
lence in the media al
lows us to act out our
desires, is a discredited
theory. She said the
theory tends to oversim
plify the situation, and
that it does not completely
address the problem of vio
lence in the media.
Priest said that violence in
the entertainment industry
makes people more aware of vi
olence, and as they are exposed
to it over a long period of time,
the effect of violence in the media
Body Count, led by rapper Ice T, created the
controversial anti-police song “Cop Killer”
influences what is acceptable and nor
mal in society.
“Seeing violence in the media teaches
us that violence is something that just
exists,” she said.
laying college crowds satisfying for Texas rocker Ian Moore
about lovinff Ndia Zavaleta
may consi* ; Ba ' !TAUON
ating Serf 16 man on stage makes love to his
an and Clfi ir ’ Okli v i° us to the hundreds of people
udent Conti* in g an d singing along with his music,
ways toleS ^ore closes his eyes and plays,
way of W recent record-breaking crowd of 450
'ough varii ; ! ed into Stafford Opera House, for one
ig groups,s! ; m — to hear The Ian Moore Band play.
Relation^ 98 th 0 biggest show at the Opera House
gh individ 1 * 1 p-
[or Moore, performing in front of an au-
ceis a sensual experience.“I try to have
rtatious male-female relationship with
Uidience,” the 26-year-old Austin na-
HWirtflsaid. “It’s almost sensual. You have to
the balls to reveal things about your-
[on stage.”
is second album,
in,” captures
|fe’s soulful lyrics
Ipassionate gui-
Tan Moore Live in
n editor
to editor
its editor
editor
tolos the way
a live perfor
ce can.
fhere’s some-
about perform-
in your home
t,” Moore said,
are welcomed
open arms, and
ike we can do no
urge Nasr.ElizT Cg. When W6 gO
our outside of
os, we have to be
ot-proof and have
7 harder to have
cat perfor-
nie Dube, Ami''-
ance Parten,^
-nnifer Montiel
J
on, Blake Crigji
Henderson, Eii«
ne fall andspiirl
versity holidays’-
Jniversityintt*
ial offices are'
'tn phone nnmt
it by The Batta^
dvertising, calif 1 ’
to 5 p.m, Mondi-
d $50 per fully
"It's good to know that when
you play places like College
Station, the people are all there
because they like your music
and they like to watch you play.
In L.A., people maybe knew
one song and it felt like they
were there because it was the
cool thing to do."
—Ian Moore
ation, TX 77Wt Ice,”
uildmg,Texas foore said that some of his out-of-state
attracted about 1,500 people, but he
I he prefers playing in towns like Bryan
College Station because he likes per-
hng to a college crowd.
It’s good to know that when you play
; es like College Station, the people are
here because they like your music and
like to watch you play,” Moore said.
L.A., people maybe knew one song and
it like they were there because it was
cool thing to do.”
ioore, who describes his style as “soul
ic” because his songs deal with emo
tions, is often compared with other gui
tarists such as Jimi Hendrix and Stevie
Ray Vaughn. He said his influences run
much deeper than those two musicians.
“I don’t just play blues-rock,” Moore said.
“My music is more in the vein of Hendrix, but
I have tons of other people I like.”
Among those are A1 Green, Little Willie
John and the Beatles. But having grown up
playing the violin, Moore said he was influ
enced by classical and Hindu music.
“I’ve been playing instruments since I was
a baby,” he said. “My first instrument was a
sitar (a Hindu stringed-instrument), then I
moved on to violin.”
Moore said he picked up a guitar as a
teenager and formed his band when he was
about 19. Since then, Moore said his focus
has been exactly where he wants it — on
his music.
“The thing I enjoy
most about where I
am today,” he said,
“is being able to cen
ter all my attention
to what I think I
should be doing,
which is performing
music.”
Going on the road
with ZZ Top gave
Moore a chance to
expose his band to
more people.
“That kind of stuff
makes you feel good,”
he said. “You know,
It’s nice to know that
you’re up there, but
it’s only a means to
an end. It’s a tool that allows me to make
my music on my own terms.”
He said he rarely hears a band that per
forms the music it wants. And since his
music gained popularity slowly, he said he
was able to avoid the group mentality of the
music industry.
“In music like in everything else, you
should walk your own path and be an indi
vidual,” Moore said. “Be a freak. It’s impor
tant to belong, but it’s more important to
believe in the individual.”
The Ian Moore Band is set to go back to
the studio in late November.
Texas rocker Ian Moore said his influences include Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Al Green and The Beatles.