What? No, that music was evil! We even have first-party testimony to that fact!
He went missing in Michigan and was found in New Orleans. That’s quite a walkabout.
When I took AP US History in 1999, the teacher noted that that year was the first time they would be teaching up to Watergate. If the same kind of lag time is in effect now, then today’s 11th graders should be finishing up the school year by learning about the Clinton impeachment.
I recall I was somewhere in my late teens before I could keep straight the difference between the Korean War and Vietnam War, because they weren’t so much as mentioned in school so I only ever heard of them by osmosis. And I knew even less about World War I; I mainly knew of it because World War II was numbered.
In context of the OP mentioning “Styx” and “Teh Rock Music” and “when AC/DC came through town,” my first read of your post was, wait, they went after JRR Tolkien and Huey Lewis?
My daughter was born in 1985, so I missed all this. But I do remember the Paul is Dead story in '60s, including:
To further fuel the flames, in the 1967 single, “Strawberry Fields”, Lennon is supposedly heard saying “I buried Paul” in the last section of the song, admitting to the death of his friend. Lennon would later say that was actually muttering the words ‘cranberry sauce’ in the background.
Yet another tempest in a teapot.
Most experts in the field believe that the Salem witch trials were triggered by ergotism, caused by eating contaminated rye.
Yeah, Huey Lewis and the News got on some religious “S” lists because of this song, which was written by Bruce Hornsby and actually bashes TV preachers.
That almost seems quaint after the crap thats going around now!
Do you have a cite for that? The book is still packed away, but a section from Beasts Within- A History Of The Werewolf address and disproves (with cites and everything) the idea that delusions of lycanthropy were caused by ergot poisoning. He also cites folk tales and other things showing that ergot poisoning was a known hazzard and its symptoms were recognized. IIRC Ergot poisoning was called Saint Anthony’s Fire (No, I am not thinking of Saint Elmo’s Fire).
One of the few times the sequel was better than the original.
That was an idea that gained some popularity in the 60s and 70s, but has since been rejected by most historians. Ergotism, or St. Anthony’s Fire, and was something Europeans had been aware of for centuries and didn’t usually lead to witch trials. It just doesn’t explain the near 200 people who were accused of witchcraft and the 19 people who were executed. Most historians these days focus on the ongoing conflicts between those living in Salem Village and those living in Salem Town. These folks couldn’t even keep a minister around for more than a few years.
Interesting thread. I vaguely remember reading about this as a news story with the phrases “mass hysteria”, and “planted memories” being prominent, and that it concerned gullible Christian conservatives (i.e. fools). Had nothing to do with me or mine and as was said, there were a lot of important events like the Iran Iraq war, Reagan. AIDS was the main thing I remember in that period, I was living in San Francisco and my friends were dying. Chernobyl, Gorbachev … Apparently Satanism was a big deal for some people. Who knew.
I had a similar experience.
My brother came down with HIV/AIDS and I vaguely recall some news and brief discussions about the hysteria. But it did not impact me other than that.
Yeah, the story line of season 4 of Stranger Things is about as close an homage to the satanic panic crapola of the 80s as you can get.
I was in high school during that period. I thought it was rather interesting that in my combined American history/American literature class we dove pretty deeply into Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and Miller’s The Crucible and, looking back I suspect that was not the least bit coincidental. Those teachers were smart and innoculated us students against the “Witchcraft” hysteria, teaching us to see how such stupidity is leveraged as tools for social and political gain.
Those who have seen my earlier posts know that bitching and grumbling about Ronnie Reagan and his Regime [Hey! Band name!] is one of my persistent themes. This will be no different:
A biography of the Gipper emphasizes how much he disliked the 60’s movement, not just because of what he perceived as disloyal anti-war/anti-government sentiments, but also because it included a strong current of exploring alternatives to Christianity. There is also no secret that, in order to gain votes in the Deep South (which had previously voted heavily anti-Republican after the deal that ended Reconstruction), he made a deal to promote Christian Agendas [yeah, like the 1500 denominations all have a singular list they agree on] if they would rally and help him win the White House. And the fact is that he made good on that promise. He got the office and the previously poorly-known Moral Majority became the new fad. Their pet peeves:
- Pornography – because enjoying sex is evil. Reagan had the goverment spend money on the Meese Commission, a hand-picked collection of ‘experts’ who drew lines of causality between pornography and crime – particularly crimes like sexual abuse of children# and rape – in stark contrast to prior independent studies which had reached very different conclusions.
- Rock and Roll Music (at least since John Lennon’s provocative statement if not harkening back to the time of Elvis Presly and Jerry Lee Lewis) because it inspires teen-age rebellion and sexually suggestive dancing$, and
- Dungeons and Dragons because it features not just creatures from non-Christian mythologies but detailed descriptions of heroes and even deities from non-Christian mythologies – some even shown in a positive light! And sometimes the plots of those interactive tales ended* with the evil side winning! How DARE they???
