I love music. Nothing can penetrate the soul and alter the emotions like a well-written, thoughtfully arranged song. It doesn’t matter what genre of music it belongs to – beautiful music is beautiful music.
There is, however, something that’s always bugged me and even amused me about love songs in particular. I’ve never quite been able to make sense of songs that have as their theme, “I’m writing this song to tell you that I’m over you. I’ve forgotten you. I don’t think about you anymore. Like I said just now, I sat down and took a couple of days to write this song just to let you know that I’ve forgotten about you and I’m over you”. Really? Are you really over me if you still need to tell me that you’re over me?
Now, while my humorous illustration might offend a couple of people because Doin’ Just Fine by Boyz II Men got them through a difficult break-up, I actually am trying to make a point: as a lover of hip-hop specifically, I’ve been asking myself something about the frequent use of religious themes, especially those referring to the name of Jesus Christ. The artwork below, one from the past year and the rest from further in the past, all features some themes that are clearly about Christianity.
The question for me is, if Jesus Christ was the non-entity or mere prophet that the culture tries to tell us that he was, why does he appear as a theme or point of discussion as much as he does? Why is his name a constant cuss word in movies and the subject of so much scorn and mockery in the music of our time? We believe ourselves to be a rational generation and have come up with intelligent phrases like “there is no smoke without fire”. If this is the case, is Jesus Christ really the figment of some ignorant radicals’ imagination?
What are your thoughts about Jesus Christ? Does the name mean anything to you at all? Perhaps you have questions and comments about him or even about the significance of his name and its usage in entertainment and pop culture.
We want to hear from you!