Music, Responsibility, and the Values We Pass On

We can all – or at least most of us – probably agree that the lyrics of certain “modern” songs would deserve censorship. Censorship, of course, is something terrible that we should never even consider, so just imagine how bad these lyrics must be. Because I challenge any parent whose child repeats lines like these:

“Lei la comando con un joystick / Non mi piace quando parla troppo (troppo) / Le tappo la bocca e me la fotto.” (English: "I control her with a joystick / I don’t like it when she talks too much (too much) / I cover her mouth and f** her.")

… not to feel their hands trembling.

And yet, these are lyrics from one of the most popular songs by one of the most famous trap artists of the moment – at least in Italy. If it’s true that songs inspire and reflect the spirit of a generation, I challenge any parent to say they’d want their children to be represented by those words.

That said, while I admire and fully support the intent of this campaign by pediatricians https://www.iodonna.it/attualita/costume-e-societa/2025/01/17/canzoni-autore-e-trap-quale-musica-per-i-ragazzi-i-pediatri-si-interrogano/ (sorry the article is in Italian), I find the way it’s being conducted to be problematic. You can’t compare Emis Killa to Battiato or Gianna Nannini to Tony Effe. This isn’t a battle between musical styles, nor should it become a generational conflict.

This “divide” between generations only leads to children’s reactions like “What do you know, you don’t even know VillaBanks,” keeping us distanced from our kids. I want to continue not knowing VillaBanks and be happy, and I want my daughter to continue not knowing Battiato and not feel guilty.

I only want VillaBanks – or any other artist – to ensure that whenever they refer to a person in their songs, they don’t treat them like a piece of meat. I want my daughter to see herself reflected in words of respect, not violence. And I want her to live in a world where heading out of the house looking for drugs to have fun isn’t considered normal.

It’s hard to “contain” the artistic vein of a songwriter – that would verge on censorship, something from a bygone era. But I wish that every songwriter – regardless of genre – would think about the example they’re setting for kids who could be their siblings, friends, or children before turning the first crude rhyme that comes to mind into a song.

And I wish record labels would take responsibility by normalizing anti-violence and anti-drug messages instead of valuing the opposite.

This isn’t about Battiato versus Tony Effe. It’s about common sense and responsibility in a society increasingly focused on distorted social projections of individuals – often full of violence, racism and distorted sense of beauty and values - rather than on the individuals themselves.

It’s about desiring a better society that aims higher. It’s about common sense so that my daughter can believe that Valentine’s Day is celebrated with a flower, not with lyrics like these:

“Serve una che mi succhi il c*** per il 14 febbraio/ Un anno dopo non ho cambiato piano/ Fallo forte, poi piano, poi forte, non dirmi, ‘Ti amo.’” (English: “I need someone to suck my d** for February 14th / A year later, I haven’t changed my plan / Do it hard, then slow, then hard again, don’t tell me, ‘I love you.’”)

I have asked ChatGPT to translate for me in English the Italian songs I pasted in this article to facilitate reading for my non-Italian-speaking friends. The result? All the sentences have been marked with an asterisk redirecting to a message saying that this content may violate the policy of the tool. The machine (AI) knows this content is not appropriate. But humans don’t or - even worse - don’t care!