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Hi there! Thanks for asking this question. Music I know can be a touchy issue for some, and other people may have different opinions, but here are my thoughts:
I personally believe that only the lyrics of the song really matter. As the Bible says, we are to fill ourselves with heavenly things and set our mind on things above. (Colossians 3.) The lyrics are the most important part, because they encapsulate what the song is truly about and what the author is trying to say.
In the Bible, though most of us don’t realize it (and no blame, I didn’t till recently), there are different genres of psalms. There are psalms of praise or worship, which are meant to give God glory, and similar in theme to our hymns and worship songs we sing in church. There are songs of Thanksgiving which are praising God for a particular way God helped the author of the psalm. And then, there are the psalms of lament. In these psalms the author is pouring out his frustration and sorrow, telling (yet trusting) God about all the pain and hardships he has gone through. Now, from what I am aware of, much of the rock genre (and the clean ones, I mean) is doing just that. It’s a music style that allows one to express powerful emotions. So basically, the lament psalms are the Bible’s lyrical version of rock!
Now, as far as how you feel listening to the music, if you really get a bad feeling about it, you should maybe look up the lyrics to the song. Perhaps something in there struck you wrong. Some days I’d say though, you just don’t feel good in general, or something in the song hits you wrong in that particular moment. Rock, for some people, can make them angry if they listen to too much of it, which I would say is a effect of rock being all about powerful emotions as mentioned earlier. What I would say is if you find yourself getting angry, maybe it’s just time to take a bit of a break. I’d say listen to some calmer music pieces sometimes. It looks like you listen to classical music though, so I’d say you already have a handle on that.
As far as where rock music originated, saying that something is bad just because of where it came from is actually a dictionary-ized logical fallacy called the Genetic Fallacy. If we stopped using (or listening to things in this case) just because of where they came from, we could perhaps say aqueducts are evil because they were invented by the pagan Roman emperors and you shouldn’t play the harpsichord because it was invented by the same man who designed the guillotine.
Now, as for how that African drum stuff fits into rock, I honestly don’t have any idea what that dude who wrote the PDF was talking about. The Electric Guitar was invented in Los Angeles California, so I have no idea where he’s getting that.
All in all, I personally say that as long as the lyrics of the song are moral, rock is fine to listen to. I do all the time, and I can tell you it hasn’t effected me negatively in anyway. In fact, I believe it’s been a good way for me to vent safely when I’m feeling frustrated. I also know many other Christians who listen to (clean) rock, one of them who is perhaps one of my two strongest believing friends! Another thing worth noting is that the internet always brings up what it believes you want. If you looked up something about rock being bad, even if it was a question, the most likely articles to come up are ones that believe rock is bad because that’s the most similar answer to what you looked up.
Sorry, that was a long-winded answer, lol. I hope this helps!
Hello! This is a very interesting Q & A. I like the idea! Thanks for posting it. Here are my answers to the questions:
1. Okay, so this is a complicated one. My family is part of a nondenominational church, but we largely agree with the Evangelical Free church my mom was raised in (At least the doctrines they taught when she was there in the 2000’s. I don’t know if they have changed since then.) However, I attend a Southern Baptist youth group on Wednesdays.
2. I grew up nondenominational and am still in it, though I was the one who instigated going to a different youth group than the one in my home church.
3. There are 66 books in my Bible. They include (takes a deep breath): Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Ester, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Isiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniela, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, Jude and Revelation.
4. My immediate family all follows the same denomination. Several on my dad’s side are Presbyterians. My aunt and uncle on my mom’s side are Baptist (Southern, I think.) There are many more Christians in my extended family, but I’m not sure what denominations they are.
5. We do baptism and communion, but I don’t think we’d usually call them sacraments in my church. We’d probably refer to them more as a declaration of our faith.
6. We don’t really have a denominational head. We’re more like a true American style church (lol), with one Elder Board that rotates elders every few years, a Pastoral team, and one head Pastor.
