Media questions

There will be many conflicts among any answers you get here. The first thing people will quibble over is 'what constitutes alternative rock?'

Whether the messages recieved from any form of music are positive or negative is down to the individuals emotional make up, and what they consider to be positive. Alt rock generally, as does prog rock, indicate a an ability to think for oneself, and not be lured by 'herd mentality'. You could argue that it therefore leads to being isolationist, but I disgaree, and that would be a huge generalisation.

No music leads to deaths and suicides without something pretty negative happening in the background. I'm not a psychologist, but I would imagine that teenage suicides, high school shootings etc are not down to Marilyn Manson (for example) but bad parenting and living will all manner of unreasonable pressures and expectations being put on the individual.

As an aside, I would say that mainstream hip hop is more synonomous with killing, drugs death and misery than any form of rock music.

I think you may have come to the wrong forums but I'll give your questions a go.

1.Taking a literal meaning of the word "alternative", it could be anything your not likely to find in the charts, so prog rock would fit that description perfectly. However i think that the term gets used much more to describe Indie bands, though I'm no expert on these and maybe wrong. 

2.No, as Blacksword mentioned above, Gangsta' rap is much more likely to have a negative influence through its glorification of the gangsta life style (horrible term). But it is all down to how the indavidual interprets te lyrics that he/she hears.

3. I honestly wouldnt have a clue, I take no notice of what the musicians are wearing (as long as they are wearing clothes) but more on what they are playing.

4. No, I think its more down to the mental state of the indavidual and the lifes that they lead, and what everyone else thinks/expects of/from them.

Hpe this helps. 

steve12 wrote: 4. Do you think alternative rock could be responsible for deaths or suicides?

Yes, but it would only provide as a catalyst. Those already showing signs of instability might find something in a song lyric to justify their already present suicidal tendancies. A well-balanced individual isn't looking to "off" themselves, thus would not take song lyrics to heart.    

Much appreciate the replies thankyou, they are very helpful. Question 4 is a very debatable question. I feel when young teenagers home lives are bad, their parents don't treat them right and have no future to look forward too, the only thing they enjoy is their music, therefore the message they recieve in their music can help them to decide what they want to do, sometimes that decision can be suicide.