Program Length: 1/2 hour
Produced: 2000

“Stop the violence, drop the guns and increase the peace.”  
-Snoop Dogg
 
This program examines the relationship between popular music and youth violence.  It looks at a variety of music videos and interviews performers to understand the possible connections between the presence of violence in music and the aggression that many young people feel and express.
 
The following discussion activities appear chronologically as they occur in the video.  Discussion leaders may use them all, or select those that best suit the group and the time frame.
 
1.  In the live performance scenes from the Slipknot concert, fans are seen jumping up and down with the band.  Are these people being violent?  Why might viewers believe they are being violent?  What does violent body language look like?  What does peaceful body language look like?  Does jumping up and down to music mean someone is, or may become, violent?  What connections might there be to violent music and violent acts?
What about when Slipknot suggests that their music is about violence?
 
The chorus of 'Spit it Out' has two lines:
 
"All you wanna do is drag me down
All I wanna do is stamp you out"

www.slipknot1.com
 
Remember these lines when discussing items 8 - 11 below.
 
2.  "It makes me want to break as many noses as possible.  That's how, I hear, you get backstage."
Slipknot Fan
 
Do you think this person wants to break noses just for fun, or maybe break noses to get backstage?  Why might he want to get backstage?
 
3. "Most parents want to ban our band because of language and philosophy.  It's all in the parent.  Spend some time with your children and give him the run-down of what it's about, what expression is about, what music's about."
Shawn - Slipknot
 
What is the run-down?  What should parents tell their children?  When should they tell them?  How should they tell them?  What role can schools play in helping children get the run-down?
 
4. "We'd rather people come to our shows and get their aggressions out in a positive way with a smile on their face than go out and get behind the wheel of a car and shoot people or have road rage."
John Connolly - SevenDust
 
Some people believe that watching or listening to violence is mentally helpful because it creates a cathartic effect.  This means that they get their aggressive feelings out through moving with the music rather than through hurting themselves or others.  Do you sometimes have a cathartic experience?  Do you know people who have had that experience?  Do you think catharsis can help most violent people?
 
Recent research shows that catharsis does occur for some, but not most, people.  What conditions do you think are necessary for catharsis to be successful?  Why do you think catharsis might not occur for some people?
 
5.  "If everyone in the media and popular culture is telling you what to do then you don't have any choice, do you?"
Interviewer
 
"You always have choice.  The media's been telling me what to do but I haven't gone out and shot anybody."
Hanson
 
How much choice do you think people have when the media tells them to be violent?  How can they exercise their choices?  Why do you think Hanson has not become violent, even though they have heard violent music?
 
6.  "It's really easy to blame television for all of this.  It's so simple.  The reason is that if you go after the other causes of violence -- poverty, drugs, abuse, home situations, whatever, you have to take real action. 
Television, all you do is you blame it and it's over with."
John Pungente, Jesuit Communications Project
 
"It's not just a question of the material poverty, it's the question of the poverty of soul.  We see a great number of youth on the streets here who are not coming from homes that are materially poor but they are coming from homes where they are not provided with any kind of center or any sense of meaning or value."
Greg Paul -- Sanctuary Street Outreach Program
 
"Kids, and society in general, are really struggling with a profound feeling of alienation and profound emptiness as well."
Greg Paul -- Sanctuary Street Outreach Program
 
How hard is it for society to solve problems of poverty, drugs, abuse, and home situations?  What would be required to solve each of these problems? Has television become an easy scapegoat for social problems?  How might television make these problems worse?  How might television help solve these problems?
 
7.  "Teachers will tell you that those kids that are going into schools are replicating the kinds of language that they see their wrestler icons doing too."
Stu Auty - Safe Schools
 
We hear Heavy Metal music during the wrestling clips.  How might hearing that music influence the way viewers think about wrestling?  Is wrestling often associated with Heavy Metal music?
 
8.  "For many young people, a weapon is equated with power."
Dr. Howard Markovitch
 
While listening to Dr. Markovitch, we see a faceless man examining handguns displayed on a table.  Who might this person be?  What is the effect of our not seeing his face?  Are these handguns that have been taken from students?  What connections might viewers make between the faceless man, Dr. Markovitch's statement, and the handguns?
 
[Viewers might assume that these are the weapons that police have seized from students, a perception created by sound and audio editing, but not necessarily true.]
 
9.  "There's all types of frustrations out there.  You don't have no money you don't have no place to stay and the first thing that comes to your mind is that you want to take from the person who's havin'.  So that creates all this violence and all this havoc that goes on on the street because there's no opportunity."
 
"It's not even a state of mind in the Black community to become grandfathers.  It's just a state of mind to become a grown man and that's it.  We need to put the mentality back that you want to see 50, 60-years-old, maybe 70-years-old and not 21, 22-years-old and then you're dead."
Snoop Dogg
 
Snoop Dogg describes two possible causes of violence: no opportunity and no future.  How accurate is he in explaining why there are violent Black youth?  Are these conditions also true for White youth?  Why?
How might these problems be solved?  How would the solutions affect violent crime among Black youth?
 
10. "Today mothers grow the kids on their own.  Fathers run away."
Dirty Money, imprisoned rapper
 
Might fathers, either physically or spiritually absent, be a cause of anger in youth today?
Research and discuss the connections between growing up without a father and feelings of aggression.
 
11.  "You have to make sure that all kids know that they have a voice."
Sandra Zivkovic of Leave Out Violence
 
If people have a voice, might they be less violent?  If they can express themselves to someone who cares about what they say, will they feel more empowered?  Where can youth find a voice and how can they express themselves meaningfully?  Can this happen at school?  Research and discuss.
 
12.  At one point, we see Edward Norton in a scene from Fight Club.  How does this movie help us to understand issues of youth violence?
 
13.  Tommy Lee, Courtney Love and Sean Puffy Combs have all committed violent acts and taken anger management training.  How might these celebrities be modeling positive strategies for violence?  How likely are people to seek anger management because these celebrities have done so?
 
During the program, we see someone reading 'Classroom for Hotheads' from the April 10, 2000 Time Magazine.  Read this article on anger management and discuss how well it might solve problems of youth violence.
 
You can find the article at:
www.time.com/time/magazine/articles/0,3266, 42304,00.html
or
www.canoe.ca/TimeCanada0004/10_time19.

 Written by: Neil Andersen
Neil Andersen is an award-winning Curriculum Consultant with the Toronto District School Board. He is also a speaker and consultant in media and communications technology. His most recent work includes the Between the Lines CDs, the teachers' study guide for the award-winning Scanning Television, and study guides for Space, Bravo! and MuchMusic's Cable in the Classroom broadcasts of original media literacy programming.

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