Secular music and movies that are clean...need ideas!

[RachelleDrew]

So my new calling is going REALLY WELL. With the help of my YW president and the guidance of heavenly father we have been able to re-activate about six teenagers. They have become real gems in our YW/YM groups and are really excited about becoming temple worthy for the baptism trip this summer.

Here's the problem; most of these kids are being raised in a very secular environment. They were all baptized around the ages 8-10 and then became inactive almost immediately for whatever reason. Maybe I should re-phrase that. It's not a PROBLEM per se (i'm not bashing their parents, they have great moms and dads), but it means that they just have different standards regarding music and movies. They all have "For the Strength of Youth" pamphlets and understand that they shouldn't entertain themselves with media that contains a lot of violence, sex or foul language.

The issue is they don't know what to replace those things with. We tried some of the church-approved movies and music.....they just don't get it. I totally relate, I don't find stuff like "The Singles Ward" or whatever to be entertaining or funny. Trust me, i've bought almost every movie I could find at Deseret books.....those things are just terrible. The music is even worse.

It's one of those things that if you didn't grow up Mormon, you just may not "get it".

My YW president and I were talking, and we both know of a LOT of secular musicians and movies that maybe aren't LDS....but they are still clean and follow the standards of our church.

We are going to have a media standards night next month. We'll watch a couple of movies, and talk about how they DO have choices in what they listen to....they don't have to resort to lame music and movies just because they are trying to live righteously.

We want to make them a list of singers/bands that don't have references to sex or severe violence. No foul language is preferred, but considering what these kids are listening to now a couple of mild words are better than nothing. This way they have something to start with so they can research on their own and maybe find some good substitutions for the music they already listen to. We want to do the same thing with movies too. We have a pretty decent list, but can always use suggestions. Especially about country and rap music. Rap is just hard to find clean stuff anyway, and country music is hard for us to compile because neither of us listen to it so we have a hard time finding stuff. We both know that Taylor Swift is a decent choice, and the girls LOVE HER.

The movies are hard, because so often they have a rating of PG-13 and it's still pretty racy. You almost can't count on the warnings on the movie.

So any thoughts on some secular (and MODERN) choices that you think aught to be added? We've already introduced the girls to bands like Flyleaf (which they really like) and Paramore (which they also like) But not all of them like rock so we need some other choices.

Also, any websites that you guys use to help pick your music would be helpful too. We want to give these teens as many resources as we can.

[goofball]

Rudy is the first movie that popped in my head but since it is YW you are working with then probably not. I just typed in PG movies to google and one of the first links is to a site with 470 pg movies. After a quick glance, I see some decent movies there.

For music there is clean stuff out there it just takes some looking. Although I don't know if it is still the case, Walmart use to only sell CDs that were clean in language. For young people it means listening to the "trendy" stuff but without the language. However i do believe the Biblical swear words are fair game.

I am sure someone will soon come on this board and tell you to teach them how to chose a clean life and then the other stuff will come naturally. i absolutely agree with that statement but find that many people just need a push in the right direction and that includes showing them where to find the good stuff. Best of luck with that and if you are in desperate need I can give you more names of what i enjoy.

[RachelleDrew]

^I know what you mean about that statement. But it's absolutely an incorrect statement. When i first heard the counsel for clean media choices as a convert, I was completely at a loss. As somebody who didn't grow up LDS I had a hard time adjusting my choices.

Just telling someone what they SHOULDN'T do isn't nearly as effective as telling them what they SHOULD do. Especially teenagers who are going to argue certain church policies to death. : D

When I was a teenager, if someone had told me "you shouldn't listen to naughty music because the prophet says so" I would have been like "whatever".

But if someone had said "there are music choices that are cool AND uplifting, and here's some of them.." I would have been more apt to listen.

[Blackmarch]

So my new calling is going REALLY WELL. With the help of my YW president and the guidance of heavenly father we have been able to re-activate about six teenagers. They have become real gems in our YW/YM groups and are really excited about becoming temple worthy for the baptism trip this summer.

Here's the problem; most of these kids are being raised in a very secular environment. They were all baptized around the ages 8-10 and then became inactive almost immediately for whatever reason. Maybe I should re-phrase that. It's not a PROBLEM per se (i'm not bashing their parents, they have great moms and dads), but it means that they just have different standards regarding music and movies. They all have "For the Strength of Youth" pamphlets and understand that they shouldn't entertain themselves with media that contains a lot of violence, sex or foul language.

The issue is they don't know what to replace those things with. We tried some of the church-approved movies and music.....they just don't get it. I totally relate, I don't find stuff like "The Singles Ward" or whatever to be entertaining or funny. Trust me, i've bought almost every movie I could find at Deseret books.....those things are just terrible. The music is even worse.

It's one of those things that if you didn't grow up Mormon, you just may not "get it".

My YW president and I were talking, and we both know of a LOT of secular musicians and movies that maybe aren't LDS....but they are still clean and follow the standards of our church.

We are going to have a media standards night next month. We'll watch a couple of movies, and talk about how they DO have choices in what they listen to....they don't have to resort to lame music and movies just because they are trying to live righteously.

We want to make them a list of singers/bands that don't have references to sex or severe violence. No foul language is preferred, but considering what these kids are listening to now a couple of mild words are better than nothing. This way they have something to start with so they can research on their own and maybe find some good substitutions for the music they already listen to. We want to do the same thing with movies too. We have a pretty decent list, but can always use suggestions. Especially about country and rap music. Rap is just hard to find clean stuff anyway, and country music is hard for us to compile because neither of us listen to it so we have a hard time finding stuff. We both know that Taylor Swift is a decent choice, and the girls LOVE HER.

