lucifer_sam

Francis Ford Coppola might not have wanted to elicit mob violence, but he didn't write The Godfather. Mario Puzo certainly romanticized about the mafia's power. Whether he wanted to perpetuate mob violence, I don't know, but he sure as hell had no problem writing about it.

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kida

the new P!nk song and that suicide song by sean kingston

Janszoon

Did I say Francis Ford Coppola wrote The Godfather? I was making a comparison between movie directors and musicians. If you'd like we could make the comparison between authors and musicians as well though, since I don't think Mario Puzo is any more of an advocate of mob violence than Stephen King is an advocate of people abducting and torturing their favorite author.

Zbigniew Spadzinski

Yeah

lucifer_sam

Mario Puzo romaticizes a good deal about the Mafia. I'm not so sure about his intentions in writing The Godfather.

And there are artists who are imperceptibly connected to the content of their lyrics. I'm not suggesting Ice Cube or NWA actually acted how they rapped, but there are definitely black metal bands that take their lyrics to heart. Just look at Mayhem.

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WendyCal

Yeah, that's part of it ~ i wouldn't write songs/poetry that was violent, either.

For them to be good songs, you have to have some sort of passion for what you're saying, i would think. If that's the case, i (personally) wouldn't be very creative nor enthusiatic.

Janszoon

I'm not saying there's no such thing as people who do what you describe. There are definitely examples, like Mayhem, of people whose act is their real life. I'm just pointing out that for some reason some people have this automatic assumption that song lyrics are a literal description of the singer's personality or beliefs and for whatever reason these same people usually don't make the same assumption about directors or authors.

I guess my point is that an artist is separate from their work and it's important to keep in mind that the stage persona of some gangsta rapper or metal singer is most likely just a character that they are playing. I mean look at Ice Cube. On the one hand he wrote a bunch of violent lyrics for NWA but on the other hand he wrote, produced and starred in the movie Friday which has a pretty strong anti-violence message. I think there's obviously more to the guy than some violent NWA lyrics.

Lyrics don't have to be literal. Most aren't. I mean, autobiography isn't the only way to express yourself. Just think of all the great books and movies out there that are fictional stories. The people who created them were still able to be passionate about their creation without actually having or even desiring the experiences of the characters in their creation.

WendyCal

Halloween was fantasy, so there's nothing to be 'for...' Coppola had some sort of background with the mafia, i believe, but regardless, yes, i think he believes that that is how the mafia works, and that he made a movie that was a sort of documentary.

But here's the bottom line ~ they aren't out there, trying to make themselves into what they're filming, and acting like the reason they made the movies was because it was just a snapshot of their lives, and Hey! Look how successful and COOL being this way is.



Okay, pal ~ (Janszoon)

GLOVES OFF

If you continue to post replies to my posts,

before i even have a chance to post them, well...

That's it.

i'm suing for invasion of privacy!

Janszoon

Exactly my point about Halloween being fantasy. You have no problem recognizing that John Carpenter was just going for scares and not actually advocating what Michael Meyers was doing in the movie. I'm just saying that violent songs should be looked at in the same way.

Also: Coppola? Mafia background? I don't think so.

Who are we talking about here specifically? Let's look at Ice Cube for example, one of the godfathers of gangsta rap and the main songwriter of the band that started this whole conversation, NWA: He wrote, produced, and starred in an anti-violence comedy during the height of the gangsta rap era. He acted in a bunch of other movies where he played characters outside of his NWA image. He studied architectural drafting while he was in NWA. This year he started working as a radio sport analyst. Surely he doesn't fit your example of a person who writes violent lyrics then tries to make himself into that image.

AnyColourYouLike

Ragdoll- Aerosmith = worst song ever.

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“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”- Albert Camus