7. My favorite in the Bible has to be Paul. He did so many things, wasn’t afraid of death, and most of all he remained humble even in spite of all the great things he truly did do for God.
8. I love Christmas. When we’re at my mom’s side of the family for Christmas, we always act out the nativity story with a little wooden nativity set my grandparents have while my grandpa reads the story aloud. It’s always been one of my favorite traditions that helps me focus back on God in rough times, and when there are presents waiting under the tree.
Ooo, this sounds really interesting. I’ll totally join if I can get my hands on a copy. It sounds like a really good book.
Thanks! I find having different interests gives me ways to take a break from writing primarily and do something else creative for a change. As far as my health issues go, a few years ago I had to get a surgery where a titanium bar was placed in my chest due to skeletal growth issues. This December it’s being taken out. Meanwhile, a year ago I got really sick with a virus, and ever since my stomach has been super sensitive and pretty much stopped digesting properly. It’s healed a lot since last year, especially with the help of medication, but during the months I didn’t have any help it was extremely painful, and still can be quite strenuous at times. It will probably heal, but if it does it can take up to three years to resolve completely.
I honestly can’t really remember where I heard about Kingdom Pen, but it was probably my mom. She listens to a lot of writing podcasts and has writing friends, so if I had to guess the information would have come from something like that.
Ooo, yes, cheesecake. It’s one of my favorite desserts! And no, I’m not sharing (silly distrustful face.) Joking. Of course I’d share it.
1. Probably ride a dragon for a day. Never going to get that opportunity again, though, yes, I would be screaming through the entire ride.
2. According the first definition in the Merriam Webster dictionary, food is “material consisting essentially of protein, carbohydrate, and fat used in the body of an organism to sustain growth, repair, and vital processes and to furnish energy.” While too many jellybeans can send me on a sugar high, and subsequently crash, I don’t think I could sustain growth, or repair, or vital processes on them. Therefore I deem jellybeans not food. But you can still eat them. That’s a bit confusing.
1. I’d say my favorite top fantasy books would have to be the Mistborn trilogy, Harry Potter, and though I have yet to finish the whole series, Lord of the Rings.
2. I would love to spend a week a week with the protagonist of my finished novel, Qinien. He’s really talented in art and music, and I’d love some technique advice from him!
3. Ooo, this is a really hard question. I think it would have to be this guy named Peck from the Swipe series. He’s really competent and knows how to get things done–I think we’d get along well.
Hello! I am new here, but I totally get what you’re saying. My biggest struggle as an author thus far has been plot; world building and characters come naturally for me, but plot I struggle with. Over the years trying to find what sort of plotting style works for me, I’ve found a few things that help.
- Most plot structures out there are definitely a bit too specific, and targeted towards different kinds of stories. I thing I realized though, is that most follow the same general structure. Story begins. Conflict sets the story in motion. Character has a substantial. Things turn bad. Climax. Resolution. These beats are pretty simple and easily flexible to build the type of story you’d like.
- Being not strong in the plot department, but excelling in the character field, I typically shape plot beats around my characters. I’ll identify how I want the character to try and stop the conflict, and then build those plot beats around that specific character’s attempts to handle the situation. I find this works especially well when you have multiple POVs, as I do that for each one, and then the story feels fairly fleshed out.
- Ah, yes, the slog of Act II. It’s painful, I’ve gotta say. What I have found that helps the most with keeping the story interesting to the reader is having subplots that I can advance within the time of Act II. Even if the main plot is a bit slow due to story beats that have a while yet to happen, when I have subplots to fill the extra space between those plot points, they help to make the story feel like it’s still moving. These subplots can be anything from characters finding out and processing new information, a character realizing things about him or herself and growing internally, or the relationship (which doesn’t have to be romantic) between two characters changing.
Don’t know if any of this will help you–every writer is different–but I thought I’d just give the suggestions. I hope your book goes well!