Exploration 4: Lauren Stewart

     In my opinion there are a lot of negative impacts coming from the music culture these days. I would say they come from rap and hip-hop music mainly. Some artists in these genres of music tend to write about drugs, alcohol, and sex, which are most definitely negative impacts on our society. There are many kids who like to listen to these types of music and these are not the right types of messages to be sending to our future generations as they grow up and become adults. We don't want our kids to be influenced by inappropriate pictures and messages through music and the way the artists convey themselves. A lot of the rap artists cover themselves with tattoos and curse a lot in their music and portray themselves as horrible role models. A specific example of an artist who I think does more harm than good with their music would be Lil Wayne. He is covered head to toe with tattoos and poses in his pictures doing gang signs and smoking. This is a horrible example for a role model. I don't think anyone should look up to him or think of his music as inspirational or a way to live their life.
     What excites me the most in the music culture would probably be all of the new types of music we have these days. There is such a wide variety of music in our society today that you are guaranteed to find something you like. An artist that I see as a positive influence in music culture would be Kenny Chesney. I feel this way because he writes about such realistic life situations that everyone can relate to. When you listen to his songs, he sings about an average person just living their life. It sounds like it might be boring because regular lives are not interesting to sing about and fiction is more entertaining and creative, but the beats to his songs are so catchy and his lyrics are so true to the heart that you can't help but sing along.
     One of my favorite songs by him is "Never Wanted Nothing More". He is singing about growing up and making a life of his own and how you should just be happy with who you are and the life you live. A really inspirational quote from the lyrics is,

"I live to love and laugh a lot and that's all I need"

I really enjoy this quote because it's 100% true. That is really all we need to be happy and have a good life.

Kenny Chesney
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUw-cTYYQjw