Its messages are providing a sound track for a generation that is being molded in the image of music itself. I see it all the time. The negative messages of popular music take root and grow where the soil of a child's life hasn't been nurtured by the flood-rains of parental love, time, listening ears, and attention. All too often, I see it in Christian homes. Studies and observation show that today's kids are receiving smaller amounts of intimacy and attention from their parents, making kids more vulnerable to outside influences.
Music often fills the void.
In 1992, Rolling Stone magazine asked its readers to vote for their favorite album of all time and to defend their vote in a brief essay. It was the first heavy-metal song I had ever heard. I had been an abused child all my life, and something about the music moved me. Feelings of hurt and anger that had been bottled up all those years took over. I started shaking and crying, and that night I made the decision that what they were doing to me was wrong and I wasn't going to let anyone use me as a punching bag ever again.