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My response to the so-called reason that Prayer was banned from MTV.
09.25.02 @ 16:05
Diaryring of the Day:

Now Playing: Word of warning - this is very long. It took about an hour to type and may offend some.

I may be putting this into two entries. We'll start with the easy stuff, that doesn't require too much vocality (I don't know if that's a real word, but it is now. =being vocal, needing to be vocal).

Today has been pretty uneventful as far as physical evnts go. When to Organic Chem, confuzzled as all hell about the whole mirror image thing. If you take the mirror image and then flip it to superimposed it, you will always have the same molecule. That's just how it is, or at least with my level of intellect. Speaking of intellect, my philosophy teacher decided to inform the entire class that I had pointed out the mistake in one of the topics for our paper. Which is no big thing, except for the fact that I wanted to do that topic and he pretty much made it obsolete. A little while later I went to go see Linda about getting a recommendation. This was probably the best part of my day. It was fun just talking to her, especially when I said that my phil class was my teachers first time teaching and she asked if he was cute. I then went to sociology where we were planning weddings (to coincide with the class discussion obviously). Well leave it to the prissy spoiled bitch who happened to be in the group with the unlimited budget to spend a half a million and talk about it as if that was spare change. It would be one thing to plan a pretend wedding (which this was) where the dress cost $8,000 but it's another thing to talk about it as if thats how much people everywhere spend. I'm sorry but I would never spend that much money on one damn day. Yes it's the wedding day, yes it's supposed to be special, but the most elaborate wedding is not going to make you happy for the rest of your life cause guess what. After the wedding, you're now married. You have responsibilities. No more parties.

Now on to the more vocal part of the day. Before I went to go talk to Linda, just after Marita and I went to lunch. I came back up and was chatting (under my old sn) with this person about the Disturbed video. Normally this wouldn't have pissed me off, but the way that this guy was treating my opinions and the way he was describing what was going on in the video just pissed me off. So I feel like I need to take apart the video right here, right now. If I piss anyone off with anything I say, tough shit. Welcome to freedom of speech. I recognize that everyone has a different opinion. I accept it. This is what I think, what I say. You don't like it, oh well, I'm not going to shove it down you're throat, but I'm going to expect you to respect my opinion, as I respect yours. If you want to respond, the guestbook may not be working, but feel free to e-mail me or IM me at LetMeNlightnU. On to the video (if you haven't seen it go to Disturbed1 under news and download it to see it or under music and stream it).

Here's how I see it. Basically I get the feeling that it's showing the world, in a sense, falling apart with a voice, an ideal, remaining unscathed. Throughout the video you see scenes of the 'problems' of society. I say problems with quotes because despite the fact that we recognize these as problems, there has not been really any action to better society and clean up the problems. These problems including people who are well off all of a sudden losing their homes, their lives, and being cast upon the streets to live in poverty. Or the girl who had a wonderful life as a child but for some reason turned to prostitution. Throughout these two scenes, David (the lead singer) is walking down the street, singing with strength. The bass and guitar are very strong. The key here is strength. This has nothing to do with the fact that it is David, but more of the idea of strength, that there is something there that will live through, continue on. After these two scenes you seen Fuzz walking under on of those temporary sidewalk things they put up during construction and a guy runs into him. Someone hits the side rails of the contraption and the top of it falls, cinder block bricks and all on top of Fuzz. Dan is driving a car down the street and for a moment looks away. During this time a girl runs out into the street, Dan sees her and swerves, she standing in the street stunned. Dan ends up hitting another car and you later see him slumped over the steering wheel. Mike is walking down the street and a city public works employee is working and suddenly begins to run. All of a sudden there is an explosion and Mike is thrown up against a building slumped over. Again David, the voice is what you hear as well as the guitar and bass. Again the strength, this seems to be the underlying theme, the strength of something. Then begins the crumbling of the buildings. Note that only one building is a scryscaper type building. ONLY ONE. Fuzz and Mike get up, Dan gets out of the car. As the buildings crumble, all four are walking, not being hit by any falling ruin. Then it goes to the band playing live. Note that they are on top of the rumble. This is significant in that it (to me) symbolizes that they are a part of the rubble, but that they are also rising above it. That there is something that is not physical in nature that is continuing, something that can not be destroyed simply by physical means. The fact that there is only one tall building, the rest are only about ten floors in height, does not bring about the vision of New York. In order for it to really have that feel there would've had to be more skyscrapers, more buildings that would help to symbolize a major downtown metropolitan area. The tallest building in the video reminds me of the large dorm down at ISU, not New York. Also, the lyrics of the song and the blending of the different parts deserves a video that portrays the song. This is not your typical "Back that thang up" song. Disturbed is not like that. Listen to the songs on either cd. There is more depth and integrity in the music. And their videos have gone along with that depth.