In the 1980’s I enjoyed D&D and Heavy Metal Music and I was too young to buy those magazines anyway. I played D&D (well, actually AD&D from 2nd edition onward) and it was basically shared storytelling; let’s imagine and pretend with a layer of numbers and statistics to keep the imaginative side from getting too far out of control. I enjoyed one of the newest fads in music, too. Heavy Metal had its roots in the 1960’s (the phrase is often said to have originated in Steppenwolf’s Born To Be Wild but really became a screaming-guitar-based phenomenal genre of its own with improvements to the distortion pedal and was a very welcome shift away from the early synthesizers and 2/4 or 4/4 drum-tracks of Disco). A retrospective of the format (c.f. a nice documentary called The History of Metal Music if you can find it) actually suggests the recurring themes in Heavy Metal are ultimately very pro-Christian, with warnings about how horrible the evil side is and how much one should seek the shelter of The Church. It’s a great paradigm for those who believe; it says nothing to those who have alternate beliefs or haven’t bought-into the mythology.
Ultimately, though, it has been my impression that the History curriculum allowed in modern schools in the USA tends to fall short of the 1950’s (and some would have it stop before the Civil War). World War I is often used to brag about America’s strong morals, how it heeded the call of international alliances and contributed to make a major difference in the War to End All Wars. World War II further demonstrates the USA’s ability to swiftly retask its industries and, once again, make critical contributions in the efforts to stomp out totalitarian racist populism in a facist despot@.
But then began the Cold War, the Soviet Union on one side, the United States on the other side, and “everyone else” caught in the middle. And the nationalists would rather stop the historical timeline than tell kids the USA did morally-questionable things while waging that war.
–G!
Well, of course. The PMRC was Tipper Gore’s creation in response to (as part of) the panic about Satanic lyrics in 1980’s music (particularly Heavy Metal). In a biography Al’s political career, it’s mentioned that Al was encouraged to ask Tipper to tone it down lest music censorship become her planned social cause as Second Lady. His advisors feared it would become a joke undermining his campaign efforts. That, of course, wasn’t what became the joke of his campaigning efforts…
–G
*This, I suggest, is really a matter of reading deficiency. When you are taught to read and cite passages out of context and even out-of-order, you can make an argument to justify anything – even incest, slavery, and genocide – or condemn anything else. When you learn to read multiple chapters and even multiple volumes in a series, the ability to comprehend a much wider picture promotes a much deeper understanding of nuance, themes, and patterns.
$I always thought the themes, lyrics, and music of the Disco lifestyle were more sleazy than Rock-n-Roll, but that was mostly just from a kid’s perception of the songs on the radio during the height of the Disco era.
#We’ll come back to this again, later. It turned out that unbiased public didn’t care all that much about musical trends, kids’ imagination games, or even nudity in print or film. But what the public couldn’t stomach, regardless of political or religious tendencies, was abuse (sexual or otherwise) of children. Quickly enough, everything the right-wing wanted was promoted in the name of ‘protecting the children.’
@Ah! But why, then, is our current nation embracing racism, facism, and a populist totalitarian who is eager to become a despot? I don’t have an answer for you.
I’m a little younger than you, but it had no significant impact on my life either. I had a babysitter who wouldn’t let me watch Thundercats because she thought it was Satanic. I also had a 6th grade teacher who saw my copy of the AD&D B-2 module, The Keep on the Borderlands, and said something like “I don’t think you’re supposed to have that in school.” but she didn’t really seem to care otherwise. My parents used to jokingly ask, “Are you going to be playing your Satanic games at your friend’s house?” and I’d answer yes.
As someone that graduated HS in the mid/late 80s, you’ve articulated a lot of what I have thought, but also expanded on how far reaching it was. I lived through all this and had some direct connections to the experiences of the "anti"s of the time. I was the most un-rebellious teen of the time, but I still rebelled. My spiky hair, and then mullet, never got to offensive lengths, I barely inhaled (DARE helped me on that regard…jk), and I only D&D’s with wholesome folks. Satan was always just a short-step behind me but I prevailed.
What an odd time.
As some here have alluded, the US* has had a number of moral panics, and there’s maybe 1-4 ongoing right now (trans-panic definitely has all of the hallmarks, then take your pick of woke, antivax and, of course, communism / socialism depending on how you define moral panic).
So I think it would be a good idea if the concept gets covered at some point, using any historical example. Actually I would put it like this: as packed as the syllabus undoubtedly is, it would definitely be in the US’ long-term benefit to allow some space for teaching critical thinking, and the satanic panic could be a good example of the opposite, and the consequences.
* Of course these panics happen everywhere. But, sorry to say it, but I think among developed countries the US seems uniquely affected.
The teaching of critical thinking is precisely what those in power don’t want. This nasty little game has worked before and they want it to work again.