I listen to all types of music, but upon returning to faith, I wonder if it's wrong (for want of a better word) to listen to certain types of music, with lyrics that might be too worldly. Thing is, a lot of hip hop and dance music is really fun and has a great beat...so, it's hard to turn it off, sometimes. lol
If you are religious, do you think there is anything wrong with listening to secular hip hop music, or secular music in general?
This is a bit tough for me. First, I'm spiritual more than religious. Second, I like a lot of variety in music. I see music as universal endeavor and does at times explain things better than say science, religion, philosophy, mathematics. It has power to unify people, bringing them together for enjoyment and a sense of enlightenment.
With lyrics, I do sometimes think that authors of songs aren't actually aware of what they are conveying. I don't actually expect that as part of arts is having it be open to different interpretations. I also think that some lyricists are not actually aware of what the song is about, and are essentially just scribes. I've heard too often of a lyricist saying "it all just came to me in one sitting. Took me 5 minutes to write this." Which if the song is about nothing important might seem like obvious that it only took short while to write it. Yet, some songs (no examples off top of my head, sorry) that are very moving, are in that vein. I also convey this as a poet (written well over 500) where some are clearly crafted by me, while others just spilled out as if I was 'automatic writing.'
I do overlay lots of spirituality in songs. In many songs, I find it hard not to do this, even if lyricist may claim otherwise. Most of the time, artists don't do this and let it be whatever it is for their audience.
As you brought up hip hop, which I enjoy, I see a whole bunch of it that is popular and is spiritual, but not overly so. Obviously something like Common's G.O.D. is overtly spiritual, but an album like Cee-Lo Green's "Perfect Imperfections" are more subtle. Same goes with Grandmaster Flash's "The Message." Or same with Outkast's "Liberation." All that, minus The Message, might be closer to neo-soul than hip hop, but labels schmabels. Songs like, "911 Is A Joke" (by PE), or "Just Don't Bite It" (NWA), or even "Rapper's Delight" (SHG) aren't so easy to discern a spiritual type message, nor do I seek that when listening to them.
With that said, I do think some music's lyrics do present a slightly wrong view of life if coming at the art from desire to uphold spiritual/religious convictions. I see it as entertainment, and rather easy to take with a grain of salt as if this isn't how actually I'll live my life. But that is just downplaying the spiritual perspective. Frankly though, I see the same thing in so called "religious" forms of entertainment or art. And I generally take that with grain of salt. Like a spiritual book or movie where key part of narrative is about a character (could be written as non-fiction) is said to interact with divine being is what makes it spiritual, probably why I am choosing to read/watch it. But there could be a whole lot of time spent on some secular items pertaining to that character, all of which I take with grain of salt. It may entertain me, but may also not be my cup of tea what that character chose to do at that stage of life.
I also see what another in this thread said which is using metaphors or anti-hero type characters to convey certain messages in a way that might not be readily graspable if said more directly. Like "I Shot The Sheriff" or "Major Tom" or thousands of other songs. Pink Floyd's "The Wall" being one big huge metaphorical narrative that is not positive, but consistently hits me in a spot of artistic expression that I find brilliant and worthy of revisiting for deeper meaning.
). Today I can play "what song/artist is this" with the best (as long as it's rock and metal - with rap I'm lost if it's not old school rap, and I can identify a few country artists and songs).