Local activist, author and musician Theodore McClendon sat on the panel and said the music industry should be called to the task of bringing back live bands, real musicians and performers who sing edifying lyrics.
“Replace ‘slop-hop’ with jazz, fusion, classical music, the spirit of Motown,” he said. “I never allowed slop-hop to be played in my car when I took my children to school. They were educated on the values of music. Music is the deepest form of expression that can get into a person’s psyche,” he said.
Fellow panelist Jerry Crisler, 20, of Gary, is a spoken word artist and part of the Arise Group Organization in Gary. He said he wants to be a part of the youth who make changes in music. And while he knows his positive messages are not considered popular, he won’t let that stop him.
“If we cannot respect each other, how can we expect others to respect us?” he said.
The Rev. Vera Johnson of 5th Avenue United Methodist Church, and Phillip Jackson, of the Black Star Project in Chicago, struck the same chord with their sentiments on rap and hip-hop
“We can say take it away, but they will download the songs to their iPods or computers,” Jackson said. “What do you give back to them? We cannot make this an us-against-our-children movement. We cannot blame our children for the environment they are put in. We as adults have to set examples,” Jackson said.