Adventures in Musica

John F. Berry of The Press-Enterprise reports that 25 year-old, Jason Harris, was recently sentenced to fifty years in prison after being convicted for murder.

In the same article, Berry also reports that one of the last things Harris heard was 'Disasterpiece' by masked metallers, Slipknot.

The only response I can think of to this is, 'so what?'

Of course, I get what's being suggested here; somehow, whilst listening to Slipknot, Harris heard Corey Taylor telling him to go out and kill Terry Ray Taylor. The article offers no evidence to support this suggestion (mostly because it's absurd), nor even to suggest that Harris had some sort of disorder which may have convinced him that a guy in a Halloween mask had been inciting him to kill.

So what's the point in mentioning it? It's not like listing the musical preferences of criminals is a standard thing.

Somebody tell me the last time you read a news report which read something along the lines of:

Yet since it's a metal band we're talking about, it's perfectly normal to somehow suggest that they had something to do with it.

When will all this stop?

Music, as much as I love it, is just music. Whether it's Slipknot or Ray Charles or anyone else, it exists primarily to entertain, not to inspire homicide and, as the old argument goes, anyone likely to commit a crime is likely to do so with or without the influence of some blokes with musical instruments.

To suggest otherwise displays at least a certain degree of ignorance, and until such times as journalists are made to include the playlists of every criminal, not just the ones with a fondness for heavy metal, lazy reporters like John F Berry need to quit bringing up pointless suggestions about the influence of men with guitars.