The best music . . . is essentially there to provide you something to face

the world with.

—Bruce Springsteen

Music can change the world.

—Ludwig van Beethoven

Most of these statements I agree with. The music I listen to does indeed have a profound effect on the way I think but viewed by society that effect is bad. What about the effect the news has on an uninformed person or the effect on a non-believer from a religious environment?  I’m just about sick of hearing passive aggressive people trying to tell me that “those thuggish rappers have a negative effect on you” when science is just as graphic, history is just as corrupted and violent and English: more books have been banned from bookstores then a Biggie, Jay-Z or 2pac CDs from music shelves. Maybe the music exposes me to drugs, but it doesn’t put me on the corner or behind bars. The music may expose me to murder and violence, but it doesn’t make me a killer or a violent person. The music I’ve surround myself with may display women in a very derogatory way, but it doesn’t make me a womanizer, a women beater, a pimp, or even addicted to sex. So all in all, I’d like freedom to experience a musical environment with no criticism or even opinions.