The Media famously stereotypes rock culture by creating unfounded links with suicides, massacres and drug abuse

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The Media famously stereotypes rock culture by creating unfounded links with suicides, massacres and drug abuse

Since the 1960’s the rise in rock culture has become a strong influence over its audience, especially the younger generation. Rock culture today has many positive points about itself, but recently the media have broadcast more of the negative.

This is proven in many circumstances where the media have linked rock culture with suicides, massacres and drug abuse. The media have taken the “negatives” of rock music such as, poor role models and linked them to certain events, where people have committed suicide and caused mass panic. An example of this would be the Columbine school shootings in 1999 and the Virginia Tech Massacre, which I will go into some detail later on.  This has made the general public to easily associate these events with rock culture and even form anti-rock societies, who say that rock music is the “Devils “Advocate”. The media do not broadcast the “positives” of the rock culture, such as giving people a sense of identity and uniting people who have as similar taste in music. Instead because they are not newsworthy subjects and massacres, suicides and drug abuse are, these are not mentioned in their reports.

        It is clearly important to conduct primary and secondary research into this subject, in an attempt to prove my theory that our rock music and rock culture can not be directly blamed for bad occurrences.  In my personal opinion the thoughts and actions of the public can not be influenced through different forms of music unless they are combined with other circumstances, such as domestic problems, bullying, depression etc.

It has been known the rock culture does have an effect on the public of today.

It's Only Rock'n Roll ... But it kills” is a website set up by “Terry Watkins.”  He believes rock music can twist our minds to become deviant without even realising it, through rock stars who are “preaching for the devil”; he has quotes from songs even from Elton John.

“Think I'll buy a forty-four/Give 'em all a surprise/Think I'm gonna kill myself, /Cause a little suicide."

This website also has hundreds of “true” stories in an attempt to prove his theory. Here is an example of just one of the stories posted on his website.  In October 1984, Nineteen-year-old John McCollum shot himself in the head, while listening to Ozzy Osbourne sing "Suicide Solution":

"Evil thoughts and evil doings/Cold, alone, you hang in ruins/Thought that you'd escape the reaper/You can't escape the Master Keeper/ . . . /Where to hide, suicide is the only way out."  He was still wearing the stereo headphones when his body was found!

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Even though stories like this are not televised nationally, they seep thought the media in forms of magazines, newspapers and the internet as in this case.

        There are many different stories of suicides that do reach national status, such as the “Bridgend suicides”. This story didn't receive any media attention outside the local area until six months ago when a single news report suggested there were links between the deaths and an internet suicide cult. As the number of young people taking their lives continued to rise, the national and even international media began to sit up and take notice. ...

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