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Influence Of Music And Dance

Music and Dance are good things, but done in the wrong way they can lead to a path of sin.

The Book of Mormon shows how one 'group' of people was influenced by the wrong kind of music to the point where they would even kill...

1 Nephi 18:9
And after we had been driven forth before the wind for the
space of many days, behold, my brethren and the sons of Ishmael
and also their wives began to make themselves merry, insomuch
that they began to dance, and to sing, and to speak with much
rudeness, yea, even that they did forget by what power they had
been brought thither; yea, they were lifted up unto exceeding
rudeness.

Have you ever seen someone in good standing simply put on a walkman or watch MTV and then have a totally different attitude all of a sudden? Remember, Satan works very cunningly.

Dance Music Influence

JB I don't understand your interpretation of this scripture with music itself...just because they were dancing and singing it doesn't mean the music was bad music...you see...in the first part of the scripture it says " they began to make themselves merry", the word 'merry' have two meanings in the scriptures: gladness/joy and also light-mindness, of course this second one was the correct one in this scripture. Then it says they started to talk with much rudeness "that they did forget by what power they had been brought thither", they showed once again lack of humility and they forgot the things God did for them. Now, I don't personally see the relevance on the music here, maybe you could expand a bit more so I can understand it. Thanks.

Influence Of Music And Dance Studies Doctrine Mormon

Okay, let me go over it in more depth so you can see my perspective.

First of all I am sure it started well...

And after we had been driven forth before the wind for the
space of many days, behold, my brethren and the sons of Ishmael
and also their wives began to make themselves merry...

It was a 'gladness' for having overcome their tribulation, and like everyone else they began to celebrate. However, their merriment went to far...

...insomuch that they began to dance, and to sing, and to speak with much rudeness,

They began to dance and sing (music) and this probably went to the stage of dancing with girations or lewed behavior that would be considered rude, but this is not just simple music and just playing, it went so far that...

...yea, even that they did forget by what power they had
been brought thither; yea, they were lifted up unto exceeding
rudeness.

Okay so the rudness becomes 'exceeding'. In my mind's eye what could be 'exceeding' rudeness? No need to get descriptive here, but I am sure there might have been physical touching and / or acts.

My point was it started as a simple 'celebration', then music and dancing was added that made them forget the Lord. If the music and dancing was goodly do you think this would happen? The music should have been praising the Lord, but I am sure it was not anything about praising the Lord. Then it went to rudeness...

Now think about it. Have you ever seen an MTV video? What do you see? Women dressed very provocatively, they girate and talk about sex, money, power, etc. while making it all seem normal. That is the danger of where the wrong kind of music can carry you.

Dance Music Influence

I think it is Hugh Nibley who discussed this from other ancient documents, probably the Book of Enoch or Jasher. It seems that Adam's righteous posterity lived on a plateau, and the unrighteous lived somewhere else. The unrighteous ones (the Sons of Man) wanted to corrupt the righteous (the Sons of God) and began to play seductive music at the base of the plateau, which enticed some of the Sons of God to come and join. Then, the Daughters of Man seduced these Sons of God.

It is quite obvious that music, dance, and other arts can have a deadening, seductive aspect.

Having said that, my favorite music is Led Zeppelin, along with Bach, Beethovan, the Who, and Styx. I can't stand any other "heavy metal" music such as AC/DC, Black Sabbath, etc, nor do I like the Stones or a lot of the other "popular" rock'n'roll. I find Zeppelin and the Who to generally be very complex, beautiful music, and the lyrics are almost always quite clean. There are others I like, but would not be interested in buying their music (I do have Lynard Skynard, but that was just to get one song).

I grew up in the time when most church leaders (at least on the local level) absolutely condemned all rock music. My dad always forbad me to listen to it, and made fun of the remarkable music of the late 60's such as Three Dog Night. It wasn't until just a few years ago that I began to learn how melodic some of it really is.

Now, Laman and Lemuel may have been using dance music that had a strong, seductive beat (similar to a lot of currently popular music) that entices one to dance "rudely".

And, you can bet that when youth get into that type of music, it leads to the wrong things. Been there, done that, have the scars to show for it.

NightHawk