January 2005 WUGGIE'S MUSIC, MEDIA AND MORE!
Ratings System:
++ Christian - made specifically by Christians for Christians
+ Secular - but contains nothing offensive to most Christians, probably made by Christians trying to exert influence in secular media.
M Mature content. Not necessarily offensive, but parents should be careful before allowing exposure to children and pre-teens.
X Mature content. For mature teens, firm in their convictions and morals, who have received much parental guidance.
XX Contains very mature, problematic content. Parents should seriously consider restricting exposure to teens.
XXX Completely offensive. Not only should teens be restricted, but adults may want to question their own exposure.
Remember, my reviews are strictly my opinion, and no substitute for your good judgment
Please send me an Email (Mwuggazer@RedeemerBirmingham.org) or call me (248-644-4010) with requests for reviews!!
Halo 2 / Video Game / M
Alas, Halo 2 came out just after the deadline for the December issue of the Lamp, so I apologize for not getting this review to you in time for Christmas. Smart readers of this column know that I post it on www.RedeemerBirmingham.org about three weeks before it appears in the Lamp, and DID in fact read the review before Christmas. Halo 2 enjoyed the best Christmas of sales for a video game of all time. I had the opportunity to play it at a party. We had two X-boxes, two TVs, and eight players all playing in the same simulated universe. It was a lot of fun! The graphics are spectacular, the environments are imaginative and cool. The weapons and vehicles creative and fun. I especially thought is was cool to ride in the back of the Warthog operating the turret while another player drove the vehicle! Yes, the object of Halo 2 is to blast away at your enemy to kill him. It is a futuristic military game. There is violence. There is death. When your player dies, you see him fall dead in a small pool of blood. There is not, however, the gore or gratuitous violence found in many video games. Your player re-spawns in 4 seconds, and you are playing again. This game did not have the de-sensitizing effect on me that some video games and many movies have on me - and I'm pretty sensitive to that! So I give it an M, for mature. Kids under 13 probably need more maturity before they are ready to handle the game, but I see no problem for teens. The bigger problem would be the outright addiction to video games in general and Halo 2 specifically, but that's another column.
U2 / How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb / +
U2 is my all time favorite band. Hey I grew up in the 80's. I was in college when Joshua Tree came out, and I saw the Joshua Tree tour at the Meadowlands in New York. Bono walked right past me on his way to the men's room in a restaurant the next day. I haven't washed that hand since. Ok, about the CD. How is it that Bono is still cool and cutting edge in his late 40's? 'Bomb' is once again storming the airwaves and re-defining American Music. The best part is Bono, The Edge and bassist Adam Clayton are Christians, so you won't find a cleaner disc. Bono once said, "every song I've ever written is about either God or my mother." With ten thumbs up, I highly recommend this disc.
Eminem / Encore / XXX
As the title would seem to suggest, it's just more of the same. Catchy riffs and quips laden with obscenities, derogatory and inflammatory statements designed to create controversy and money. It's all about the money. Give him your money, and he'll keep it up. To teens who think nothing of spending $15 on an Eminem disc and are cynical about putting money in the offering plate, I say, "Who you give your money to is who you want to continue doing what they're doing."
Gwen Stefani, Love, Angel, Music, Baby / X
As you know, I think Gwen Stefani is a closet Christian. Her themes and image are almost there, and she has enough talent to not have to rely on envelope pushing to be successful. On every record, however, there are a few things that seem to say - "Hold up! Gotta impress the cool and beautiful people at all costs!" On her first solo CD, Gwen takes an interesting angle. Almost every song is highly sarcastic. "What are you waiting for?" is a brilliant look inside her personal priority struggles, but she calls herself inappropriate derogatory names. On "Rich Girl" she sings about what money and fame has brought her, but it's so sarcastic that I'm afraid most fans will totally miss it and see her as materialistic and miss her message. The disc is ok for mature teens who can grasp sarcasm and adult concepts.
Wuggie Rants
Tobacco-makers know they can't fight the overwhelming evidence that smoking kills, so they shift the focus to a knee-jerk issue - money. Tobacco is a "crop" that helps fuel our economy, they say, so it would be disastrous to ban it. TV execs use similar logic to shift the focus from their programs' influence on young people (which is undeniably powerful) to a deeply held American value called creative freedom. In both cases, the goal is to distract our focus from the real issue-tobacco does kill people, and TV shows do influence moral behavior.
Another brick in the wall: Almost half (48%) of all tweenagers (ages 8 to 12) say they watch American Idol, and almost two-thirds (61 %) say they remember the commercials they saw while watching the show. According to a Buzzback Market Research study (www.buzzback.com), tweens remember ads they see on TV more than any other commercial medium. Almost three-quarters of kids (72%) say that when they see their favorite celebrity using a brand-name product, they want to use the same brand.
The obvious takeaway here is that it's not just a favorite star's soda preference that influences, but that star's apparent behavior, beliefs, and choices, too.
In a Wall Street Journal review of Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood, writer Meghan Cox Gurdon says, "If youthful innocence was once something that adults sought to cherish and protect, it is no more. Childhood itself has become a kind of battle-ground on which marketers race to plant the flag of their brand identity before a competitor can do it first."
Consuming Kids author Susan Linn writes, "Comparing the advertising of two or three decades ago to the commercialism that permeates our children's world today is like comparing a BB gun to a smart bomb." Linn quotes the former president of the retail chain Kids 'R' Us describing young people as brand slaves: "If you own this child at an early age, you can own this child for years to come. ..Companies are saying, 'Hey, I want to own the kid younger and younger and younger: "
When I was growing up, my mom limited my brother and I to 1 hour of TV watching a day. Period. By the time I was a teenager, my pattern had been set, and I hardly ever watched TV. My parents let me start setting my own TV watching patterns only after they were firmly in place under their guidance. I don't remember ever deviating substantially from those patterns, but if I did, I bet they'd have something to say about it.