Friday, August 10, 2012

Rock Music & Unwed Mothers


http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=AJguAAAAIBAJ&sjid=nqEFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3375,332568&dq=boykin+pregnant+984+pregnant+music&hl=en

The Montreal Gazette, 2 December 1975, p. 21

Rock music damned for 'appeal to flesh'

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Damning rock music for it's "appeal to the flesh," a Baptist church here has begun a campaign to put the torch to records by Elton John, the Rolling Stones and other rock stars.

About $2,200 worth of records were tossed into a bonfire this week after church officials labelled the music immoral.

Rev. Charles Boykin, associate pastor and youth director at the Lakewood Baptist Church, said he has seen statistics which show that "of 1,000 girls who became pregnant out of wedlock, 984 committed fornication while rock music was being played."

He could not, however, remember the source of the statistics. [...]

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19751205&id=A5guAAAAIBAJ&sjid=nqEFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2959,1207873

The Montreal Gazette, 5 December 1975, p. 39

Syncopated sinners beware: It's that old devil rock music

By Mike Royko
Chicago Daily News

[...] I decided to get further details from Rev. Boykin. I phoned him and we had the following interview:

Where did that statistic come from, the one about all those girls getting pregnant while listening to rock music?

"I want to be accurate, so let me correct you. They didn't all listen to it DURING the sex act. I was speaking of listening to it as a prelude to fornication, as well as during."

I see. But rock music was involved in all but 14 pregnancies out of 1,000 cases?

"That's right. It was sort of like a Gallup Poll of unwed mothers."

And who provided the statistics?

"This man. He's from West Virginia. He stopped in our church one day and gave us the statistics."

He's a professional poll taker?

"Uh, no. He's an evangelist. He travels all the time." [...]

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=888&dat=19751208&id=y_EvAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Sl8DAAAAIBAJ&pg=6430,6787826

St. Petersburg Times [FL], 8 December 1975, p. B1

A presentation against rock music has brought more fame than flame

Dudley Clendinen

TALLAHASSEE -- Brother Charlie Boykin is an earnest young man under fire, and he sure hopes that his spiritual brother, Bob Combe, of the Hyles-Anderson College in Hammond, Indiana, can locate the source of those figures for him. [...]

Brother Charlie has telephoned twice out to Hammond, India to ask about it. The first time, Brother Bob said he couldn't exactly remember where they'd come from, he'd have to look through his files. The second time, Brother Bob had gone off to deliver The Message, and Brother Charlie hopes he gets back soon, and finds the source of those figures for him.

Brother Charlie wishes everyone hadn't picked up so hard on the figures to begin with. "That's not our main argument," he says again, so you'll understand. [...]

But people are after him about those figures, and if he's going to be giving the Presentation again, Brother Charlie wants to be able to quote the source, because a lot of people don't believe he knew what he was talking about when he said it.

"Of 1,000 girls who became pregnant out of wedlock, 984 committed fornication while Rock music was being played." That was what Brother Charlie said as part of his Presentation. It was after that the kids at Lakewood Baptist Church decided to burn their Rock records. [...]

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=HnZfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ci8MAAAAIBAJ&pg=5784,3364683&dq=boykin+pregnant+984+pregnant+music&hl=en

Lewiston Morning Tribune, 11 December 1975, p. 6A

Minister links music immorality

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (UPI) -- [...] The 25-year-old minister has studied effects of pop music on youths for almost four years and says his survey of high schools in north Florida supports a 1968 poll which he says revealed that 984 out of a sampling of 1,000 girls who became pregnant out of wedlock were listening to rock music during fornication. [...]

Rolling Stone, 12 February 1976, p. 15

Fahrenheit 250: Florida Minister, Flock, Fire Rock

By Michael Bane

[...] What's wrong with [those records], according to Brother Charlie, is their appeal to the flesh; a sensuous, slithering quality that apparently sends youngsters scrambling for the bedroom. In fact, he adds, of 1000 girls who became pregnant out of wedlock, 984 committed fornication while rock music was being played. Brother Charlie cites a 1968 issue of Time magazine as his source, but neither the magazine nor Frank Garlock, the Bob Jones University teacher who inspired Brother Charlie while he was still a student at Tennessee Temple College in Chattanooga, can document the elusive reference. "I never heard of it before," says Garlock over the telephone, gently but firmly extricating himself from the ministry of Charlie Boykin. "I try to steer away from sensational things like that statistic." [...]

Linda Martin and Kerry Segrave, Anti-Rock: The Opposition to Rock 'n' Roll (Da Capo Press, 1993), p. 284.

Perhaps, however, Boykin got the pregnancy theory, if not the actual statistics, from the Population Institute in New York City. In 1975 this organization felt there was a link between rock lyrics and the rise in the number of unwed mothers. The institute started a project to "raise the consciousness of the record industry" even though they admitted there was "no statistical evidence linking any one song to the sharp increase in the number of U.S. teenagers having pregnancies outside wedlock."

http://newspaperarchive.com/lowell-sun/1975-04-15/page-27/

Lowell Sun [MA], 15 April 1975, p. 27

Campaign underway to clean up some rock lyrics

By David T. Cook
Christian Science Monitor

WASHINGTON -- A campaign has begun to clean up the lyrics of popular songs that glorify childbearing outside a formal family setting to a largely teen-age audience.

More responsible rock record lyrics could play a part in solving the rapidly rising number of unmarried teen-age mothers, some population experts say.

The Population Institute, a New York City-based organization supplying information on population matters recently started a three-year project to "raise the consciousness of the record industry," says Norman Fleishman, West Coast director of the Institute.

The Population Institute admits that it has no statistical evidence linking any one song to the sharp increase in the number of U.S. teenagers having pregnancies outside of wedlock. [...]