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As I grew in my Jewish self I've started to be very weary of the people I surround myself with and (right now way more importantly) the people I want to surround myself in the future. Same can be said about movies and music.

Lets say there is a song with a nice beat, a catchy melody. The group that performs this song is obviously gay, 'liberal'/western and spits on the value of Torah with their appereance (men with lip stick and piercings, women with immodest clothes) and their behaviours and views on life. Or another example: a cool hip-hop rap song with a cool melody that just 'pumps' you up, makes you feel energized. Puts you in a time or place mentally which you just feel good. The problem is: the lyrics contain a lot of negative words. Like I'm with haShem mentally and suddenly I hear the word 'bi***' or 'f***' through my headphones.

What are the implications of listening to such kind of music? On one hand, it makes me feel awesome. On the other hand, it is indecent to hear those words while thinking about Him. I'm just like 'If they would only replace those particular words...'.

Obviously this never happens with instrumental orchestral music which also fills me with joy.

mbloch
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Ilja
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    Try pumpin' up some of DeScribe's glatt kosher joints on your Alpine while out cruising or just plain chillin' with your haverim, Mack Daddy! No nasty words on his tracks! Check 'em out on YouTube. – Gary Nov 28 '18 at 02:09
  • @Gary The same can be said for quite a few non-Jewish artists; no nasty words on (some/most/all of) their tracks. So essentially, the only difference between, say, Imagine Dragons and DeScribe is the former isn’t Jewish the latter is. Thence, the q would be: Is it OK to listen to non-Jewish singers? IAE, seems like OP realizes (constant) hearing of nivul peh tugs at one’s spiritual sensitivity and level. There are other outlets. (If that’s all OP is asking for I wonder if that’s off topic for MY.SE.) – Oliver Nov 28 '18 at 02:54
  • Maybe some of these can help lift your spirits with kosher music? – mbloch Nov 28 '18 at 03:40
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    related on MY: Sources For Listening To/Not Listening to Non-Jewish Music and Are Jews allowed to listen to music that is performed by non-Jew? – mbloch Nov 28 '18 at 03:42
  • relevant outside links: https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/568482/jewish/Is-there-any-issue-with-listening-to-non-Jewish-music.htm - https://www.yeshiva.co/ask/?id=6495 - https://shulchanaruchharav.com/halacha/goyishe-music-listening-to-music-of-gentile/ – mbloch Nov 28 '18 at 03:43
  • There's a BIG difference between DeScribe and Imagine Dragons in terms of the music getting you (or as the OP writes)"being with haShem mentally." The q to me doesn't appear to be about Jewish or non-Jewish artists, but the content. After all, Necro is a Jewish artist, but I woult NOT want to listen to "Tough Jew" or virtually anything else he performs in polite company(or by myself, for that matter). Then again, you have(had, actually) the Beastie Boys, who were good artists IMHO but there was a lot of cursing and nonspiritual stuff, for sure. – Gary Nov 28 '18 at 03:47
  • Necro's "Tough Jew" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGSWEOZRTh4 some of the younger folks here might like it Parental Warning-Bad words! Nice pics of Katz's Deli, though! – Gary Nov 28 '18 at 03:55
  • @Gary I understand it’s about content, that’s why I pointed to ID; their content is clean. But more critical, I’m not even sure what OP’s question is. If OP is looking for (Jewish?) content that makes him “being with Hashem mentally” that’s kinda off-topic, I think. (FYI, Lead vocalist of Disturbed is a former Yeshiva boy; here & there he has nice [clean] content, though Gene Simmons from Kiss is an ex-chassid and doesn’t have you “being with Hashem”. OTOH, contemporaries like The Fray, The Script or Placebo, who are all non-Jewish, can put you in that mental state.) Again, what’s the q? – Oliver Nov 28 '18 at 04:05
  • @Oliver, the question at hand as I understand it is "What are the implications of listening to such kind [= exciting, with foul language] of music?". – msh210 Nov 28 '18 at 04:22
  • @msh210 So IOW, OP is asking if there is anything halachically wrong with listening to music/words that are “indecent” (something that OP seems to already be aware of)? – Oliver Nov 28 '18 at 04:28
  • @Oliver, I'm not sure, and this question should probably be closed to answers until its author clarifies, so he doesn't get answers he's not seeking. To me it sounds more like he's asking for such music's effect on his soul. But he's pretty clearly not seeking a list of better choices of what to listen to, to which question some of the comments above responded. – msh210 Nov 28 '18 at 04:31
  • ...love some of Necro's lyrics, though--"on Yom Yippur or Rosh Hashana never talk lashon hara or you get your mouth stuffed with maror"... – Gary Nov 28 '18 at 16:12

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