Shelbyville Times-Gazette: One sub-genre is a very real threat.

There has not been as much media panic on the Asa Coon case compared to earlier cases like Columbine. I suppose with the sheer number of school shootings recently (see list) it has been difficult to hold onto the "goth" killer sterotype but some manage it:

Posted today: Shelbyville Times-Gazette: Story : Column by David Melson:

I ran across a 1958 newspaper story last week in which teenagers surveyed thought rock music would last until at least 1963. I'd imagine some of those teens are still rockin' today.

A small minority thought rock music would be a menace to society and were concerned, even then, with lyrics. One girl said she listened to lyrics before buying because she didn't want obscenity in her home. Ah, the innocence of the 1950s.

She's in her mid-60s today if still alive. Wonder what she thought about the teen in Cleveland who went on a shooting rampage in his high school a few weeks ago? The boy, who was into Goth and dressed in all-black, had told friends he was a Marilyn Manson follower and didn't believe in God.

Maybe that "small minority" mentioned were more insightful than anyone realized.

I don't think rock overall hurts at all, but one sub-genre is a very real threat. Gothic/death/doom metal has been cited as an interest of too many of those involved in school shootings. These groups have lead "singers" who yell, not sing, in guttural bellows and, if they can even be understood, are muttering anti-Christian thoughts. Check out some of their lyrics online and be ready for a shock.

Rock's always been about rebellion. But this goes too far. I'm normally not into censorship, and I realize freedom of anyone to post anything on the Internet would prevent any real stoppage of death metal. But record companies, at least, should reconsider what they're releasing.

Oddly another column in a Candanian paper disagrees: The Republic of East Vancouver - Your completely biased news source since 2000:

"To see teenagers in goth, punk or grunge get-ups trudging up the street is to see another response that is, in fact, exactly the same response: all we have left, apparently, is reprise of the past, the only difference being one response reaches a bit further back than the other. Predictably, the goth, punk and grunge types, appearing to be so angry at the world, are usually among the most polite, thoughtful and caring young people you can meet. They’re all Sid neo-Vicious the same way the politically active Christian fundamentalists are all neo-conservative. "