The movies are hard, because so often they have a rating of PG-13 and it's still pretty racy. You almost can't count on the warnings on the movie.

So any thoughts on some secular (and MODERN) choices that you think aught to be added? We've already introduced the girls to bands like Flyleaf (which they really like) and Paramore (which they also like) But not all of them like rock so we need some other choices.

Also, any websites that you guys use to help pick your music would be helpful too. We want to give these teens as many resources as we can.

I find a lot of movie music to be nice... I tend to go with anything nonlyrical.

Artists/Bands:

Marc Pattison

Manheim Steamroller

Paul Winters

Suzanne Ciani

Peter Maunu

Bjornne Lynn

Narada

Kurt Bestor

John Williams

James Horner

Hans Zimmer

Toto

Tangerine Dream

David Arkenstone

John Tesh

Kenny Loggins

Adiemus

Laura Powers

Kieko Matsui

BOND

STING

Masters of Chant

Joe Hisaishi

Sukay

Medieval Babes

Phil Collins

Ray Lynch

Albums/Titles

Take My Hand

Olias of Sunhillow

A warm sound in a grey field.

Fresh Aire 1-8

Valley in the Clouds

Childhood Remembered

Innovators/Innovation

Just a few off the top of my head... I've got gigabytes of stuff.. ill take a mosey thru.

[Gwen]

teach them to use sites like this one before going to or renting a movie... Dove Family Approved Videos, DVDs and Movies look up a few movies and see how they are set up, they give good specific rundowns on why they do or don't like it. i like them, find it very easy to get a good idea without spoiling the movie.

[RachelleDrew]

^Ah yes! I totally forgot about DOVE.

Also, Black I have several of the artists on your list. So I intend to check out the ones you have that I don't.

[Moksha]

Medieval Babes

Right on. They sound good, they look good and if we can't understand what they are singing then we should assume the lyrics are wholesome!

Who could find fault with the lyrics of Kitaro?

[WmLee]

I just shot pictures for a guy that is putting out a Christian music CD. I've listened to part of his music ( he wanted me to get an idea of his sound so we could shot a picture(s) that would fit the CD.

I had to do a little research to get an idea of just what other Christian (but not LDS) bands were doing, (how the CD covers looked) and how they present their material. The music isn't bad, it isn't what I would listen to, but it has the beat and all that kids seem to like.

So, my question is, does it have to be LDS? Why not use music that sells as Christian Gospel Rock?

As for movies, we have gone through a company called "Clean Flix" (I hope I remember that correctly). They have taken the movies and cleaned them up. We were able to get a few movies for my son last Christmas that normally wouldn't have made it had the company not taken out some language problems.

[RachelleDrew]

^No, in fact i'm NOT looking for music that is LDS. I guess I didn't make that clear enough in my OP, sorry!

I am looking for secular music and movies...not LDS or even trinitarian Christian. I already know those are clean, and it's not what i'm looking for anyway. But thanks for the idea about Clean Flix! I didn't know such a thing existed!

[Gwen]

ok so i listen to country music and since you mentioned it i've been thinking on it. gonna be hard to pick an artist and say all the music is going to be "good". i have the artists i like and most of their stuff is good but it's country music. there will be the drinking songs, part of the deal. lol

i could name some individual songs if you like.

[RipplecutBuddha]

There's Liquid Tension Experiment, which is a pretty heavy instrumental group, but good stuff. Another instrumental artist would be Jesse Cook. He's really good, and my mother *loves* his stuff.

[Carl62]

Five bands that I can think of off the top of my head that have awesomely positive lyrics are Creed, Vertical Horizon, Evanescence, U2, and Collective Soul. An interesting fact that people didn't know about Collective Soul is that all of them are Christians who just happened to form a rock band, yet they didn't want to fall under the banner of being called a Christian rock band. The reason is is that they wanted to take their music with their positive messages to the people who they thought would actually benefit from it more(secular people/FM radio) as opposed to the people who they thought needed it less (Christians). I don't know if any of your YM/YW are into The Beatles but for those who are, check out the Christian rock group Pray For Rain (their last couple of albums they went just by PFR). They are an absolutely incredible band who sound VERY much like The Beatles. Can't recommend them enough. Good luck to you.

Edited March 4, 2010 by Carl62

[Blackmarch]

Right on. They sound good, they look good and if we can't understand what they are singing then we should assume the lyrics are wholesome!

Who could find fault with the lyrics of Kitaro?

?

havent found anything wrong with the ones that are in english. but then again I only have 3-5 of their songs perhaps they were the exception.

Haven't listened to kitaro I htink... cept maybe a drum session- tho i can't remember if it was kitaro or kintaro.

[Blackmarch]

some more good oldies that I enjoy that are pretty clean-

Alan Parsons Project

Moody Blues

I've also enjoyed the pieces i've heard from ERA

[Jamie123]

some more good oldies that I enjoy that are pretty clean-

Alan Parsons Project

Moody Blues

I've also enjoyed the pieces i've heard from ERA

Yep - I'm quite a fan of Alan Parsons Project.

[RachelleDrew]

Good thoughts so far everybody.

I wish there was a site like DOVE for music. That would make it so much easier.

[Gwen]

awhile back i saw an interview with a group that was doing reviews of music. they were evaluating it based on how healthy it would be for a relationship. i tried looking for it to see what they had. couldn't find it.

[Gwen]

oh try this site, just came across it so not sure if i can say i agree with how they review but worth a look.... Kids Music - Review and Ratings - Common Sense Media

looking it over they seem to have a bit lower standard than me. lol

maybe this one is better? Music Reviews | Plugged In Online

Edited March 4, 2010 by Gwen

[Gwen]

i think i like the second site better.....