Particularly distressing in today's society is the level of dysfunctional relationships. Values considered outdated and baseless, such as mutual respect, consideration for another person's feelings, and common courtesy, are becoming extinct human customs. Especially troubling are the violent misogynous messages infused in hard-core rock and rap music and their negative effects on today's youth.

Healthy relationships of mutual love, respect, and compromise between men and women of all races and social classes are instrumental to a sane and stable society. Respect and reverence for mother, sister, wife, and daughter as the nurtures of civilization are key to our survival as a species. Many youth today approach their relationships with the opposite sex, mimicking the attitudes of the rock or rap entertainer.

As a musician, I can appreciate all forms of music as legitimate vehicles of artistic expression, not simply attaching aesthetic value to what I prefer. True art forms should express the ugly as well as the beautiful in human expression. However, if the art form explicitly expresses a message of debasement, hatred, or violence without just cause, then I question the validity of the message. A counter argument might claim that violent messages expressed through music are just a reflection of conditions that already exist. Violence directed towards women is an option that misdirects the causes from where true powerlessness derives. Some rap groups, such as Arrested Development or Queen Latifah, have expressed their message through a remarkable artistic medium, combining poetry and syntactic elements of language into a powerful message depicting everyday life of black youth in the United States. Rock groups such as Smashing Pumpkins and Soundgarden have express their music in the light of positive influences, stressing communication and cooperation in dealing with life's problems.

Other varieties of hard-core rock and rap have accentuated vulgar messages of violent encounters with women, often depicting debasing sexual acts. Advertisements for hard core rap and rock usually portray women compromising their dignity: models scantily dressed and displayed in sexually submissive positions. The verbal messages are equally destructive, debasing women as nothing more than sexual objects to be abused and degraded.

Do recording industry promoters and producers have a moral obligation to deny the marketing of socially debasing music? Should the Supreme Court be only a barometer by which generally accepted values are challenged by new forms of expression? Censorship of ideas is unconstitutional under First Amendment rights, and music has always been a reflection of the human conditions which exist. But there is a clear moral statement not to accept the post hoc, ergo propter hoc supposition. Women shouldn't tolerate or condone music which debases their character or dignity. I was astonished that as many women as men sought after Snoop Doggy Dog's music, which depicts women as debased sexual objects. Rap groups such as Two Live Crew and Luke are on the extremes of artistic expression, marketing their music through sexually explicit messages. Nirvana and Meat Puppets explore hard-core rock fantasy through violent profligated encounters. Even foreign hard-core rock groups who explicitly advocate violence against foreiners through xenophobic lyrics are gaining popularity.

I advocate that any material which explicitly devalues the intrinsic worth of another human or expresses a message of malefaction or malice without justification needs careful examination. The United States Supreme Court addressed the issue of censorship and First Amendment rights in Roth vs. U.S. in 1957. The Court ruled that published or broadcasted material may be banned if it has no redeeming social value. This is not a question of whether only a particular segment of society finds hard-core rock or rap undesirable. I'm not trying to redefine community standards. It is not a degree of local atmosphere to act as judge on the legitimacy of an artistic work, but whether a reasonable person would find value in the whole intent of the message.

The same concerns with violent pornography against women should cross over into the music industry. Parents need to listen to what their children are listening to. Censoring what is disagreeable will only alienate kids, but discussing alternative solutions to problems juxtaposed to how they are solved in minimalist music is paramount in building better relationships. Is there a direct correlation between violence in music against women and the increase in sexually aggravated assaults, rapes, and brutalizations of women? The recording industry has sidestepped its responsibility in marketing sexually explicit or violent material by placing a label stating: "material contains sexually explicit or violent language and is not to be sold to anyone under eighteen years of age." Abnormally high teenage pregnancies, single parent households, abandoned fatherless children, and battered women are all conditions of a prevailing attitude which promulgates and supports violent and misogynous messages inextricably connected to the sales of this music!

Should the recording industry along with the entertainers be held accountable for what it promotes on the public? A U.S. Senate select committee has already addressed concern (free speech vs. redeeming social value) with Ice T's Cop Killer album. When does the individual right of free speech endanger the common welfare of the public? Society is now beginning to hold the tobacco industry responsible for promoting poor health through advertisement and sales of its product. Can the same standards of scrutiny be applied to any industry that promotes poor mental health? For the sake of entertainment, we have allowed ourselves to cross the line and permit the debasement of women and the promulgation of violence against them to become the norm. Parents, community leaders, educators, and entertainers must work together to demand maintaining the dignity of all persons addressed lyrically through music. The quality of intent should be carefully scrutinized in music especially targeted towards adolescents. If the intent is to debase, devalue, depreciate or diminish another human being or to create an atmosphere of senseless violence, we have a moral obligation not to support its marketing.