> good music has cuss words
I think he's pretty much on the money - depending on how you interpret it. I assume that by music, the boy means a tune with spoken or sung words rather than instrumental music. Children we know love deft lyrical constructions, particularly ones which are witty, outlandish and rhythmic. And everybody knows at least one 'dirty nursery rhyme' or perverse corruption of an original - so why is it so surprising, or disturbing that kids like Eminem? Wordsworth tried to convince his readers of the honesty of 'everyday language' but apparently many weren't listening. If, for example, hiphop offends though, it's because it's not meant for everyone, it captivates though realistic portrayals of certain groups of society. A Viennese waltz or N’SYNC will offend me, because to me its heartless, soulless, unfeeling tripe.
If I'm not mistaken 'cuss' comes from 'curse' which has strong religious ties. It's interesting that now, much the same as the time of the ethnic bias imposed by the conquerors of 11th century England, the Latin word 'faeces' and the French 'poop' are considered fine, whereas the Anglish 'shit' is still 'crude and vulgar'. The idea of 'cussing' represents something which is adversarial in nature, something about which one wishes to express strong feelings of opposition. This stance is intrinsic to hiphop often seen as the vent and outlet for young male aggression. If we take the role-model heroine Brittany Spears as a counter example, one's got ask: Is a man talking about a young girl dressed up like a 'hoe' worse than a girl doing exactly that for money and being idolised by her impressionable peers? In such a well-documented society of repression as the U.S. there will always be backlash against swear words which, in turn, gives their usage credence and effect - but talk about double standards! In time we will realise that that which we regard as 'strong language' is above all a product social conditioning and that even the worst bloody[sic] swear words fade into the mush of standard vocab eventually. Some country boy who is now 'the king' was considered a danger to society once, and now 'the most dangerous threat to American children since polio' (GWB) is Eminem! Well funk that!
