Incidentally. . . Some Thoughts about Incidental Music on Television

Elmer Rumminger, M.A.

Most spiritually mature and knowledgeable Christians understand that "rock" music is a Satanic tool. Enlightened fundamentalist parents teach their children to enjoy good music and warn them to avoid the destructive influence of rock and its associated drug/sex/rebellion subculture. A few ill-informed, albeit perhaps well-meaning, believers tolerate some "soft" rock--especially with "Christian" lyrics--but even most of these would forbid their children from watching the music channel, Friday Night Videos, and the like. The message of the music with the associated pictorial vulgarity is blatantly obvious--clearly not the sort of influence to which one would want children exposed. But what about the incidental music on TV: the "beds," the background stuff, the mood setters, and "stingers" that enhance the dramatic fare on the tube?

Incidental music, as an art form, has been around for a long time. Great composers have written incidental music to accompany specific literary and dramatic works. One thinks immediately of Mendelssohn's setting for "A Midsummer Night's Dream," especially the scherzo, a masterpiece in its own right, now heard more often for itself than in conjunction with Shakespeare's play. Its original purpose, however, like that of all incidental music, was to enhance the drama.

Sometimes the process is reversed. Rossini wrote "William Tell" as an opera, but many of my generation became familiar with the overture to his work, not from frequenting opera houses but from listening to "The Lone Ranger" on the radio. In the early days of radio drama, many classical pieces were used as incidental music--and they became part of our personal culture. I can remember hollering, "Hi Yo Silver...Away!" discharging my little toy cap pistol and galloping down the sidewalk astride my rusty scooter while shouting the melody line from the Tell Overture finale or a snatch of Liszt's "Les Preludes" at the top of my lungs.

Here comes the point: without ever listening to good, classical music for music's sake, we kids of the thirties and forties absorbed a lot of culture and were programmed to enjoy and appreciate it when in later years we explored the musical classics more fully. Now, what kind of incidental music are your kids exposed to today--especially on television? And what is this music doing to them?

This is not s scientific treatise. I have done no in-depth, computer-assisted research to compare the effects of "Lone Ranger" music to those of "Miami Vice" sound tracts. But I have been a broadcaster for nearly forty years. I have written and directed a few radio and television dramas and documentaries. I can tell you from personal experience that the incidental music is crucial to the creating of mood, the enhancing of dramatic flow, and the highlighting and intensifying of emotion. The music is part and parcel of the message--and sometimes the message of the music is even stronger than the words or the action of the drama. We have all experienced a quickening of the pulse when shimmering violins precede a dramatic moment, or a feeling of foreboding when somber chords presage the pounce of a villain upon an unsuspecting victim, or a tingle of fear when organ music in a minor key signals the conjuration of some demonic being from behind a gloomy mausoleum in the murky midnight.

It has been the lot of Americans (except for those blessed with total deafness) to be massaged by incidental music to an inordinate degree ever since the advent of electronic media. From the piano in the pit of the old silent movie theaters, to the recorded classical snippets of early radio drama, to the original soundtracks of talkie-movies, to the background noise of current TV fare--it has molded all of us in some degree and has been shaping our children to an alarming extent.

Be aware that incidental music on today's TV drama is designed to do more than merely enhance the action. Video dramatists and network programmers are intent upon creating a distinct "personality" for a show--and promoting the new "mod" lifestyle. The "in" genre is "rock" in all of its forms. The music, the lighting, the camera angles, the pacing, the editing--all combine with the words and action to preach a powerful message of "lifestyle" that is humanistic, hedonistic, existentialistic--and certainly antithetical to Scriptural principles. And the "glue" that holds the whole mess together and cements the message to the mind of the viewer/listener is the music. This kind of music is an irritant to us old-timers, but to those who like it, it is a powerful influence.

If your kids watch TV a great deal, they are being conditioned to like rock music. Many of the most innocent-seeming programs for children, even many "educational" programs, are bedded in "rock." There may be no drug-and-sex lyrics tied to the music on Sesame Street or Peanuts or Fraggle Rock, but the music which is being injected into your child's psyche is the medium through which the subculture of rebellion, illicit sex, and hard drugs preaches its doctrines to the masses. From kiddie shows it's upward (downward?) in easy steps to the really "hard" stuff--just as surely as the first puff of marijuana leads to speed, heroin, crack, and cocaine.

The music is addictive--as any musicologist or psychologist can tell you. Young people who constantly listen to it eventually become "hooked" on it, and it quickly becomes a channel through which Satan can corrupt their lives.

What's the solution to the problem? Philippians 4:8 and Romans 12:1-2 offer positive guidance. We are to think on those things which are "lovely" and of "good report." We are not to be "conformed to this world," but are to be "transformed" by the "renewing of our minds," having first presented our bodies as a "living sacrifice."

It's easy! Turn off the TV or get rid of it altogether; replace it and its music with recordings of Christian music and drama and good secular music. Don't expose children to rock, and they won't get hooked on it. They will like the kind of music they grew up with--and as they grow older, you can reinforce their musical standards by telling them, "this music is bad" and "this music is good." Still later you can say, "This is why it's bad or good."

For older children who are already "hooked" or on the way to it, it may be necessary to sit down in family council and discuss the problem. Tell them quite frankly that you had not thought about it before but that you see the problem now. Pray about it together and try to get their cooperation in building a good foundation for spiritual growth in the area of music. You may want to read some books and articles on the subject together. You could attend a seminar or listen to a recorded presentation on the evils of rock music.

As Christian parents we need to set standards for our children in every area of their lives, and we need to teach them by precept and by example to adopt those standards for their own as they come to maturity. We are to "bring them up in the nurture (discipline) and admonition of the Lord" (Eph. 6:4b). In so doing we need to emphasize the "big things" like regular church attendance, Scripture reading and memorization, and personal devotions; but at the same time we dare not overlook the "incidentals"--including the incidental music to which our children are exposed.

Editor's Note: Our readers may be interested in the following materials available from the Bob Jones University bookstore and elsewhere.

• Contemporary Music: Questions and Answers, Parts I and II, Bob Jones University Staff (one tape)

• How Music Affects You, Frank Garlock (one tape)
• Music in our Contemporary Music Culture, Duane Ream (one tape)
• Music that Glorifies God, Dwight Gustafson (one tape)
• Secular Music Makes a Difference, Dave Harper (one tape)
• What God Says about Music, Mike Harding (one tape with 2 messages)
• Church Music: Sense and Nonsense, BJU Press, Danny Sweatt

Reprinted from Balance, a publication of the School of Education, Bob Jones University. Used with permission of Bob Jones University. Please write BJU Press, for permission to reproduce this article.