i see you SC - i've read morgan's "roost" a couple times - about 3/4th of that book is underlined!
i do think her points are valid on this topic (as she is about 80% of the time, we can PM on that other 20%). black men i think have the most depression no one talks about. however i can see how this can be taken out of context and twisted to prove a point that's not really there.
for example, one of my textbooks claims that rap music is used as a tough exterior to overexert masculinity. now, my textbook says more or less, its passed down angst of the slave mentality and degradation of a black man as a man (ie. being offensively called "boy" among other things). my professor, as a typical over-educated white man, takes it to the extreme, saying, "well you know, its been proven that rap is a cover up for male homosexuality, and its not really talked about openly, so rappers, typically black men, express themselves through rapping and more often than not, are masking a sexual identity they themselves may not want to admit or know how to express."
so while everyone is nodding their heads and scribbling notes (the girl next to me in her margins paraphrased it to "black men-rap-gay?", im like,
ok, so i know i went off-topic, but the point i made (and am trying to get to here) was, cant this reasoning be applied to grunge of the early 90s? or heavy metal? or emo? or pretty much any type of lyrics that commonly talk of alcohol and other drug use, suicide, depression, death, and violence?
his response: well, that can be attributed more to teenage angst...blah blah blah
one big
to that. carry on yall.