Amonth ago I wrote a column stating my belief that another riot would likely break out over Halloween. Though the relatively peaceful crowd of 100,000 proved me wrong, I'm only willing to admit a partial error'over the last several weeks, France has picked up our slack admirably.
With over 3,000 arrests and a Truck-a-saurus-esque number of cars torched, most citizens of France have pointed to racism and political and economic inequality as catalysts for the riots sweeping the country's poor suburbs. Members of the French Parliament, however, have singled out a different cause: rap music.
Francios Grosdidier, a member of France's ruling conservative party has filed a petition to bring legal action against seven of the country's popular rap acts, claiming their lyrics helped lead to the past month of violence.
This isn't the first time French rappers have faced sanction over their lyrics, but bringing specific accusations against them would seem ridiculous and unprecedented, if not for the last fifteen years of ridiculous accusations.
And just like in baseball and two party elections, the United States has led the way in pointing the finger at popular music.
In 1990, British Metal icons'and representatives of all things leather'Judas Priest were brought to Nevada courtrooms over a suit alleging subliminal messages in one of their songs caused the suicide attempts of two fans. Finding absolutely no evidence for such a claim, the judge threw out the case.
As the band famously noted, if they were to actually put subliminal messages in songs, they would more likely say 'Buy more of our records.'
Just two years later a more heated controversy sprung up around the Body Count song 'Cop Killer.' Written as a response to police brutality and released on the band's self-titled debut shortly before the officers involved in the Rodney King beating were acquitted, public anger at the lyrics escalated to the point where Warner Bros. executives were receiving death threats.
When the record company decided to drop the track from the album, a chastened Ice T was forced to wonder how the public could so quickly turn on the man who once penned 'Treat Your Mother Right' for Mr. T's instructional video, 'Be Somebody or Be Somebody's Fool.'
Perhaps most famous of all was the media backlash that followed the Columbine High School shootings, which saw every artist from Marilyn Manson to Insane Clown Posse coming under scrutiny for writing songs that allegedly drove the shooters over the edge.
While artists brought to court in the United States have always had the safeguard of the First Amendment as protection, rappers named in Grosdidier's petition could face fairly serious repercussions, given that France's free speech laws are not as iron-clad as America's.
Before any of that is to happen however, the measure would have to receive more support than it currently has, and Grosdidier will likely be fighting an uphill battle with his country's youth, given his almost total lack of mad rhyme skills.
In troubled times such as these, I find it's best to go back to the words of comedian Brian Posehn: 'Music doesn't make people violent. Bad music makes people violent. For example: Nickelback makes me want to kill Nickelback.'
God help the Counting Crows.
