PERSPECTIVE ON THE NEWS February 11, 1980 Issue

Spirituality and popular entertainment

Rock music's continuing popularity and massive influence in shaping many standards and styles of our times have made it a phenomenon to be reckoned with. The deaths of some young people in a stampede for tickets prior to a rock concert in Ohio, and more recently the arrest in a Tokyo airport of a rock celebrity for alleged infringement of drug laws, have thrown a spotlight on the sometimes violent and drug-pervaded world of rock.

The influential nature of rock music can give fans and nonfans alike much food for thought. Perhaps the main questions we might ask ourselves in connection with this, or, for that matter, any form of entertainment is: To what extent do I place joy on the basis of emotional intensity and sensualism? Am I helping perpetuate the mortal—often sordid—view of man that so much of the rock industry depends on for a market and seeks to glamorize? Am I doing enough to provide sparkling proof of what real joy and freedom are all about?

This is not to say that discos, rock music, and rock concerts are necessarily evil and should be scratched off our agendas. Rock concerts may, for instance, sometimes be elevating, warmly communal events, in which the performers succeed in ministering, to some extent, to their listeners' yearning for beauty and meaning. On the other hand, the aim of many "gigs" is simply to whip the audience into a wild emotional release.

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