This is extremely biased, I recognize that, but I think people are taking things to far. David mentions this in the MTv article about why they refused to re-shoot the video Disturbed Refuse To Re-Edit 'Prayer' Video For Airplay.
I don't see how this video is disturbing when bands like Korn show some guy throwing up all over people, or rappers showing people being killed, or what not. We say that we are all about freedom of speech and that everyone had the right to their opinion, but we reject something before we even get the creator's thought behind it.

And on another note. I hear a lot of complaints about how the entertainment industry has not responded to September 11th. Bands like Filter, and I believe Disturbed as well, are and we reject them. I talk to people about Filter and they say that they don't like a couple of songs on "The Amalgamut" because of how the band seems to respond to what happened. Check out "The Missing" and "The Only Way (Is The Wrong Way)" these are the two that most people seemed to dislike, the same songs that I feel are in some way portraying a thought, a response. I don't get people. Listen to Disturbed's new cd. On a few songs it seems, at least to me, that they are responding as well, at least in the sense that we need to look at ourselves and see what needs to be done, because our waiting for things to work out on their own, that things will get better with time, will not happen unless we make an effort.

This is taken from an MTV article (Disturbed Video Deemed Too Disturbing; Band Examines Plan B 8/6/02) that states that the video might be re-shot. "While Believe was colored by the events of 9/11, the album isn't a reflection of life in times of war or a diatribe against terrorism. It's more a summation of the way people can overcome personal tragedy and trauma through personal conviction.

'The underlying theme throughout the record is aspects of belief,' Draiman said. 'And believing in whatever you feel strongly about no matter what the situation is. The world is a different place since we wrote the last record. Whether it's the events of 9/11 or our newfound success, the way that we're perceived and the way that we perceive others now, everything is different. And the realization of what we've become and the world around us and the positive ends of it and the negative ends of it are really where the lyrical content came from.'......'That's part of why the record is called Believe. To simply put out another record like The Sickness at this particular point in time, in terms of its meaning, I didn't think was conducive to the environment. I think people need things to believe in and to channel their beliefs into, and that's hopefully some of what I'm trying to illustrate here.'"

We seem to be living in contradiction. We want people to respond, but when they do we want to pounce on them and tell them that they can't think like that. I think I'm with David when he states in the 6/13/02 MTV article "Disturbed Conjure Fire, Earthquakes For 'Prayer' Video"

"'In particular the song is about the clergy's reaction to 9/11,' he said. 'Instead of consoling their flock, people like Jerry Falwell and Oral Roberts chastised them and used the situation as a means of empowerment, saying it was our own fault because we're a decadent and promiscuous people. I just thought that whole notion is ridiculous.'

Draiman removed the CD from the player, replaced it in its jewel case and continued, "It's not very godly for a God to inflict pain and suffering on his people to elicit a response. I would hope that God wouldn't be that petty. But if that's what is happening and you're inflicting pain and suffering to get me to return [to the flock], bring it on. There's nothing that you're going to do to me that's going to change my conviction or change my path.'"

Just notice that he's talking about the song. I'm sure many people don't expect a rocker to have been taught heavily in Jewish tradition, to grow up in a very religious family. Well David did and it shows in his passion for his beliefs. If there is somehting wrong with that, go watch your little ghetto fabulous videos that show women half naked jiggling around as objects and I'll continue to listen to Disturbed and appreciate their efforts at depth and intelligent videos.

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