Expert: Geoff Wickens - 11/15/2006

Question
Well the story is that i have to write a speech and my topic is the positive effects of rock music! i know its pretty hard to convince someone that Dio, acdc, queen, the eagles all have good song lyrics that don't go back to sex drugs and violence! so my question is do you know of any songs that have good meanings behind them?!?!  

Answer
Aside from the song "Life In The Fast Lane", I cannot think of ANY Eagles song that is about sex, drugs & violence.  Ok - that's the Eagles fan talking.

As for songs with good meaning - go back 45 years years and earlier - Gene Kelly, Doris Day, Julie Andrews and a whole lot more.  Back in the 40's and 50's there were no drugs (compared to today's wide spread use), sex was something so taboo that it was not until 1953 when the word "virgin" was used on the big screen.  Ever watch a sitcom from that era?  Notice that the husband and wife have separate beds.  As for violence, that was around, but it was not glamorized as it is today (UFC for example - nothing more than a glorified street brawl).

There are also plenty of songs with good meanings in this day and age.  Look at groups such as Mercy Me, SonicFlood Point Of Grace & Michael W Smith.  This is Christian rock which is VERY widespread not only because of the message, but also because a lot of it is good music.  

There have been and always will be people that say you can play some songs backwards and get a secret message (this is called backmasking).  The most famous is the "Paul Is Dead" taken from the Beatles "White Album" off the song "Revolution 9".  (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Is_Dead for complete details).  

I hope this answers you question and if you want to into it farther, let me know as I could spend quite some time writing about this subject (in fact I did - then I realized how much I had written - I didn't want to get that involved for your answer - unless you want me to.

Thanks for using AllExperts and for choosing me to help you with your answer.  Don't forget to rate this answer.

Thanks

Geoff