A number of bloggers are talking about the latest music bans in the Chareidi community.

I was babysitting some of my Chareidi relatives last week in Bnei Brak, when I heard the worst rap music (in Hebrew) coming from the kids room.

The 7 year old is listening to this (for lack of a better word) garbage on the family CD player. I start listening to the words, and it's Jewish! It's some T'fillah or another that was turned into a rap. Not just any rap, but an angry, aggressive rap.

I was thinking to myself, is this a generation gap? Do I not like this music because I don't like rap, or is it just meaningless angry garbage that dares to call itself music?

The song ended, and the kid comes out of the room and starts talking to his siblings. And wouldn't you know it, he was talking to the beat of the rap, and he sounded really angry and aggressive (and this is not a kid that normally talks that way)!

Hell, I do not want my kids listening to that garbage, that's for sure.

I told his father when he got home. He wasn't pleased. It seems that these CDs are being handed out somewhere to promote the music, and the kids are all getting them and passing them around.

He can't stand rap either. He says these CDs are are affecting his kid's behavior. I agree.

I don't agree with bans. But I agree that music certainly can affect one's mood and attitude, and this "Jewish Rap" certainly makes kids (and their parents) angry.

But is his listening to Rap any different than me listening to the Ramones (though at a somewhat less impressionable (I assume) age)?