billy "the man" curtis + Slipknot = i hate masks.

So! That video we watched in class was pretty friggin suh-weet. I'll stop talking like a UVA frat boy now. The only thing that sort of 'got my gears turning', so to speak, is that the film only focused on extreme acts which resulted in violence, injury to persons involved or death to persons involved. Not to say that the documentary was not informative, which it was, but there is also a lesser threat to those that follow something in the media to an almost cult effect, and take personal investment in the object of their desire. For instance, when Eminem came out so many girls wanted to be the woman he was beating and abusing in his lyrics and men wanted to look like him and abuse drugs and become violent and disrespectful toward women in their lives. A similar thing happened with Marilyn Manson. Bands such as Insane Clown Posse and Slipknot have a large following of people, almsot to a cult effect, and they live by the lyrics that they hear, which are interesting at best. There was a murder where the killers blamed lyrics from the Slipknot song "Disasterpiece" for their crime. Maybe these sorts of things were a little post-documentary, but these are the things that still worry me. How many young fans attempted or succeeded suicide after Kurt Cobain took his life? Music has a large influence on how the youth of today identify themselves. Not only what the artists say in their lyrics is being copied, but also the actions of the artists themselves. Film is still extremely influential, how many people have ended up in the hospital after copying a Jack-Ass stunt? It worries me that it seems no one is acknowledging the almost choke hold that media has on the extremely impressionable youth. I believe in a thing called the copy-cat effect, but does the copy-cat effect believe in me?



Slipknot. p.s. i don't do masks.